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how to auto mount dev drive when windows startup #121

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how to auto mount dev drive when windows startup#121

Description

@Ddoudou
Dou Dou (Ddoudou)
opened on Jun 20, 2024

Windows Build Number

10.0.22631.0

Processor Architecture

AMD64

Memory

16G

Storage Type, free / capacity

SSD 1T

Relevant apps installed

~

Traces collected via Feedback Hub

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Isssue description

how to auto mount dev drive when windows startup

Steps to reproduce

~

Expected Behavior

auto mount dev drive when windows startup

Actual Behavior

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Activity

  1. adrastogi commented on Jun 20, 2024

    @adrastogi
    adrastogi
    on Jun 20, 2024
    Collaborator

    Dou Dou (@Ddoudou) can you elaborate on how you created your Dev Drive? Currently, I believe that only Dev Drives created via the Settings app will be automatically mounted. See the comment below (the broader thread may be of interest as well).

    microsoft/devhome#1903 (comment)

    cc: AdamBr (@AdamBraden)

  2. Ddoudou commented on Jun 24, 2024

    @Ddoudou
    Dou Dou (Ddoudou)
    on Jun 24, 2024
    Author

    Dou Dou (@Ddoudou) can you elaborate on how you created your Dev Drive? Currently, I believe that only Dev Drives created via the Settings app will be automatically mounted. See the comment below (the broader thread may be of interest as well).

    microsoft/devhome#1903 (comment)

    cc: AdamBr (@AdamBraden)

    use the devhome

  3. adrastogi commented on Jun 24, 2024

    @adrastogi
    adrastogi
    on Jun 24, 2024
    Collaborator

    Dou Dou (@Ddoudou) thanks! Did you create a physical drive or a virtual drive? Could you also please file a Feedback Hub item for this? You can invoke Feedback Hub via [Windows]+[f] and paste the link here so we can more easily find your information on the back end. The link can be found at the bottom of the feedback report. Please use "Developer Platform -> Dev Drive" for the Category.

  4. Ddoudou commented on Jun 25, 2024

    @Ddoudou
    Dou Dou (Ddoudou)
    on Jun 25, 2024
    Author

    adrastogi https://aka.ms/AAr0sxs

  5. adrastogi commented on Jul 25, 2024

    @adrastogi
    adrastogi
    on Jul 25, 2024
    Collaborator

    Dou Dou (@Ddoudou) sorry for the delayed response- appreciate you filing the feedback. Would you mind running the command below from a command prompt and sharing the output?

    reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AutoAttachVirtualDisks /s

  6. Ddoudou commented on Jul 25, 2024

    @Ddoudou
    Dou Dou (Ddoudou)
    on Jul 25, 2024
    Author

    image
    adrastogi no output

  7. Eli-Black-Work commented on Jul 30, 2024

    @Eli-Black-Work
    Eli-Black-Work
    on Jul 30, 2024

    Dou Dou (@Ddoudou) BTW, you might want to post this at the DevHome repo: https://github.com/microsoft/devhome :)

  8. rangasurendra commented on Nov 12, 2024

    @rangasurendra
    Ranga Surendra (rangasurendra)
    on Nov 12, 2024

    There is a workaround, you can go to Settings > System > For developers at the bottom of the screen under the Dev Drive go to Create a Dev Drive. And then on the next screen click Attach VHD - attach your existing dev drive VHDX

    In my case had to move virtual dev drive [created through Dev Home few months back] to a better performing SSD. Which broke the auto mount at startup. Finally, this worked for me.

  9. joncamp commented on Jan 23, 2025

    @joncamp
    Jon Campbell (joncamp)
    on Jan 23, 2025

    As noted in microsoft/devhome#1903 (comment), seeing this on my arm64 surface. Dev drive was created via the dev home interface. Virtual disks service is set to auto start. I can manually attach the drive fine after boot using the diskpart or GUI approaches noted in the thread.

    ❯ reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AutoAttachVirtualDisks /s

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AutoAttachVirtualDisks\{ce8d65e8-1427-44f2-9c8f-43b3cdcb9f1f}
    Path    REG_SZ    C:\DevDrive.vhdx

  10. GF-Huang commented on Mar 30, 2025

    @GF-Huang
    GFHuang (GF-Huang)
    on Mar 30, 2025

    Open Windows Settings, go to "Disks & volumes", click on "Attach VHD", and find your VHD or VHDX file. It will stay mounted across reboots.

    If you instead mount the virtual disk by double-clicking it, it won't auto-mount after a reboot.

    https://superuser.com/a/1882252/986246

  11. niikoo commented on May 30, 2025

    @niikoo
    Nikolai Ommundsen (niikoo)
    on May 30, 2025

    This is how I set it up.

    Task Scheduler

    General
    Name: Auto-Mount DevDrive VHDX at Startup
    When running the task, use the following user account: [I selected an account with administrative rights]
    Selected Run whether user is logged in or not , Do not store password and Run with highest privileges.

    Triggers

    • At startup
    • At log on

    Actions
    Action: Start a program
    Program/script: diskpart.exe
    Arguments: /S "C:\devdrive.automount.diskpart"

    Conditions
    Unchecked everything.

    Settings
    Checked the top 5 checkboxes.
    Set Do not start a new instance on the last dropdown.

    Create the diskpart file

    Path: "C:\devdrive.automount.diskpart"
    File contents:

    select vdisk file="C:\devDrive.vhdx"
attach vdisk
exit

    Replace "C:\devDrive.vhdx" with the path to your DevDrive VHDX file.

  12. neominky commented on Jul 23, 2026

    @neominky
    Morgan Le Fay (neominky)
    on Jul 23, 2026

    Open Windows Settings, go to "Disks & volumes", click on "Attach VHD", and find your VHD or VHDX file. It will stay mounted across reboots.
    If you instead mount the virtual disk by double-clicking it, it won't auto-mount after a reboot.

    https://superuser.com/a/1882252/986246

    No, the mount status is not maintained after rebooting. So I searched and found this place. System is Windows Server 2025

  13. l5z12 commented on Oct 29, 2026

    @l5z12
    l5z12
    on Oct 29, 2026

    9. As noted in microsoft/devhome#1903 (comment), seeing this on my arm64 surface. Dev drive was created via the dev home interface. Virtual disks service is set to auto start. I can manually attach the drive fine after boot using the diskpart or GUI approaches noted in the thread.
    ```
    ❯ reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AutoAttachVirtualDisks /s

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AutoAttachVirtualDisks\{ce8d65e8-1427-44f2-9c8f-43b3cdcb9f1f}
    Path    REG_SZ    C:\DevDrive.vhdx
```

    Generate a random UUID using New-Guid and add the registry key shall be fine? Or we can just reverse engineer the normal behavior and find out

    Here's my registry using Attach VHD in Settings for reference
    AutoAttachVirtualDisks screenshot

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