Hyper-V virtual machine supported file locations

This article describes supported locations for Hyper-V virtual machine files.

Applies to:   Windows 10 - all editions, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
Original KB number:   2928127

Summary

Hyper-V virtual machines are only in a supported configuration when the virtual machine files are stored in a subfolder. It is not a supported configuration to have virtual machine files stored directly in the base (or root) of a drive or file share.

For example:

D:\ is not a supported location for storing virtual machine files in Hyper-V.

D:\VMs is a supported location for storing virtual machine files.

\\FILESERVER\SHARE is not a supported location for storing virtual machine files.

\\FILESERVER\Share\VMname is a supported location for storing virtual machine files.

More information

Hyper-V requires that it can control the file access permissions on all files that comprise a virtual machine. This is not possible when a virtual machine is stored in the base of a drive or share.