Manually loading virtio hdd driver for Windows Server 2012

Adrian Ilias

New Member
Aug 5, 2016
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Hi.

I have a problem with one of my Windows 2012 Server. It have a 100 GB Virtio hdd that Windows initial setup split it in two partitions: a System Reserve 350 MB partition for Windows boot files and BCD store and the second partition for the operating system files and applications.

For an unidentified reason the server started to behave strange (no or very quickly dropping Remote Desktop Connection, services that could not be accessed, etc.) so I decided a restart is needed. I performed that using Proxmox Console and this is why I saw that after restart Windows told me it will perform a data integrity check in 15 sec if I don't choose else. I let it to do that .. and this was a bad decision. :-(

After it finished and after another restart the 0xC00002e2 error was displayed ("system registry file is missing or contain errors"). Using Recovery option I went to Command prompt and I was surprised to see that the "List disk" command from DISKPART tool display "There are no fixed disks to show".
Then, using a Setup disk (an ISO file mapped as CD-ROM on this VM) I chose the "Install now\Custom" option and then I loaded the Virtio Windows driver (from a second CD-ROM/ISO). After loading it I was able to see the hdd and its two partitions.

From the "Where do you want to install Windows" page, using Shift+F10 I opened a Command Prompt windows and I saw that diskpart now see the "fixed" disk. From Command prompt I was able to check that all Windows Files (and programs) are present on their partition.

The bcdedit command displayed the correct information for BCD store, so I decided to recreate it using "bootrec /rebuildbcd" command, but I was surprised to see that bootrec doesn't see any installed Windows.
Looking closely I saw that the "list volume" command from diskpart doesn't see any active partition, so I made active the System Reserve partition. Then I exported and renamed the old BCD store and "bootrec /rebuildbcd" was able to see and recreate a new BCD store using the Windows installation from the second partiton of the hard-disk (this time the Windows installation was "visible" to bootrec).

After a restart the Windows automatically started the "Autorepair" procedure. I disabled the autorepair and now Windows display the 0x000014c error (with the same "system registry file is missing or contain errors" explanation). Going to Command prompt I see no fixed hdd are present and I suppose this is why the Windows can't load the registry files.

I don't know how the Windows hdd virtio driver are working during Windows startup, I suppose it must be loaded by boot manager before trying to load the Windows loader and registry files. But it looks like the Windows doesn't use the virtio driver anymore (maybe I'm completely wrong, sorry if so).

How can I tell Windows to use virtio driver again for this hdd? Can I do that from Command Prompt after restart or using a repair CD-ROM?
Or maybe I can covert the virtio hdd in an ide hdd in the ProxMox Environment? Looking for a tutorial for this kind of conversion I found only the opposite kind: from ide to virtio. It is even possible to convert a virtio hdd to an ide one?
I forgot to mention that all my repair action was performed on a clone VM of the original VM and I use Proxmox Environment 4.2-17/e1400248.

Any suggestion of how to solve this will be welcomed.

Thanks.
 
Or maybe I can covert the virtio hdd in an ide hdd in the ProxMox Environment?
Just remove this hdd on Hardware tab. Your hdd will remain there as Unconnected. Click on it and connect as IDE.
Or you can manually edit host config file in /etc/pve/qemu-server
 
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