So, you've created an Azure Virtual Machine and it's running like a champ—but where do you put your extra files, logs, or cat memes? 🐱📁
Let me take you through a simple, foolproof (and actually kinda fun) process to create, attach, and format a data disk on your Azure VM.
No cloud wizardry required—just your fingers, some clicks, and maybe a cup of tea ☕.
🔧 Step-by-Step: How I Attached and Formatted a Data Disk on My Azure VM
🖥️ Step 1: Create a Virtual Machine
First things first—if you haven’t created a VM, go ahead and do that in the Azure portal.
- Go to the Azure dashboard.
- Click "Create a resource" → "Virtual Machine".
- Choose your image (e.g. Windows Server), size, region, etc.
- Deploy and wait for it to finish spinning up.
📍 Once your VM is ready, click “Go to resource.”
📀 Step 2: Add a New Disk
Now for the exciting part—let’s give your VM some extra storage space.
- In your VM’s left-hand menu, scroll to “Settings” → “Disks.”
- Click “+ Create and attach a new disk.”
Here’s how I filled in the fields:
-
Disk name:
Data disk(keep it simple!) - Storage type: Premium SSD 💎 (because I like speed)
- Size: 11 GB — not too much, not too little, just right.
💾 Hit Save and return to the VM overview page.
🔌 Step 3: Connect to Your VM
Let’s hop into the VM to bring the new disk to life.
- Click "Connect" at the top.
- Select "RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)" → "Download RDP file."
- Make sure you have the Windows Remote Desktop app installed.
Double-click the .rdp file to launch the connection. When prompted:
- Enter your VM credentials (username + password).
- Click Connect.
🔐 Boom—you’re inside your VM now.
🧱 Step 4: Initialize and Format the New Disk
Now we’re going to tame that unformatted space and turn it into a usable drive.
- Hit the Start menu, type
Disk Management, and open it.
- You’ll see a pop-up asking to initialize a disk. Say yes!
- Scroll down to find your unallocated disk (should be around 11GB).
- Right-click on it and select “New Simple Volume.”
- Stick with the default settings—they’re smart enough.
-
Format the volume:
- File system: NTFS 🧠 What’s NTFS? It stands for New Technology File System—the default file system for Windows. It’s like a smart librarian for your files: it knows who can read what, keeps things secure, supports big files, and ensures your data doesn’t go poof if your VM sneezes.
-
Volume label:
Data disk(you can get creative here)
Click Finish.
🎉 Congratulations! Your data disk should now show a “Healthy” status and be fully available in File Explorer.
🤓 What I Learned
- Azure makes disk attachment pretty seamless.
- Initializing and formatting disks inside the VM is super important—don’t skip it or you'll be scratching your head wondering where your disk is.
- Using Premium SSD gives you that "next-gen" performance feel. 😎
⚡ TL;DR
- Add extra storage by going to your VM → Disks → Add new disk.
- Connect via RDP to initialize and format it using Disk Management.
- Give your disk a label and finish setup—it should now be healthy and visible!
🔚 Final Thoughts
Attaching a disk in Azure isn’t rocket science—but it is one of those core cloud tasks that every aspiring DevOps engineer should master.
So go ahead—try it out, name your disk something epic (e.g., Dragons_Lair 🐉), and feel the power of clean, scalable cloud infrastructure.
Want more hands-on guides like this? Drop a 🧠 in the comments or connect with me at @adesola_kehinde.
Until then: format safely, automate wisely, and hydrate constantly. 💧💻
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