Step 9. To mark the partition as active, type active.
These steps complete the creation of a VHD on drive F: that is suitable for installing a virtual copy of Windows. Figure 10-1 shows how these steps appear at the console. Table 10-2 outlines the parameters of the vdisk command that are most useful for creating and working with VHDs.
Figure 10-1. Using DiskPart to Create, Format, and Assign a VHD
Refer to Table 10-2 for some common DiskPart command parameters and how they are used.
Table 10-2. DiskPart Commands Used in Creating VHDs
Command Purpose
create vdisk file="filename"
maximum=size type=type
Creates a VHD with name of filename, maximum size stated in MB, and type = fixed, expandable, or
differencing. The extension used for the filename determines whether the format used is VHD or VHDX.
attach Attaches (mounts) the VHD.
list disk Shows all disks (physical and virtual) attached to the system, together with their size and identifying number.
Select disk=n
Selects the VHD so that it can be partitioned and formatted, where n is the number of the disk as shown by the list disk command.
create partition
Creates a primary partition on the VHD, using the
maximum available space. If you want to use only a portion of the VHD, include the keyword size=nnnn, where nnnn is
primary the partition size in MB.
format
fs=filesystem
Formats the partition using the file system filesystem (which can be fat, fat32, exFAT, ReFS, UDF, or ntfs). Add the keyword quick to perform a quick format.
assign
letter=letter Assigns a drive letter to the partition.
active Marks the selected partition as active.
Mounting VHDs
The act of creating a VHD in the previous section also mounts the VHD automatically, so that it is accessible to the physical machine as a distinct drive with its own drive letter. It is also possible to create a VHD on one computer, make copies of it, and use these copies on other computers. To do so, you must mount the VHD on each new computer. Simply put, this is the virtual analogy of opening the computer, installing and connecting a new hard disk, closing the computer back up, and rebooting it. You can perform these tasks using Disk Management. Figure 10-2 shows the results of the preceding DiskPart commands in the Disk Management console.
Figure 10-2. View of a VHD from Disk Management, Mounted and Assigned to Drive F
You can also dismount a VHD from either of these two utilities. In Disk Management, right-click the VHD in the Details pane and choose Detach VHD. In DiskPart, select the VHD and then type detach vdisk.
Tip
You can even mount a VHD located on another computer across the network, provided you have proper access permissions to its location. In Disk
Management, click Browse, click Network, and browse to the proper
network location. In DiskPart, type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the shared location for "path" in Step 3 of the preceding procedure.
Tip
You can use Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to deploy the VHD image to large numbers of computers. WDS in Windows Server 2012 and later versions include the capability to add VHD image files to its image catalog, making them available to target computers using PXE boot.
Creating and Configuring Virtual Machines
After you create a VHD in Windows 10, you can create a VM guest using the VHD as the VM’s drive. You can then load and run the VM in Client Hyper- V on your Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise workstation.
This is the easiest method for supporting a VM, but note that a VHD is not strictly a requirement. Virtual machines can also be run using actual disks, passed directly to the virtual machine. It is also possible to run a VM from a VHD on a remote file server.
To support Client Hyper-V, you need to be aware of the following requirements:
• A 64-bit version of Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Client Hyper-V will not run on Windows 10 Home or any 32-bit edition.
• A CPU that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). All
current versions of AMD 64-bit processors support SLAT, as do many 64-bit processors from Intel. Some budget and mobile editions of Intel processors do not support SLAT.
• A BIOS with virtualization support, either VT for Intel platforms or AMD- V for AMD-based systems.
• Hardware Data Execution Prevention (DEP). This is called Execute Disable, or XD, on Intel processors and No Execute, or NX, on AMD processors. The option must be enabled in the BIOS.
• At least 4 GB of system RAM.
The number of VMs you can run and the performance of each will depend on the amount of RAM you have available. You can create VMs that use up to 1 TB of RAM, and each VM will require some overhead memory, in addition to the memory required by the Host operating system and the hypervisor.
Note
For more details on hardware and software requirements for Client Hyper-V, see the Microsoft TechNet article “Windows 10 Hyper-V System
Requirements" at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on- windows/reference/hyper-v-requirements.
Enabling Client Hyper-V in Windows 10
Windows 10 Pro and higher editions come with Client Hyper-V available out of the box, but it must be installed using the Windows Features installer from
the Control Panel’s Programs snap-in. The feature installer provides a convenient way to make sure that your Windows 10 computer can support the Hyper-V hypervisor, because it can detect many of the requirements and disable the option if any requirements are missing.
Use the following steps to enable Hyper-V:
Step 1. Right-click the Start button and select Control Panel from the menu.
Step 2. In the Control Panel window, select Programs.