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Although this topic is not new I had some readers asking me about it. So here we go…

Windows 2012 Hyper-V has a new disk format : VHDX.

VHDX principal features

• Storage capacity up to 64 terabytes (TBs). With the VHDX format we can to create larger virtual hard disks ( up to 64TB). The VHD format has a 2 TB limit to VHD’s.
• Corruption protection during power failures
• Optimal structure alignment for large-sector disks (4K sector aligned virtual hard disk), which increases the performance. Why Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V VHDX 4K Alignment Is So Important
• Trim/Unmap – Space efficiency on VHDX files as well as the host disk
• Thin provisioning
• Ability to store custom metadata about the file that the user might want to record, such as operating system version or patches applied

You can convert a VHD into VHDX and vice versa. As long the size limit for the VHD is respected:

• Shutdown the Virtual Machine
• Double check if there is NO Snapshots
• Double check if there is NO replication enabled
• On the Hyper-V Manager,  on the left pane select Edit Disk…

• Click on Next
• On the Edit Virtual Disk Wizard, type the name and location of your existing VHD file or click on Browse to locate

• Click on Next

• On the Choose Action page select Convert and then click Next

• On the Choose Disk Format page select VHDX and click Next

• On the Choose Disk Type page select Disk type : Fixed or Dynamic  and then click Next

• On the Configure Disk page type the destination path and then click Next

• On the Summary page, click Finish to start the process. The process time depends on the VHD size.