Add a Physical Disk to an Existing Virtual Machine

You can add a physical disk to an existing virtual machine by modifying virtual machine hardware settings.

To add a physical disk to a new virtual machine, run the New Virtual Machine wizard and select the Custom option. See Create a New Virtual Machine on the Local Host.

Note: You cannot add a physical disk to a remote virtual machine.

Prerequisites

• Perform the appropriate preparation tasks. See Prepare to Use a Physical Disk or Unused Partition.
• Power off the virtual machine.

Procedure

1. Select the virtual machine and select VM > Settings.
2. On the Hardware tab, click Add.
3. Select Hard Disk.
4. Select Use a physical disk.
5. If a warning message appears, click OK.
6. Select the physical hard disk to use from the drop-down menu.
7. Select whether to use the entire disk or individual partitions.
8. If you selected individual partitions, select the partitions.
   The virtual machine can access only the partitions that you select. The guest operating system might be able to detect other partitions, but you cannot mount, access, or format those partitions.
9. Accept the default filename and location for the virtual disk (.vmdk) file, or browse to a different location.
10. Click Finish to add the physical disk to the virtual machine.
11. Use the tools in the guest operating system to format any partitions on the physical disk that are not formatted for the guest operating system.