I recently completed recording a Windows 7 video training course for Train Signal. In one of the lessons, I showed the viewer how to use an answer file to deploy Windows 7. Throughout the course, I used Microsoft’s Hyper-V to host all of the virtual machines I used in the demonstrations.
In this particular demonstration, I used a blank virtual floppy disk to which I copied the autounattend answer file that the Windows 7 installer looks for during installation. However, it wasn’t fully clear how I managed to actually make use of that blank floppy.
To create a new blank virtual floppy disk, open the Hyper-V Manager. Go to the Actions menu and choose New > Floppy Disk.
Figure 1
Figure 1 – Hyper-V Manager
This opens the Create Virtual Floppy Disk dialog box that you see below in Figure 1. In this window, provide a file name that you’d like to associate with the new blank floppy image. In Figure 2, you will see that I am calling my new floppy image NewFloppy.
Figure 2
Figure 2 – New floppy image file name
With the new floppy image created, you now need to “insert” the image into one of your virtual machines. Open the settings page for the target server and choose the Diskette Drive option. On the properties page for that device, choose the Virtual floppy disk (.vfd) file option and locate the floppy image. Once you’ve done so, click the Open button.
Figure 3
Figure 3 – Insert the new floppy disk image
You can now use the new floppy disk image just as you would a real blank floppy.