How To Create Virtual Hard Drive In Windows 7

Sometimes you have some important files that you need to store separately or want to store personal files separately from the work files in an encrypted vault then you can do just that with Windows 7.

You will be able to create virtual hard drives and also encrypt it to make it secure and inaccessible by anyone. This article will provide you with a guide on how to do this.

Create Virtual Hard Disk Windows 7

Create a Virtual Drive:

  1. There are two ways you can about doing this, either you can right click on my computer icon and click on manage or you can type the command diskmgmt.msc in the start search box and press enter.
  2. After the computer management screen opens click on disk management and then on action to bring a drop down menu and select create VHD.
  3. You can browse to the directory where you want the disk to be located, allocate a size to the drive.
  4. You can select either dynamically expanding which causes the disk size to expand as you add files to it or select fixed size which gives a specific size and it stays that way.
  5. In the disk management you will see the virtual drive being listed as unallocated space.
  6. To start using it immediately right-click on it and select initialize disk.
  7. In the initialize disk box keep the MBR selected and just click ok.

Create a Volume:

  1. Right-click the unallocated space and select new simple volume.
  2. The new simple volume wizard will start.
  3. Choose the amount of space you want to be allocated to the new volume. Then click next
  4. Select a drive letter that is not being then click next
  5. In this window select the format and then file system should be NTFS. You can also select whether you like a quick format and file compression or not. Click next
  6. You can also set a name for this drive so that you can easily recognize it.
  7. It is advised to select quick format since you’re creating a new volume as it will be done in a matter of seconds.
  8. The wizard will finish and then click on finish.
  9. If you have auto play enabled then it should pop up so that you can open your new drive. If it’s not enabled then you can just double click on the icon to enter the drive.

Encrypting the Drive:

  1. This cool new feature is only available in windows 7.
  2. Once you enter my computer the drive will be listed along with other drives.
  3. Right click on the virtual drive that you created and select encrypt with bitlocker encryption
  4. You will be taken to a window where you need to enter the password.
  5. After confirming the password when you press next you will be given a bitlocker key save it for safety if you need to access the data in case you forgot the password.
  6. The encryption will take some time to finish and after it’s done your drive is now secure and only accessible by you.

There you go some simple procedures that will enable you to create a secure virtual drive and you can use the drive in any way you want.

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