Abstract: A storage system creates a snapshot of a virtual hard disk by switching an I/O request target for the virtual hard disk. A requestor may issue requests to the storage system requesting that specific operations of the process should be performed. A request may specify that more than one operation should be performed in one operation. After initializing a new virtual hard disk file, I/O requests directed to a target virtual hard disk file are held for later deliver. The I/O request target is switched from the target to the new virtual hard disk file. I/O requests are unblocked and the stored requests are delivered to the new virtual hard disk file. Additional I/O requests sent to the target virtual hard disk file may be redirected to the new virtual hard disk file.