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 computer—not 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

Hyper-V is only available in the Window 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Education 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

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)

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)

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

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)

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)

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
• How to Add Hyper-V Manager to Control Panel in Windows 10

Windows 11 Tutorials