Adding KVM Virtio Drivers to Windows

This is a quick and easy one! If you have ever got a Windows machine into a KVM environment, you'll know that if you switch the HDD and the NIC to virtio, it will fail to boot. How do you sort it? Hack Windows? Nope. This:

1. Add an additional virtio NIC, install the drivers when windows boots then remove the other(s).

2. Add an additional virtio HDD, install the drivers when asked, reboot and ensure it's worked. Power down, remove the 'spare' drive and then switch the original drive to virtio. It should boot up.

The need to have everything on virtio is very real - the performance benefits are significant.

The latest virtio drivers are always available from here.

Footnote: this resulted in an error when booting without removing the additional HDD. Remove it and everything boots up nicely. W2K3 asked for the driver again, but that's no big deal. The speed difference when using the virtio drivers is phenomenal!