Add a new virtual hard disk

You can add up to four IDE devices and up to 60 SCSI devices to a virtual machine in VMware Player. Here is how you can add a new virtual hard disk to a virtual machine:

1. Select the virtual machine from the library and go to Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings:

vm settings disk

2. Click Add on the Hardware tab:

add virtual hard disk

3. The New Hardware wizard opens. Select Hard disk as the hardware type:

add hard disk

4. Select the disk type. Three options are available:

  • IDE – creates an IDE disk. You can add up to four IDE devices to a virtual machine.
  • SCSI – creates a SCSI disk. You can add up to 60 SCSI devices to a virtual machine. This option is recommended.
  • SATA – create a SATA disk. You can add up to 120 SATA devices: four controllers and 30 devices per controller.

hard disk type

5. Select the Create a new virtual disk option:

create hard disk

6. Set the virtual disk size and choose how to allocate the disk space. Three options are available.

  • Allocate all disk space now – this option enhances performance, but requires all of the physical disk space to be available immediately.
  • Store virtual disk as a single file – select this option if the virtual disk is stored on a file system that doesn’t have a file size limitation.
  • Split virtual disk into multiple files – select this option if the virtual disk is stored on a file system that has a file size limitation.

hard disk size

7. Select the filename and location and click Finish to add the new virtual hard disk:

hard disk name

The guest operating system should see the new virtual hard disk as a new blank disk.

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