Simple VHD to Physical Disk Conversion Solution

If you're searching for a method to restore VHD or VHDX to a physical disk on Windows 10/8/7/XP or even Windows server systems, remain here. This page will clarify what VHD is and provide practical approaches to assist you in converting a VHD to a physical disk without any data loss.

First, let's outline the process of copying a VHD to a Physical Disk:

According to numerous VHD users, it appears that individuals often opt to convert or restore a VHD to a physical disk when they no longer require the use of a virtual machine. A genuine scenario can be observed in the following Reddit post:

Actually, copying a VHD to a physical disk can be straightforward as long as you have the right tool. Below, we present an effortless VHD to Disk conversion solution that doesn't require typing any commands, enabling you to efficiently restore a VHD file and its space back to a physical disk.

Best VHD to Disk Conversion Solution

Have you ever wanted to copy a VHD to a physical disk or clone a VHDX file to a physical drive?

Usually, when people want to set up a brand new computer or virtual machine, they opt to copy a virtual hard disk onto a physical hard drive. While it's straightforward to manually copy files from the virtual disk to a physical one, the process can be quite time-consuming.

Here, we'd like to present you with an efficient method to convert VHD to disk. You can achieve this by utilizing a VHD to disk migration tool, specifically the tools Partition Master software.

You can easily accomplish this by downloading a partition tool software like Partition Master. Create a disk cloning task, selecting the virtual disk (such as VHD or VHDX) as the source disk and the physical disk as the target disk. Then, proceed with the disk copy operation. This method enables you to conveniently duplicate the contents of the virtual hard disk to the physical drive.

When the process is complete, you can release the VHD space back to the physical disk by simply deleting the VHD file from your local drive.

Tutorial: Steps to Copy a VHD to a Physical Disk

Follow the tutorial steps outlined here to learn how to efficiently migrate your VHD disk data to a local disk and reclaim the VHD space on your computer.

#1. Copy VHD to a Physical Disk Copy the VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) file to a physical disk. This typically involves converting the VHD file into a bootable physical drive that can be used for system installation or data transfer. Here's a high-level overview of the process: 1. **Select the VHD File**: First, identify the VHD file you want to copy. It could be an .vhd or .vhdx file, which is a virtual disk image used by programs like Hyper-V, VirtualBox, or VMware. 2. **Convert VHD to Raw Disk Image**: Before copying the VHD to a physical disk, you may need to convert it into a raw disk image. You can use tools like `Disk2vhd` (from Microsoft) or `qemu-img` (open-source) to do this conversion. 3. **Connect the Physical Disk**: Attach the target physical disk to your computer. This might involve using an external hard drive, connecting via USB, or connecting internally if you have an extra drive bay. 4. **Create Partition and Format**: Open Disk Management on your Windows computer (press Windows + X, then choose 'Disk Management'). Identify the unallocated space on the connected physical disk and create a new partition. Format the partition with a file system (e.g., NTFS) suitable for your needs. 5. **Use Disk Utility or Command Prompt**: Use a tool like `DiskPart` (Windows Command Prompt) or Disk Utility (macOS) to copy the raw disk image to the physical disk. In Windows, you can do this with the following command: ``` diskpart list disk select disk clean create partition primary format fs= quick assign exit xcopy /s /f /h /j :\ ``` Replace `` with the number of the target disk, `` with the desired file system (e.g., NTFS), and `` and `` with the appropriate paths. 6. **Verify Data**: After the copy process is complete, verify the data on the physical disk matches the original VHD. 7. **Boot from the Physical Disk**: If you've copied a bootable system, configure your BIOS/UEFI settings to boot from the new physical disk, and then restart your computer. Remember that this process can be complex and might require technical knowledge. Always make sure to backup important data before attempting such operations.

Right-click My Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management, right-click Disk Management and select Attach VHD.

To ensure a seamless VHD to physical disk cloning process, remember to select an empty local physical HDD as your target disk. If the chosen target disk contains partitions, the wizard will prompt you to delete all partitions on the disk. Therefore, make sure to back up your data beforehand.

请按照以下步骤来复制您的虚拟磁盘：

Step 1. Select the source disk.

Click "Clone" from the left menu. Select either "Clone OS Disk" or "Clone Data Disk" and click "Next". Choose the source disk and click "Next".

Step 2. Select the target disk.

• Select the desired HDD/SSD as your destination and click "Next" to proceed.
• Read the warning message and confirm by clicking the "Yes" button.

Step 3. View the disk layout and edit the target disk partition size.

Then click "Continue" when the program warns that it will erase all data on the target disk. (If you have valuable data on the target disk, back it up beforehand.)

You can choose "Autofit the disk," "Clone as the source," or "Edit disk layout" to customize your disk arrangement. (Select the last option if you want to allocate more space to the C drive.)

