Virtual disk and virtual drive are software components that emulate an actual

disk storage Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...

device. Virtual disks and virtual drives are common components of virtual machines in hardware virtualization, but they are also widely used for various purposes unrelated to virtualization, such as for the creation of logical disks.

Operation

A virtual drive is a software component that emulates an actual disk drive, such as an

optical disc drive In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only r ...

, a floppy disk drive, or a hard disk drive. To other programs, a virtual drive looks and behaves like an actual physical device. A virtual disk may be in any of the following forms: * Disk image, a computer file that contains the exact data structure of an actual

storage Storage may refer to: Goods Containers * Dry cask storage, for storing high-level radioactive waste * Food storage * Intermodal container, cargo shipping * Storage tank Facilities * Garage (residential), a storage space normally used to store car ...

device * Logical disk (also known as vdisk), an array of two or more actual drives that cooperatively act like a single device * RAM disk, which stores its data in random-access memory (RAM) instead of on a storage device * A mapped network drive that connects to a

File Server In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...

Uses

In hardware virtualization, virtual machines implement virtual drives as part of their efforts to emulate the behavior of an actual machine. As with an ordinary computer, a virtual machine needs one virtual drive and one disk image to start up, except when it is performing a

network boot Network booting, shortened netboot, is the process of booting a computer from a network rather than a local drive. This method of booting can be used by routers, diskless workstations and centrally managed computers (thin clients) such as public ...

. More virtual drives are added as needed. Virtual optical drives are used on physical computers to transfer the contents of the optical disks onto hard disk drives. Doing so helps in resolving the problem of the short life span of

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

and DVDs and takes advantage of the faster data transfer rate of hard disk drives. However, virtual optical drives are also used for

software piracy Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, su ...

: early

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

s used disc existence verification to ensure licensed use, which can be circumvented using virtual optical drives. As a countermeasure, the StarForce copy protection scheme attempts to thwart disc virtualization. Modern video games have migrated to online product activation as part of their distribution process.

Operation

Uses

See also