Adding a Virtual Hard Disk Drive

You can add to your virtual machine a real hard disk, an existing hard disk image, or create a new, blank one.

Note: A virtual machine can have up to four IDE devices (hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM drives) and 15 SCSI devices (hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM drives).

To add a hard disk to a virtual machine:

1. Choose Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.
2. Click the Add button in the bottom part of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog to launch Add Hardware Wizard.
3. In the Select Device window, select Hard Disk and click Next

   To add a hard disk that will have a typical configuration, choose the Hard Disk icon and click the Add Typical Device button. The wizard will create a typical hard disk ready for use.

   Note: A typical virtual hard disk is in the expanding format and its capacity is 32 GB.

4. In the Add Hard Disk window, select the resource for the new virtual hard disk and click Next . You can choose one of the following options:
   • New image file . In this case, the wizard will create a new image that will emulate the hard disk.
   • Existing image file . In this case, an existing image file will be added to the virtual machine configuration and used to emulate the hard disk. If you selected this option, go to Step 7.
   • Real disk . In this case, one of the host computer's real hard disks will be added to the virtual machine configuration. If this disk has an operating system installed, you will be able to boot the virtual machine from this disk.

     Note: The virtual machine boot sequence can be configured in the Boot Order pane of Virtual Machine Configuration.

   If you selected this option, go to Step 8.

5. If you selected the New image file option, on the next step you need to set the virtual hard disk size in the Capacity field and define its format. You can choose one of the following formats for the disk: Expanding or Plain . If you want the virtual hard disk to be splitted, select the Split the hard disk image into 2 GB files option. For more information on hard disk formats, refer to Support of Virtual and Real Disks .

   

   When you are ready, click Next .

6. In the next window, you can configure the location of the hard disk image file and specify its interface type.You can choose one of the following interface types for the disk:
   • If you select the IDE option, you will be able to define the IDE device identifier in the Location list.
   • If you select the SCSI option, you will be able to select the SCSI device identifier in the Location list.

     Note: The SCSI 7:0 location is not available for selecting, since it is occupied by the SCSI controller itself.

   

   Note: In some Linux distributions (e.g. RHEL 5.3), the SCSI driver may be not installed. In this case, you should install this driver in your Linux guest OS to be able to use the SCSI controller.

   Click Add Device to add a new hard disk to the virtual machine.

7. If you selected the Existing image file option in Step 4, in the Add Hard Disk window you will need to specify the full path to the image file you wish to use in your virtual machine. You can type the path manually or use the Choose button to locate the image file. You will also need to specify the interface type and the corresponding device identifier.
8. If you selected the Real disk option in Step 4, in the Add Hard Disk window you will need to specify which hard disk and its partitions you want to add to the virtual machine. You will also need to specify the interface type and the corresponding device identifier.

   

If you added a new blank virtual hard disk, you need to initialize it before you can use it. For more information about initializing the newly added disk, see Initializing the Newly Added Disk .

If you added an existing disk, make sure that its file system is compatible with the guest OS installed in the virtual machine.