# Initializing a Newly Added Hard Drive
After you add a new blank virtual hard drive to the virtual machine configuration, it remains invisible to the operating system unless you initialize it.
### Initializing a New Virtual Hard Drive in Windows
To initialize a new hard drive in Windows 11, you will need to do the following:
1. Open the start menu by clicking on the Windows logo and choose **Settings**.
2. On the left, choose **System** and scroll to the **Storage** menu item.
3. Under **Storage management**, expand the **Advanced storage settings** sub-menu and select **Disks & volumes**.
4. Find the new virtual hard drive from the list and click **Initialize**.
In older versions of Windows, you can initialize a new drive by locating the Disk Management utility in the Control Panel, launching the Initialize and Convert Disk wizard, and creating a new volume on that disk afterwards.
### Initializing a New Virtual Hard Drive in Linux
Initializing a new virtual hard disk in a Linux guest OS comprises two steps: (1) allocating the virtual hard disk space and (2) mounting this disk in the guest OS.
To allocate the space, you need to create a new partition on this virtual hard disk using the `fdisk` utility:
{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** To use the `fdisk` utility, you need the `root` privileges.
{% endhint %}
1. Launch a terminal window.
2. To list the IDE devices present in your virtual machine configuration, enter:
```
fdisk /dev/hd*
```
\
[**Note:** If you added a SCSI disk to the virtual machine configuration, use the `fdisk /dev/sd*` command instead.](#user-content-fn-1)[^1]
3. By default, the second virtual hard drive appears as `/dev/hdc` in your Linux virtual machine. To work with this device, enter:
```
fdisk /dev/hdc
```
\
[**Note:** If this is a SCSI disk, use the `fdisk /dev/sdc` command instead.](#user-content-fn-1)[^1]
4. To get detailed information about the drive, enter:
```
p
```
5. To create a new partition, enter:
```
n
```
6. To create the primary partition, enter:
```
p
```
7. Specify the partition number. By default, it is `1`.
8. Specify the first cylinder. If you want to create a single partition on this hard drive, use the default value.
9. Specify the last cylinder. If you want to create a single partition on this hard drive, use the default value.
10. To create a partition with the specified settings, enter:
```
w
```
When you allocated the space on the newly added virtual hard disk, you should format it by entering the following command in the terminal:
```
mkfs -t /dev/hdc1
```
{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** `` stands for the file system you want to use on this disk. It is recommended to use `ext3` or `ext2`.
{% endhint %}
When the added virtual hard disk is formatted, you can mount it in the guest OS.
1. To create a mount point for the new virtual hard disk, enter:
```
mkdir /mnt/hdc1
```
\
[**Note:** You can specify a different mount point.](#user-content-fn-1)[^1]
2. To mount the new virtual hard disk to the specified mount point, enter:
```
mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/hdc1
```
Once you have mounted the virtual hard drive, you can use its space in your virtual machine.
[^1]:
---
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