Step 4. Click "Start" to initiate the disk cloning process.

If you need to re-partition the virtual disk after cloning, you can also utilize the advanced features of Partition Master to manage the disk. Refer to Partition Hard Drive for guidance.

#2. Convert a VHD to Physical Disk Translation: #2. Convert a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) to a Physical Disk

完成克隆后，您可以按照以下步骤将 VHD 空间还原到物理磁盘：

Step 1. Open Disk Management, right-click on the VHD disk, and choose "Detach VHD".

Step 2. Open Windows File Explorer and locate the local VHD file on your computer.

Step 3. Locate the VHD file with a .vhd or .vhdx extension, then right-click to delete it.

Step 4. Confirm the deletion.

Following this, you have successfully released the virtual disk space back to your PC's local disk. You can proceed to read and learn more about VHD.

What is a VHD?

According to Wikipedia, VHD, which stands for Virtual Hard Disk, is a file format that represents a virtual hard disk drive (HDD).

A VHD typically serves to emulate an actual disk storage device. It enables you to save the contents of a physical HDD, including disk partitions, file systems, files, folders, and more, onto a virtual disk. This virtual disk functions as the hard drive within a virtual machine.

By using Disk Management, you can create as many virtual HDDs as you want on your computer. You can either save files, folders, etc. on the disk or you can also use the virtual disk to do some tests without harming your real disks nor damaging your vital data.

Moreover, it has many other advantages:

1. IT organizations can implement standardized, pre-built configurations on a single VHD.
2. Modifications to the contents of a VHD can be easily reversed.
3. Many current operating systems support multiple users but provide varying levels of protection between them.

Aside from these benefits, there are still limitations to consider.

The VHD has the following limitations: - There is a maximum size limit for any dynamic or differencing VHDs, which is 2 TB. - It supports a maximum of 65,535 sectors multiplied by 16 times 255.

请注意，虚拟磁盘仅在虚拟机运行时作为物理磁盘工作。一旦关闭虚拟机，您将无法访问VHD或其上的保存文件。接下来，我们将讨论更多关于VHD磁盘的操作。您可以点击社交按钮与朋友分享这篇文章！

Extended Reading

On this page, we presented an efficient method to assist users in copying VHD content to a local HDD and restoring virtual disk space to a physical disk. Apart from this topic, some users also have additional queries regarding VHD and virtual machines.

Here, we've gathered several frequently asked questions and provided concise answers for each. If you have similar uncertainties, feel free to browse through the responses.

1. How to expand the VHD disk size?

Mostly, once the VHD is created on the Windows computer, its size cannot be changed. If you need to expand the VHD disk size, you'll need to delete the original .vhd file on your computer and then recreate a new VHD, assigning it a larger size.

Remember to back up or clone the VHD disk data to your local disk first using the method mentioned above.

Additionally, the methods to expand a VHD disk in Disk Management and within a virtual machine vary. Here's a brief guide:

To expand the VHD disk space on a local Windows PC:

1. First, enter Disk Management and right-click to detach the VHD disk. 2. Next, locate and delete the .vhd or .vhdx file from your computer. 3. Then, re-enter Disk Management and, under the Actions section, select "Create VHD." Set a larger size for your new virtual disk.

To expand the disk space in a Virtual Machine:

1. First, open the virtual machine console, such as VMware Workstation > Click on the operating system and enter the virtual machine settings.
2. Next, select the Hard Disk > Click on Expand > Set a new maximum size for your virtual disk.

< strong > 2. How to recover VHD files?

When you accidentally delete or remove files on a virtual machine, you can initially attempt to recover the deleted files from the Recycle Bin by following this guide: Recovering Deleted Files from Recycle Bin. If you don't find the files there, you can then try installing a file recovery software such as tools Data Recovery Wizard to scan and restore lost VHD files.

3. What's the difference between VHD and VHDX?

The primary distinction between VHD and VHDX lies in their storage capacity. A conventional VHD disk has a maximum capacity limit of 2TB, whereas VHDX exceeds this limitation.

A VHDX file can support sizes up to 64 terabytes. The VHDX format also includes features to prevent file corruption in case of a power failure.

**4. What is Disk2vhd?**

< a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd" target="_blank">Disk2vhd is a tool that creates virtual hard disks on physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines. Disk2vhd can run on an online system, allowing users to create VHDs on the local disk while preserving the disk's partitioning information. This enables users to capture only system volumes and exclude data volumes.

Wrapping Up

This page provides a basic introduction to VHD and offers a straightforward method to assist you in converting VHD to a physical HDD without data loss. If you have the same requirement, use Partition Master to clone your VHD content first and then remove the VHD file from the local disk.

You can also uninstall the virtual machine utility from your PC to free up more space for your PC.