Microsoft’s Virtual Hard Disks (VHD) are files that look like hard drives to a computer’s operating system. They are typically used for installing file systems on when working with virtual machines (including Microsoft’s own Hyper-V or Oracle’s Virtualbox) but can also be attached and used on a physical Windows 10 box so the Windows machine treats the file as a hard drive. As such, they are ideal to clone physical hard drives to as a method of backup. They work particularly well with multi-partitioned drives or SD cards, such as those used with Raspberry Pis. A full clone image works well over just copying files as it preserves the partitions and bootable formatting.
If you have a Windows 10 computer, here’s a relatively simple way you can backup SD cards to a browserable VHD disk image that is not proprietary to your backup software.
If you have an SD card you would need to attach the SD Card to you Windows computer using an SD Card reader.
Anytime you need to restore it you just need to re-attach it and repeat the process, but reverse the cloning so the VHD is cloned to the physical hard disk. If you just need to copy some files off the VHD image, you can attach it and use it like any other hard drive, copying files off using Explorer. As an additional bonus, you can also attach the virtual drive to most virtual machines, including Oracle’s Virtual Box. You can also attach to a WSL session (at least WSL2) by attaching the disk in Disk Manager, assigning a letter to the Linux partition using Ext2 Filesystem Driver for Windows, and then opening WSL and typing “cd /mnt/[drive letter]”.
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