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<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="storage">
         <title>Virtual Storage</title>
         
         <body>
            <p>As the virtual machine will most probably expect to see a hard disk built into its virtual computer, <ph
        conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> must be able to present real storage to the guest as a virtual
      hard disk. There are presently three methods by which to achieve this: </p>
            <ul>
               <li>
                  <p><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can use large image files on a real hard disk
          and present them to a guest as a virtual hard disk. This is the most common method, described in <xref
            href="vdidetails.dita#vdidetails"/>. </p>
               </li>
               <li>
                  <p>
        iSCSI storage servers can be attached to <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. This is
        described in <xref href="storage-iscsi.dita#storage-iscsi"/>.
      </p>
               </li>
               <li>
                  <p>
        You can allow a virtual machine to access one of your host disks
        directly. This is an advanced feature, described in
        <xref href="rawdisk.dita">Using a Raw Host Hard Disk From a Guest</xref>.
      </p>
               </li>
            </ul>
            <p>
    Each such virtual storage device, such as an image file, iSCSI
    target, or physical hard disk, needs to be connected to the virtual
    hard disk controller that <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> presents to a virtual
    machine. This is explained in the next section.
  </p>
         </body>
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
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