

The following types of VHD formats are supported by Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server: VHDs are implemented as files that reside on the native host file system. VHDX was added in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 to add larger storage capacity, data corruption protection, and optimizations to prevent performance degradation on large-sector physical disks.


VHDX was introduced in Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 to add features and flexibility missing in VHD that had become apparent over time. The format was created by Connectix for their Virtual PC product, known as Microsoft Virtual PC since Microsoft acquired Connectix in 2003. They are typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine, are built into modern versions of Windows, and are the native file format for Microsoft's hypervisor ( virtual machine system), Hyper-V.

They may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. VHD ( Virtual Hard Disk) and its successor VHDX are file formats representing a virtual hard disk drive (HDD).
