Migrating Windows to Proxmox/Virtio SCSI single device without intermediary IDE/sata boot drive

[ThomasGlanzmann]

Hello,
I get often asked by customers how to install the virto
drivers before the migration in a way that they can be
immediatly be used with virtio scsi single devices without
an intermediary boot using an ide drive and an empy virtio
scsi single device. And today we solved the issue in a
qskills proxmox training. The trick is: Device Manager > Add
legacy hardware > Next > (*) Install the hardware ... >
Storage Controllers > Have Disk > d:\amd64\2k25\vioscsi
(.inf) > Red Hat Virtio SCSI pass-through controller. You
can than immediatly delete delete the device again: Red Hat
VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller > Uninstall device >
Uninstall (Do *not* check Attempt to remove the driver for
this device because than you end up with the usual blue
screen). We then vibecoded everything we needed to perform
an automated migration: Put the drivers for virtio scsi and
virtio scsi single device, install virtio drivers, install
qemu agent, uninstall vmware tools, document the network
settings and put all network cards to dhcp. Find the
powershell scripts on my homepage: Powershell Scripts

Cheers,
Thomas

 

[santiagobiali]

This powershell works too, where D:\ is your virtio drive (or folder) and 2k22 your OS version:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -File D:\ | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq ".inf" -and $_.FullName -like '*\2k22\amd64*'} | ForEach-Object { PNPUtil.exe /add-driver "$($_.FullName)" /install }

 

[ThomasGlanzmann]

I tried your approach on a w2k25. Fresh w2k25, latest virtio.iso. Your prompt but 2k22 replaced with 2k25 and the VM gives me a blue screen on first boot. With the phantom device approach above it boots without bluescreen. I just found out that someone else has a script with the same method on github: croit / load-virtio-scsi-on-boot

 

[santiagobiali]

I tried your approach on a w2k25. Fresh w2k25, latest virtio.iso. Your prompt but 2k22 replaced with 2k25 and the VM gives me a blue screen on first boot. With the phantom device approach above it boots without bluescreen. I just found out that someone else has a script with the same method on github: croit / load-virtio-scsi-on-boot

On my notes on migrating from sata to scsi there is a step that you must boot into safeboot first, disable safeboot and reboot or you get a bsod.

1. bcdedit /set {default} safeboot network
2. shutdown -s -t 0 -f (shutdown)
3. Change the disk from sata to scsi.
4. bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot
5. shutdown -r -t 0 -f (reboot)

You can give it a try. Just modify it to run (1) before importing the VM to Proxmox and remove (3).

 

[ThomasGlanzmann]

On my notes on migrating from sata to scsi there is a step that you must boot into safeboot first, disable safeboot and reboot or you get a bsod.

1. bcdedit /set {default} safeboot network
2. shutdown -s -t 0 -f (shutdown)
3. Change the disk from sata to scsi.
4. bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot
5. shutdown -r -t 0 -f (reboot)

I see, with the method above, you don't need safeboot. You shut it down on VMware, you start it on proxmox with virtio scsi single device and the only thing left todo is set the ip address, if the address was static defined before. So it is only one boot.

 

[_gabriel]

@Falk R. made an "install.bat" script which use the devcon.exe Microsoft utility to create the phantom/fake scsi controller.
This allow booting directly in PVE with Virtio SCSI disk.
Just tried today.
Download the virtio win mod drivers ISO , the run "install.bat" , backup/clone to PVE. it's straightforward.

[TUTORIAL] Thread 'A small game changer for Windows migration to Proxmox'

Mar 12, 2026

After presenting my modified ISO in the German forum section some time ago, the optimized version is now available in English.

Since I came up with the method for migration with minimal downtime, I have more good news today.
It is possible to install the Virtio drivers in advance so that Windows can boot directly from VirtIO SCSI after migration. To make it a little easier for everyone, I modified a virtio ISO and stored an installation batch file there.
The install.bat must be run as an administrator, and I also modify the SAN policy so that additional disks in Windows come online after...

• Falk R.
• migration vsphere windows
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Proxmox VE: Installation and configuration

• 

There is a powershell script too, which does the same thing ( https://github.com/croit/load-virtio-scsi-on-boot/ )