Configuring a VHD in Windows 7

Virtual hard disks are file types that act like physical hard disks. Starting in Windows 7 you can mount VHD's exactly like a physical disk, allowing you to copy files to it and even boot from it.
To create a VHD you need to go to your control panel, select administrative tools, computer management and then disk management from the sidebar.
Once you are in disk management you need to select Action and Create a VHD from the toolbar at the top of the window.

Choose the amount of space you would like to give the drive, and then click browse to select where you would like the drive to be stored.

Select where your drive will be stored and give it a name.

You will be able to see the progress in the bar at the bottom of the screen.

When it is done you will see "disk 1" underneath your physical drive(s) in the disk manager.

 Before you can do anything you will need to initialize the disk. To do this right click on the disk name and select initialize disk.

You then need to confirm the disk you are initializing.

You then need to create a new simple volume on the disk. To do this you need to right click on the drive and select new simple volume

You need to select what portion of the disk you would like to use to create the volume.

 You then need to select whether you would like to assign a drive letter, or mount an empty NTFS folder.

 Then you need to select whether or not you would like to format the drive, and how you would like it formatting.

When you are ready click finish. If there is anything you want to change click back.

 And that's it. You now have a virtual disk that's ready to be used just like a physical disk!

 Simples!