Resize VHD partition and create VHD partition
VHD, short for Virtual Hard Disk, only available in Windows 7 and the Client OS after it, or Windows Server 2008 and its Successor. File extension is .vhd
, it's a single file in one partition with certain amount of capacity, with this file we can directly create new partition on it, it's also another way of backup and restore files. So it's widely used in Server system. Windows Disk Management can recognize it and can directly make changes on it, so problems like resize and move partition can also happen to VHD partition too. We'll try partition software to solve this.
Create a VHD

- Press Windows + R to open Run box quickly, and key in diskmgmt.msc; press Enter; (that's how we always run disk management, we you get used to this, it's the fastest way to access the snap-in partition manager).
- Click Action > Create VHD;
- In Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window, click Browse and find a path to store VHD file, or just type in the path and file name;
- Type in virtual disk size, 20 GB for example;
- Check VHD and Fixed Size and click OK to create a VHD file;
Now the new (virtual) disk is loaded in disk management disk map with a red download icon on it. right-click on it, and choose Initialize Disk, choose MBR or GPT, 20GB disk space we can click MBR, and OK, now it becomes unallocated space; Keep on right-clicking on it, and follow NEW simple volume wizard to create partition.
That's how to create a virtual hard drive in Windows Server 2012 R2, partitions created in this way, follow all the rules of Server Disk Management, so if you want to shrink VHD partition in later use, just right-click on it and choose Shrink Volume; but if you want to extend it only to find that Extend Volume greyed out, you can try to recreate a VHD disk with enough free space in, we just try Macrorit Partition Expert to resize it with ease.
Resize VHD partition in Server 2012 with Partition Expert
- Open Partition Expert and right-click on VHD partition; Resize /Move Volume on this partition;
- Drag a handle on any side of partition to resize, to shrink partition we drag it inwards;
- Resize another partition, and drag the handle outwards to extend VHD partition;

More about VHD
Another practical function of VHD partition is to backup files or hide files, after created VHD partition, we can access to this partition in file explorer, press Windows + E to open it, and find the drive letter of VHD partition, double-click to open it; Now we are in the VHD partition, some sensitive data can be stored here.
For Server administrators, they can create multiple systems for different users, that is to create many VHD files with usernames or other labels, so if one of the users' system was affected by virus or under attack of it, others' system will not be bothered.
