Editing Disk image (section)

===Virtualization===
Creating a virtual disk image of optical media or a [[hard disk drive]] is typically done to make the content available to [[Virtualization|one or more virtual machines]]. [[Virtual machine]]s emulate a CD/DVD drive by reading an [[ISO image]]. This can also be faster than reading from the physical optical medium.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cd/perfAccess-c.html |title=pcguide.com - Access Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110014217/http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cd/perfAccess-c.html |archive-date=10 January 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Further, there are less issues with wear and tear. A [[hard disk drive]] or [[solid-state drive]] in a [[virtual machine]] is implemented as a disk image (i.e. either the [[VHD (file format)|VHD]] format used by Microsoft's [[Hyper-V]], the [[VDI (file format)|VDI]] format used by [[Oracle Corporation]]'s [[VirtualBox]], the [[VMDK]] format used for [[VMware]] virtual machines, or the [[QCOW]] format used by [[QEMU]]). Virtual hard disk images tend to be stored as either a collection of files (where each one is typically 2GB in size), or as a single file. Virtual machines treat the image set as a physical drive.