An instance of a Windows Azure role comprises several virtual disks (VHD) deployed into a virtual machine. One VHD contains the Guest OS; another contains the role package, while the third is a writable VHD containing the local resources of the instance.
Windows Azure provides the Azure Drive feature whereby an arbitrary VHD, contained in a page blob, can be attached to an instance and then accessed as an NTFS drive. This VHD must be an NTFS-formatted, fixed-size VHD. The VHD can be created directly as a page blob or uploaded like any other page blob.
The Disk Management snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) can be used to create and format a VHD on a local system. Once attached to the local system, files can be copied to, or created on the file system of the VHD just as they can with any hard drive. The VHD can then be detached from the local system and uploaded as a page blob to the Windows Azure Blob Service.
A page blob, which may have a maximum...