Free online ISO to VHDX converter

Source format

ISO is a disc image format that stores an exact copy of the contents of an optical disc, usually a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray. It is widely used by software distributors, IT administrators, and anyone who needs to archive or share disc-based media. Typical uses include operating system installers, software installation media, and bootable rescue discs.

An ISO file is primarily a read-only image of a disc structure, not a virtual hard disk. That means it preserves files and folders from the disc, but it does not behave like a writable virtual drive with partitions, boot sectors, or an installed operating system disk layout.

Target format

VHDX is Microsoft’s modern virtual hard disk format used by Hyper-V and other virtualization tools. It can represent a virtual disk that contains partitions, file systems, and operating system data, and it supports larger capacities and better resilience than the older VHD format.

VHDX is commonly used for virtual machines, test environments, system deployment, and disk-based backups. Its advantages include support for very large disks, improved protection against corruption, and better performance characteristics for modern virtualization workloads.

How to perform the conversion

It is important to note that ISO to VHDX is not a direct format conversion in the usual sense. An ISO is a disc image, while a VHDX is a virtual hard disk. In most cases, you cannot simply “convert” an ISO into a usable VHDX unless the ISO contains an operating system installer or recovery environment and your goal is to create a virtual machine disk from it.

Best practical approach: create a new VHDX file and use the ISO as installation media.

1. Open Hyper-V Manager on Windows.
2. Create a new virtual machine with New → Virtual Machine.
3. When prompted for storage, create a new virtual disk in VHDX format.
4. Attach the .iso file to the VM’s virtual DVD drive in Settings → DVD Drive → Image file.
5. Boot the VM and install the operating system from the ISO onto the new VHDX disk.

If you already have a physical machine and want to capture its installed system into a VHDX, use imaging or conversion tools such as Disk2vhd or Hyper-V export/import workflows. These tools create a VHDX from an existing disk, but they do not convert the ISO itself into a VHDX.

If your ISO contains files only and you simply need those files inside a virtual disk, you can mount the ISO, copy its contents into a newly created VHDX, and then use that disk in a VM if appropriate. On Windows, mount the ISO by double-clicking it or using File Explorer → Mount, then create and attach a blank VHDX through Disk Management or Hyper-V Manager.

You can also convert the file on 101convert.com for free, without installing any software, if the site supports your specific workflow.

Notes on quality, compatibility, or limitations

ISO and VHDX serve different purposes, so a direct one-step conversion is usually not meaningful. The main limitation is that an ISO does not contain the partitioning and disk metadata expected of a VHDX. For that reason, the result depends on what is inside the ISO and what you want to do with it.

For bootable operating system ISOs, the correct method is to create a VM, attach the ISO, and install into a new VHDX. For data-only ISOs, copying files into a VHDX may be enough, but it will not recreate the original disc image behavior. Compatibility is best when the VHDX is used with Microsoft Hyper-V or other software that explicitly supports the format.

If your real goal is to make an ISO boot inside a VM, consider whether you actually need a virtual machine disk at all. In many cases, keeping the ISO as installation media and creating a separate VHDX is the most reliable solution.