1 First steps
There are many and potentially complicated ways in which VirtualBox can pro- vide hard disk space to a VM (see chapter 5, Virtual storage, page 76 for details), but the most common way is to use a large image file on your “real” hard disk, whose contents VirtualBox presents to your VM as if it were a complete hard disk.
The wizard shows you the following window:
The wizard allows you to create an image file or use an existing one. Note also that the disk images can be separated from a particular VM, so even if you delete a VM, you can keep the image, or copy it to another host and create a new VM for it there.
In the wizard, you have the following options:
•If you have previously created any virtual hard disks which have not been attached to other virtual machines, you can select those from the drop- down list in the wizard window.
•Otherwise, to create a new virtual hard disk, press the “New” button.
•Finally, for more complicated operations with virtual disks, the “Existing...“ button will bring up the Virtual Disk Manager, which is described in more detail in chapter 5.3, The Virtual Media Manager, page 80.
Most probably, if you are using VirtualBox for the first time, you will want to create a new disk image. Hence, press the “New” button.
This brings up another window, the “Create New Virtual Disk Wizard”.
VirtualBox supports two types of image files:
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