Windows 10: Add or Remove Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

How to: Add or Remove Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

How to Add or Remove a Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine


Hyper-V enables running virtualized computer systems on top of a physical host. These virtualized systems (aka: guests) can be used and managed just as if they were physical computer systems, however they exist in a virtualized and isolated environment.

Your Hyper-V virtual machines can also be connected to physical hard disks from the host computernot just to virtual hard disks. (This is sometimes referred to as having a pass-through disk connected to a virtual machine.)

This tutorial will show you how to add and remove physical hard disks to access from a Hyper-V virtual machine in Windows 8 and Windows 10.



Note editions.

You can add hard drives (ex: HDD and SSD) and removable USB hard drives, but you will not be able to add removable media (ex: USB flash drive) to a Hyper-V virtual machine.

While you have a physical hard disk added to a Hyper-V virtual machine, you will not be able to create a checkpoint for the virtual machine.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Add Physical Hard Disk to Hyper-V Virtual Machine
• Option Two: To Remove Physical Hard Disk from Hyper-V Virtual Machine

OPTION ONE [/i] To Add Physical Hard Disk to Hyper-V Virtual Machine
1. Open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc).

2. Right click on the online disk (ex: Disk 3 - "Internal HDD") you want to add to the VM, and click/tap on Offline. (see screenshot below)

*note It's required that the physical hard disk be in an offline state on the host computer to be able to add to the VM.



3. Once the disk is offline, you can close Disk Management if you like.

4. Open the settings of the Hyper-V virtual machine you want to add the disk to. (see screenshots below)

*note It doesn't matter if you currently have the virtual machine off or running.






5. In the VM's settings, click/tap on SCSI Controller in the left navigation pane, select Hard Drive on the right side, and click/tap on the Add button. (see screenshot below)



6. Select (dot) Physical hard disk on the right side, select the disk you want to add in the drop down menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



7. The disk will now be available to access in the virtual machine. (see screenshot below)








OPTION TWO [/i] To Remove Physical Hard Disk from Hyper-V Virtual Machine
1. Open the settings of the Hyper-V virtual machine you want to remove the disk from. (see screenshots below)

*note It doesn't matter if you currently have the virtual machine off or running.






2. In the VM's settings, select the disk you want to remove under SCSI Controller in the left navigation pane, and click/tap on the Remove button on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



4. The disk will now be removed from the virtual machine. (see screenshot below)



5. Open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc).

6. Right click on the offline disk (ex: Disk 3 - "Internal HDD") you removed from the VM, and click/tap on Online. (see screenshot below)

*note You will need to set the disk back to an online state to be able to access it from your host computer again.



7. Once the disk is back online, you can close Disk Management if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Setup and Use Hyper-V in Windows 10 for OS Virtualization
• How to Remove Floppy Disk Drive in Windows Hyper-V Virtual Machine
• How to Turn On or Off Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode in Windows 10
• How to Use Local Devices and Resources on Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10
• How to Rename Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10
• How to Delete Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10
• How to Move Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10

:)

 

Hyper-V, VM, Virtual Machine

You will have to ensure the Virtual Machine is running and connected to the Internet.

This means the physical host, the machine itself must be connected.

Review:

Configure Remote Desktop connection to Hyper-V Virtual Machine ...

 

Hyper-V in Windows 10

Well, its a Virtual Machine, you are not going to get the end to end experience as a physical host especially where graphics performance is concerned. Hyper-V in Windows 10 Pro is the same as Windows Server 2008 R2 and later as far functionality and hardware
requirements.

How
to setup a virtual machine using Hyper-V

 

Odd. The VM I used in the tutorial is a Gen 1 installation, and I didn't have any issue adding a physical hard disk while it was running. *Confused

EDIT: Just to clarify, it doesn't matter if it's a Gen 1 or Gen 2 VM.

 

Really odd. I have to always add physical disks when vm is off. Screenshot from build 14388.

 

Let's see if others get the same error when running a Gen 1. It'll be interesting.

 

OK, case cleared *Smile

I have never tried to add any other disks but one external disk I have, which I move from PC to PC to move data (mostly installers and ISO files) between virtual machines on different hosts. It's at least 6 or 7 years old WD disk and acts occasionally a bit strange, only connecting after several USB disconnect / reconnect cable tries. I can connect it on a running Gen. 2 vm but not on a running Gen. 1 vm.

Now looking at my own screenshot about error adding synthetic disk I was thinking a real HDD is not synthetic! Connected another USB disk to running Gen. 1 vm without issues.

You are right, I am wrong, it's that simple. The culprit in my case is not the running vm but a failing disk.

Sorry *Smile

 

Glad you found the culprit. I was wondering why it wouldn't work for you.

 

Thanks for a good tut *Smile

 

Thanks guys for a great tutorial. Pretty sure I know answer to this by my testing but just in case...

VMWARE automatically takes a disk offline when it is added to a vm, and automatically puts it back online when vm is shutdown or suspended.

Is it possible to do the same with Hyper-V as it is a but of a nuisance having to keep using disk management. Perhaps a powershell command where I could set up a shortcut if automatic is not possible?

Edit - have setup a couple of simple one-click batch files using diskpart. Not as slick as vmware but a lot less hassle than using disk management..

I know this is basic stuff for you guys but for benefit of other users:-

file 1 - diskoffline.txt (on d:\ root drive in my case)

select disk 1
offline disk

file 2 - diskoffline.cmd

diskpart /s d:\diskoffline.txt

Then create a shortcut for diskoffline.cmd file on desktop.

Do same to put online as well.

file 3 - diskonline.txt (on d:\ root drive in my case)

select disk 1
online disk

file 4 - diskonline.cmd

diskpart /s d:\diskonline.txt

Then create a shortcut for diskonline.cmd file on desktop.

When you get a popup notification asking what you to tap and select want to do with the drive, tap it and select no action. Then you do not see notification again.

It does not require admin permission to do this, so you can just click the shortcuts.

I am sure there are smarter ways of doing this but this is easy and works.

 

Hello cereberus,

If supported by your VM, you could user Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode to make it easier to share your PC's (host) with the Hyper-V VM(guest).

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html

 

I am using enhanced mode but a gen 1 install - I will try gen 2.

 

Enhanced works exactly the same way in Gen 1 and Gen 2. You just need to click Show Options in Enhanced Mode dialog, and select the drives you want to access from vm:



... to see selected host drives in vm This PC:

 

It works in both gen 1 and 2 as long as the Hyper-V virtual machine (guest) has Remote Desktop Services enabled and run Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 as the guest operating system.

 

Apologies Gents,

I have enabled rdp in guest, but I cannot figure out how to get to the enhanced mode dialogue. I have the enhanced session set.

edit: figured it out.