Allocate Disk Space on Virtual Hard Drive on Windows 8

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Video: Allocate Disk Space on Virtual Hard Drive on Windows 8

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Hi, you're watching VisiHow. This is a tutorial on how to allocate disk space on a virtual hard drive on Windows 8 computers. This tutorial presumes that you have already created the virtual hard drive and have initialized it. If you don't know how to do that, feel free to watch one of the previous tutorials on this website.

1. 1
   Now, we need to right click on Windows icon at the lower left corner of the screen

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2. 2
   On the menu that appears, click on "Disk Management"

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3. 3
   After the "Disk Management" window loads, we need to locate the virtual disk in the list at the bottom

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   In our example, we are using "Disk 2".

   

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4. 4
   Right click in the box on the lower half of the screen to bring up a menu

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5. 5
   Then we'll click on "New Simple Volume"

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6. 6
   This will open the "New Simple Volume Wizard"

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7. 7
   Click "Next" at the bottom of this window

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8. 8
   Now, we need to specify the size

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   Since we have created a 1 GB drive, and the system has reserved several megabytes for itself, the maximum size of the virtual disk volume will be 1021 MB.

   

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9. 9
   We can also set it to another number, such as "512" MB, which is half of a gigabyte

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10. 10
    We'll just stick to "1021", so click on "Next" at the bottom

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11. 11
    Now, we can either assign a drive letter, mount it to the empty NTFS folder or not assign a drive letter or drive path

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12. 12
    To assign a drive letter, we can click on the drop-down menu and select a letter for the drive

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13. 13
    Alternatively, we can click on the circle to the left of "Mount in the following empty NTFS folder"

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14. 14
    Then click on the "Browse" button just to the right of the text box that appears

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15. 15
    Then choose a drive letter and folder from the list

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16. 16
    In our demonstration, we're going to create a "New Folder" in the "D:\" drive by clicking on the "New Folder" button on the right

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17. 17
    We'll name the new folder "VisiHow virtual"

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18. 18
    Then click "OK" on the right

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19. 19
    On the "New Simple Volume Wizard" window, we can click on the circle next to "Do not assign a drive letter or drive path" to select this option

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    Choose whichever option is desired.

    

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20. 20
    For our example, we're going to "Assign the following drive letter", and choose letter "V"

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21. 21
    Then click "Next" at the bottom of the window

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22. 22
    On the next window, we need to choose the volume format

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23. 23
    We can click on the first option to select "Do not format this volume", or choose the second option to "Format this volume with the following settings"

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24. 24
    For "File system", it can be "FAT", "FAT32" or "NTFS"

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    Since the drive size is only 1 GB, there is no need or the "NTFS". We can create a "FAT" or "FAT32". If the space of the drive exceeds 4 GB, and we're wanting to install or copy large files into that drive, we should choose "NTFS".

    

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25. 25
    Next, we can specify the "Allocation unit size" by choosing one from the drop-down menu

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26. 26
    Now, we can name it by entering a name in the text box next to "Volume label"

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    We'll name this one "VisiHow".

    

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27. 27
    To make it "Perform a quick format", we should make sure the box to the left of that option is checked

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    If we click to remove the check, it will perform a full format. Since this is a new drive, we'll just stay with the quick format.

    

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28. 28
    The next option is "Enable file and folder compression"

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    If we choose to enable this, then the disk space that the files and folders will occupy will be less than if left unchecked. However, the work flow of the drive will be significantly slower. Choose the options preferred in this section.

    

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29. 29
    Then click on the "Next" button at the bottom

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30. 30
    Now, click "Finish"

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31. 31
    We have to wait for the process to finish, and depending on the size of the virtual drive, that can take several seconds, several minutes, or maybe even several hours

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32. 32
    As we can see, the virtual drive has been created, and it is in the "Devices and drives" menu

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33. 33
    This concludes our tutorial on how to allocate disk space on a virtual hard drive on Windows 8 computers

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    Thank you for watching VisiHow. If you have any other comments or questions, please leave them in the comment section below.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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