Windows is Unable to Detect a Virtual Disk Drive
How to resolve Windows not detecting a virtual disk drive by loading virtIO drivers during installation or changing the disk interface type to SATA.
Virtual Disk Drive not detected in Windows
In most cases this is because the disk drive Interface Type is set to virtIO-SCSI (which is the default value) on any virtual machine that is being created. If that is the case, you will need to load the virtIO drivers during the Windows installation process. Windows does not natively recognize virtIO interfaces, so it cannot see the virtual disk.
Open Source virtIO drivers can be downloaded from here courtesy of Fedora Linux.
If Redhat virtIO drivers are required due to signed driver needs within Windows, a Redhat account will need to be made on their website and the drivers downloaded directly from them.
Installing virtIO Drivers during Windows Install
During a Windows installation, users can use the console interface tools to change the CD-ROM image to the newly downloaded virtIO drivers iso. Information on using the console interface tools can be found in the inline help within the category titled VDI under the section Using the Console.
Alternatively, you can choose to change the virtual disk drive Interface type to SATA and Windows will find the virtual disk and continue with the installation.
Performance Consideration
This will come with a performance impact due to SATA drivers being software emulated.
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