Solved Virtual Disk is already attached error – Virtual Disk Service Error

Summary: Getting a virtual disk service error? And the virtual disk is already attached error? No need to worry, here in this post you will get the easy solutions to resolve both of these errors along with how these errors occurred and the simple ways to tackle them.

Sometimes it happens that when the user creates a new VHD for the system drive and tries to attach it to the disk management then the user receives an error message that states “the virtual disk is already attached”. This is something inappropriate as the system is showing VHD disk connected to the disk management but it is not true as the user didn’t connect it yet.

So here the question is why the user is getting such type of errors even when the vhd/vhdx are not attached to the disk management utility of the system. Let’s have a discussion over this situation.

Virtual Hard Disk Drives

VHD or VHDX are the two types of hard disk drives that the virtual machine uses to store the virtual data or images. OR we can say VHDX is just an updated version of a VHD. Both these disk drives contain structural elements, content along with the structure of the file of a hard drive without any compression. VHD allows the user to easily browse and retrieve the files from the operating system by simply attaching the VHD to the system. But when the process fails and the user gets an error message i.e the virtual disk is already attached even if the VHD is not attached.

The above-discussed scenario tells about the issue that the user faces during accessing the vhd with the disk management of the system. Hence we will provide you some of the brisk and easy ways to get rid of from such unacceptable virtual disk errors. So let’s roll.

Why this error occurs?- The VHD/VHDX is already attached.

According to our experts, the reasons may vary for every different situation that occurs this type of error. But firstly the user must be sure of one thing that he/she logged in as local Administrator and also have the full permissions of NTFS on VHD. If there is a conflict in the drive letter then there are chances that the already exist VHD error be visible to the user. To come over this issue below are the various methods which will help the user to get rid of this problem.

Methods to solve virtual disk already attached error

Method 1: Remove and Attach the VHD

If you are connected through the UNC aka Universal Naming Convention path and the Hyper-V system have the full control over the vhd file permissions than detach the device from the virtual machine and after that attach it again to use it.

Below are the steps that can be performed using the Hyper-v interface to fix the VHD already exists issue.

• Open the VM settings.
• Select the VHD which is facing the issue in the hardware menu and press the remove button.
• Choose the IDE Controller and select hard drive vhd file and Click add.

Method 2: Appoint a new Drive letter

Many times it happens that one drive letter is allocated to two different drivers at the same time. It does not happen generally but there can be some rare cases in which this kind of situation may occur due to bugs or other conflicts when the VHD got attached to the virtual machine with the same drive letter or drive name. So these mishappening leads towards the occurrence of virtual disk already attached error. Below are the steps to fix this virtual disk error with ease.

• Right-click the start menu and select the disk management option to see the list of connected devices.

• Again right-click on the virtual disk partition and right-click on the target drive from the list. Select change drive letter & path option.

• A new window will pop up on the screen click ok to change.

• Now choose the new drive letter from the menu and hit the ok button.

Bottom line

The user can use any of the above-told methods to solve the Virtual Disk already attached issue. But in case the user is not able to resolve the problem then it may happen that the VHD/VHDX you are trying to attach may be prone to corruption due to certain reasons. So the data within that corrupted VHD/VHDX disk can be saved by using VHDX recovery software. This tool will not help to solve the virtual disk already attached error but it will definitely roll back the data from the damaged virtual disks.

Also read: A brief on Virtual Disk file System and their Recovery