Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be more reasons to use Windows 7; I will throw one more out there, mounting VHD files directly to your workstation. There have been countless occasions where I needed something off of a VHD and I would need to boot up the virtual or install Virtual PC just to copy contents of a VM. Detailed below are the few steps required to mount your VHD files.
Open Computer Management
Click the Windows Button (formally known as the Start Button) and right-click Computer and go to Manage.
Go to Disk Management
From Computer Management go to Disk Management, it will take a moment for Disk Management to load. Once it does, go to the Action Menu and select Attach VHD.
Point to your VHD file and open it, you have the option to open as Read Only if you want to ensure the integrity of your data. Windows will automatically assign a drive letter and finish attaching your VHD. It will then appear in the volume listing and in my computer.
Detach VHD
Once you are done with the drive remove it as you would a USB drive by right-clicking Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media and selecting Eject MSFT Virtual Disk SCSI Device.
