VHD or VHDX File - Mount and Attach in Windows 8

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ByLine

How to Mount and Attach a VHD or VHDX File in Windows 8

Synopsis

This tutorial will show you how to mount and attach either a VHD or VHDX file as a drive in the Computer window for all users in Windows 8.

How to Mount and Attach a VHD or VHDX File in Windows 8​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to mount and attach either a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) or VHDX (Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk) file as a drive in the Computer window for all users in Windows 8. Mount and attach is the same.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to mount/attach a VHD or VHDX file in Windows 8.

   Warning

Mounted VHD or VHDX files will only stay attached as a drive for the current session of Windows 8. When you restart or shut down the computer, any attached VHD or VHDX files will automatically be unmounted/detached as a drive from Computer.

You will have to mount/attach the VHD or VHDX file(s) again to have it displayed as a drive in the Computer window again until the next restart.

Signing off or switching user, will not affect any mounted/attached VHD or VHDX file(s).

OPTION ONE

To Directly Mount a VHD or VHDX

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1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you would like to do.​

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2. Double click/tap on the .vhd or .vhdx file that you want to mount, and go to step 4 below.​

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3. In File Explorer, select (highlight) the .vhd or .vhdx file that you want to mount, click/tap on the Manage (Disc Image Tools) tab and on Mount button in the ribbon, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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4. Right click or press and hold on the .vhd or .vhdx file that you want to mount, click/tap on Mount, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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5. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.​

OPTION TWO

To Attach a VHD or VHDX in Disk Management

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1. Open the WIN+X Power User Tasks menu, and click/tap on Disk Management. (see screenshot below)​

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2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.​

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3. In Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc), click/tap on Action (menu bar) and on Attach VHD. (see screenshot below)​

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4. Click/tap on Browse, navigate to and select the .vhd or .vhdx file (ex: Ultimate.vhd) that you want to mount, click/tap on Open. (see screenshots below)​

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5. If you want the mounted .vhd or .vhdx to be read-only while it's attached as a drive, then check the box, otherwise leave it unchecked. Click/tap on OK. (see top screenshot above)​

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6. The .vhd or .vhdx file is now mounted and attached as a drive. The drive(s) will also open in a separate File Explorer window(s). (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: For example, the Ultimate.vhd I mounted (Disk 1) is a Windows Virtual PC .vhd file that had two partitions on it, so it created two drive letters (F and G) in my Computer window.​

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7. When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.​

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OPTION THREE

To Create and Attach a New VHD or VHDX in Disk Management

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1. For how, see: How to Create and Attach a VHD or VHDX File in Windows 8​

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Unmount and Detach a VHD or VHDX File in Windows 8
• How to Create and Attach a VHD or VHDX File in Windows 8
• How to Mount or Unmount ISO images in Windows 8
• How to Auto-mount a VHD at Startup in Windows 8

 

[beems]

I'd love to see (non-Powershell) mount and dismount scripts for Windows 8 if anyone has any links.

 

[adamf]

I'd love to see (non-Powershell) mount and dismount scripts for Windows 8 if anyone has any links.

You can use diskpart and pass it

[COLOR=#666666][FONT=Consolas]select vdisk file="Address of VHD" 
[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#666666][FONT=Consolas]attach vdisk[/FONT][/COLOR]

eg
ArgumentException: Attach and Detach VHD files from the command line
Mounting VHDs in Windows 7 from a command-line script | NicJ.net

 

[beems]

Thanks,
I'm not sure why what I was doing before wasn't working, but it's working now.

I'm trying to make this easy for people that are not local administrators, so I found a batch file that writes and executes a VBScript so that it initializes privilege escalation. Found here: command line - How to request Administrator access inside a batch file - Stack Overflow