Virtual hard disk files

Virtual hard disk files store information such as the operating system, program files, and actual data. They are named <VM-NAME>.vmdk (for example, Windows 8.1 VM.vmdk for the virtual machine named Windows 8.1 VM). Virtual hard disks can be configured as either IDE or SATA disks for the guest operating system. If the guest operating system has a driver for the LSI Logic or BusLogic SCSI adapter, a virtual disk can also be configured as a SCSI disk.

The files that make up virtual hard disks can be stored on IDE, SATA, or SCSI hard disks, or any other type of fast-access storage media. The size of virtual disks can be up to 8TB. Each virtual hard disk can be stored in one or more files, depending on the size of the virtual hard disk and the host operating system.

You can also configure a virtual hard disk to use a set of files limited to 2GB per file, which can be useful if you plan to move the virtual hard disk to an older file system that does not support files larger than 2GB.