Adding and Initializing a Data Disk on Windows Virtual Machine using Azure Portal

This write-up is to explain in detail how to add, initialize and use a data disk on a Windows Virtual Machine using the Azure Portal.

This article will be divided into 2 segments - How to add a data disk and How to initialize and make the data disk usable.

HOW TO ADD DATA DISK:

1. Login into your Azure account

2. On the menu, search and select "Virtual Machine"

   

3. On the Virtual Machine menu, select the VM you want to add a data disk to

   

4. On the Overview page of the VM, look out for and click on "Disk"; which is on the menu on the left-hand side

5. On the Disk page, you will notice that the only disk present is the OS disk(1) that was added in the initial set-up of the VM. Click "Create and attach disk" (2). On the drop-down, make your selection for LUN(3), name your disk (4), input your disk size (5) and click on Save (6).

After the disk set-up is completely saved, you will get a notification that your disk has been added. Please note that you can create additional disks for the VM.

HOW TO INITIALIZE THE DATA DISK:

1. Click on "Connect" (1) on the VM page to connect the VM, and RDP into the VM by clicking "Select". A page will be opened on the right-hand side, click on "Download RDP file".

   

2. Click on the downloaded file to open the connection to your Azure VM.

   

3. A window will be opened for login. Input your username and password.

   

4. After successfully logging into your VM, go to your Windows search menu and search for Disk Management. Click on "Create and format hard disk partitions"

   

5. This disk management recognizes that you have a new disk. A page is opened to initialize the disk. Click on "OK"

   

6. From the Disk Management page, the disk is not yet allocated and cannot be used. The more reason why it is displaying it as "Unallocated"

   

7. Right-click on the unallocated disk and click on "New Simple Volume"

   

8. Proceed on the Simple volume wizard by selecting "Next".

   

9. Select "Next

   

10. Select "Next" to select a Drive Letter to your disk.

    

11. The next pop-up window notifies whether we want the disk to be formatted. It is necessary to format a new disk. Select next to format the disk as it is a new one.

    

12. The disk is formatted and the New Simple volume wizard is completed. Kindly select "Finish" to close the wizard.

    

13. The new data disk is finally added and it can now be used.

I hope you found this article useful and thanks for reading.