Here is a very informative post about the contents and the use of XML files in Hyper-V 2012. It also talks about datastores from the perspective of a VMware administrator. Browsing Hyper-V VM Folders in Hyper-V 2012: Think Datastores for VMware Admins | virtuallycloud9 Here is another post where he talks about the various files referenced by VMs in Hyper-V.