How to create and manage Dev Drives on Windows 11

On Windows 11 (build 23466 and higher releases), you can create and manage Dev Drives, and in this guide, you will learn how. Dev Drive is a feature that allows developers to create regular and virtual storage using the Resilient File System (ReFS) with custom file system optimizations, Microsoft Defender Antivirus in performance mode, and features to enable better management of performance and security profile.

This feature is not designed for general workloads such as document libraries, installing packaged applications, or non-developer tools. Instead, it’s been designed specifically to meet the needs of developers to host project source code, working folders, and package caches.

This guide will teach you the steps to manage virtual Dev Drives on Windows 11.

Create Dev Drive on Windows 11 (virtual)

To create a Dev Drive on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Settings on Windows 11.
Click on System.
Click the Storage tab.
Under the “Storage management” section, click “Advanced storage settings.”
Click the Disks & volumes setting.
Click the Create Dev Drive button.
Select the “Create new VHD” option.
Click the Next button.
Confirm a descriptive name for the drive.
Confirm a location to store the virtual drive.

Quick tip: Usually, you can want to store the VHD or VHDX file on a secondary drive for better performance.
Specify the size of the virtual drive as equal to or larger than 50GB.
Check the VHDX option.
Check the Dynamically expanding option to allow the drive to grow as more data is written.

Quick note: The “Fixed size” will allocate the maximum size when the drive is created.
Click the Create button.
Select the “GPT (GUID Partition Table)” option to assign a partition style to the drive.
Click the Initialize button.
Confirm a label for the virtual drive.
Choose the drive letter.
(Optional) Use the default size specified in the setting.
Click the Format button.

After you complete the steps, the Dev Drive will be created and accessible from File Explorer on Windows 11.

Create Dev Drive on Windows 11 (physical)

Windows 11 also allows you to create a Dev Drive as a volume on the hard drive instead of using virtualization. In other words, you can also create a volume on a hard drive with the benefits of the Dev Drive, including security and performance, using ReFS technology.

To create a Dev Drive on a physical hard drive, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on System.
Click the Storage tab.
Under the “Storage management” section, click “Advanced storage settings.”
Click the Disks & volumes setting.
Click the “Create Dev Drive” button.
Select the “Unallocated space on disk” option.
Click the Next button.
Confirm a descriptive name for the drive in the “Label” setting.
Confirm the letter for the drive in the “Drive letter” setting.
Confirm the size (equal to or more than 50GB) in the “Size (MB)” setting.
Click the Format button.

After you complete the steps, the volume will be created in the physical drive using the ReFS file system on Windows 11.

Resize Dev Drive on Windows 11

You can resize the volume of a Dev Drive as long as the available space on the virtual drive is equal to or more than 50GB. On the other hand, if you configure a physical storage as a Dev Drive, you can change the size of the volume with any remaining space available. If you have to increase the size of the virtual drive, you will have to create another drive with a larger size.

To change the side of a Dev Drive, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on System.
Click the Storage tab.
Under the “Storage management” section, click “Advanced storage settings.”
Click the Disks & volumes setting.
Click the “Create Dev Drive” button.
Click the “Resize an existing volume” option.
Click the Next button.
Choose the drive to resize.

Quick note: If you’re configuring a hard drive, you can use the remaining space to increase the size of the drive. If you have a virtual drive, you can only change the size of the physical drive has more than 50GB of available space.
Click the Next button.
Specify the new size of the drive (in megabytes).
Click the Next button.

Once you complete the steps, the Dev Drive will now reflect the new size.

Using these instructions, you can increase or decrease the size of the drive. However, if you’re dealing with virtualization, the size of the Dev Drive can’t be less than 50GB.

Delete Dev Drive on Windows 11

If you no longer have to use a Dev Drive, the best way to delete the drive is to use the “Disk Management” tool to detach the virtual drive, and then you can proceed to delete the “.vhd” or “.vhdx” file. If you are using a physical drive, you can simply delete or reformat the volume.

To delete a Dev Drive, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management app.
Right-click the Dev Drive and choose the Detach VHD option.

Quick note: If you are using a Dev Drive volume, you can right-click the volume and select the “Delete Volume” option.
Open File Explorer.
Open the folder storing the virtual drive.
Right-click the Dev Drive and choose the Delete option.