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.
- Option One: To Add Physical Hard Disk to Hyper-V Virtual Machine
- Option Two: To Remove Physical Hard Disk from 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)
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)
1. Open the settings of the Hyper-V virtual machine you want to remove the disk from. (see screenshots below)
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)
7. Once the disk is back online, you can close Disk Management if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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Add or Remove Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine
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New #2
Odd. The VM I used in the tutorial is a Gen 1 installation, and I didn't have any issue adding a physical hard disk while it was running.
EDIT: Just to clarify, it doesn't matter if it's a Gen 1 or Gen 2 VM.
Last edited by Brink; 14 Jul 2016 at 16:47.
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New #5
OK, case cleared :)
I have never tried to add any other disks but one external disk I have, which I move from PC to PC to move data (mostly installers and ISO files) between virtual machines on different hosts. It's at least 6 or 7 years old WD disk and acts occasionally a bit strange, only connecting after several USB disconnect / reconnect cable tries. I can connect it on a running Gen. 2 vm but not on a running Gen. 1 vm.
Now looking at my own screenshot about error adding synthetic disk I was thinking a real HDD is not synthetic! Connected another USB disk to running Gen. 1 vm without issues.
You are right, I am wrong, it's that simple. The culprit in my case is not the running vm but a failing disk.
Sorry :)
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New #9
Thanks guys for a great tutorial. Pretty sure I know answer to this by my testing but just in case...
VMWARE automatically takes a disk offline when it is added to a vm, and automatically puts it back online when vm is shutdown or suspended.
Is it possible to do the same with Hyper-V as it is a but of a nuisance having to keep using disk management. Perhaps a powershell command where I could set up a shortcut if automatic is not possible?
Edit - have setup a couple of simple one-click batch files using diskpart. Not as slick as vmware but a lot less hassle than using disk management..
I know this is basic stuff for you guys but for benefit of other users:-
file 1 - diskoffline.txt (on d:\ root drive in my case)
select disk 1
offline disk
file 2 - diskoffline.cmd
diskpart /s d:\diskoffline.txt
Then create a shortcut for diskoffline.cmd file on desktop.
Do same to put online as well.
file 3 - diskonline.txt (on d:\ root drive in my case)
select disk 1
online disk
file 4 - diskonline.cmd
diskpart /s d:\diskonline.txt
Then create a shortcut for diskonline.cmd file on desktop.
When you get a popup notification asking what you to tap and select want to do with the drive, tap it and select no action. Then you do not see notification again.
It does not require admin permission to do this, so you can just click the shortcuts.
I am sure there are smarter ways of doing this but this is easy and works.Last edited by cereberus; 30 Jul 2016 at 06:13.
Add or Remove Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine
How to Add or Remove a Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual MachinePublished by Shawn BrinkCategory: Virtualization
19 Apr 2020
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