Where are docker images and containers stored when we use it with Windows?

Question

NOTE: Am super new to both Windows and Docker

The tutorial I've been using says that they are under /var/lib/docker/containers if we're using Linux, but I can't seem to find that on my Windows machine.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Enter docker-machine with

docker-machine ssh 

there you should find your containers.

sudo ls /var/lib/docker/containers

Answer 2

I use WSL 2 and my images downloaded to next location: c:\Users<User>\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data
Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Docker installed on windows with docker toolbox(using virtual box in place of hyper-v) one VM is created on at C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\.docker\machine\machines with name default so you can find all VM files in default folder.

you can connect this vm using

docker-machine ssh

and you can find pulled images and container under this path (you may need to use sudo sometimes)

/var/lib/docker

Answer 4

After review some post on Stackoverflow and Google. I found this directory :

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V

Here you can fin the configuration with the Virtual Machines

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines

Another important thing is the images are virtualized by the Hyper-V, so the info should be stored here.

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks

Answer 5

Update 2020 for WSL2

If you're using this with WSL2, docker images will be maintained inside of your wsl drive available at \\wsl$\ per this github issue:

• Windows: \\wsl$\docker-desktop-data\mnt\wsl\docker-desktop-data\data\docker\volumes
• Linux: sudo ls /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop-data/data/docker/volumes

Answer 6

Things might have changed with Windows 10 Anniversary Update. I installed Docker from source here (https://master.dockerproject.org/windows/amd64/docker-1.13.0-dev.zip) as described here:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/quick_start/quick_start_windows_10

Docker puts all of the images in this folder:

C:\ProgramData\docker\windowsfilter

and all containers in this folder:

C:\ProgramData\docker\containers

An easy way to check is to execute this:

docker info

It should tell you where your files are stored:

Containers: 2
 Running: 1
 Paused: 0
 Stopped: 1
Images: 10
Server Version: 1.13.0-dev
Storage Driver: windowsfilter
 Windows:
...
Docker Root Dir: C:\ProgramData\docker
Debug Mode (client): false
Debug Mode (server): false
...