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Azure Will Stop Supporting Standard HDD OS Disks in 2028

By Brad Hager2 min read
Azure Standard HDD End-of-Life Migration

By Brad Hager · October 3, 2026

Microsoft is retiring support for Standard HDD as the OS disk for Azure virtual machines on September 8, 2028. After that date, Azure will automatically convert any remaining Standard HDD OS disks to Standard SSDs of the same size. Microsoft warns that VMs still on HDD at that point may see a service disruption during the forced conversion. The change applies to both Windows and Linux VMs.

Microsoft's advice is to convert ahead of time on your own schedule. Standard SSD is the closest match to Standard HDD on price versus performance, and Premium SSD is the option if a workload needs more speed.

What's affected and what isn't

The retirement is narrow: it only covers Standard HDD used as a VM's OS disk.

Disk usage

After Sept 8, 2028

Standard HDD used as a VM OS disk

Auto-converted to Standard SSD

Standard HDD used as a data disk

Not affected

Disk snapshots stored on Standard HDD (including OS disk snapshots)

Not affected

Standard HDD OS disks created by Azure Site Recovery

Still supported

Ephemeral OS disks and other managed disk types

Not affected

How to prepare

Start by not creating new VMs with Standard HDD OS disks; use Standard SSD or Premium SSD instead. Then build a list of the OS disks you need to convert.

Across multiple subscriptions, the Disk Storage Center in the Azure portal is the quickest route. Filter Storage type to Standard HDD LRS and OS type to Linux and Windows; the Owner column shows which VM uses each disk. For a single subscription, either of these commands returns the same list:

# Azure PowerShell
Get-AzDisk | Where-Object { $_.Sku.Name -eq "Standard_LRS" -and $_.OsType }

# Azure CLI
az disk list --query "[?sku.name=='Standard_LRS' && osType!=null]" --output table

From there, convert each disk to Standard SSD or Premium SSD. Check the disk billing guidance first, since SSD tiers are priced differently from HDD.

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