October 22, 20214 yr SpaceInvaderOne: Thanks for your videos. I have learned a lot with your series. I had found this particular video on YouTube and was attempting to do exactly what it presented: creating a dual-boot system with Windows 10 Pro bare-metal, and UNRAID - with the same Windows 10 as a VM. Its a brand new Ryzen build, and I initially installed Windows 10 on one of my MB NVMe slots. Its hard to say where my problems were. I was able to start the VM - but I could not RDP to it. VNC was not available on the VM icon menu. So I really don't know if it worked. At some point the NVMe drive - that was showing under Unassigned Devices moved to "Historical Devices". I decided to remove it. Now it does not show in the main UNRAID window. I rebooted UNRAID; same state. I shutdown the system and pulled the UNRAID USB flash drive to make sure that Windows 10 still boots bare-metal - that the install still works. Fortunately, it did. I RDP'd into it and it's exactly in the same state as it was before... and obviously RDP works fine and the IP address is as I thought. Not sure why I could not do this in the VM. One might conclude that it was not configured correctly - although it did start. What's weirder, is that when I went back to UNRAID and tried the restart the VM, where it started before it now fails with: Execution error. Cannot get interface MTU on 'br0': No such device. I went into the settings and somehow my network bridge changed from br0 to virbr0. I checked the drop-down and the br0 option is no longer there. Obviously it used to be set correctly. I need to try and start again - I'm hoping deleting the VM will have my NVMe/Windows 10 drive show-up again. Is it safe to remove the VM and start from scratch. I did not want to lose the Windows 10 install on the NVMe.
October 22, 20214 yr After some reading, I've removed the VM. I've also removed the manual stubs for the NVMe drive that I wanted to pass through - but even after removal, System Devices showed it still had it bound - I had to stop the array and then reboot UNRAID. Back on-line SysDev no longer had the NVMe bound - and it now magically shows up again under Unassigned Devices. Yea! However does any one have instruction on who to do the dual-boot Windows 10 pass-thru under 6.9.2? I've realized that as a newbie, following these videos is risky, unless one is working with the exact same version of software.
October 22, 20214 yr I've recreated the VM - taking into account the GUI approach to creating the stubs, after reading this post: Guide: bind devices to vfio-pci for easy passthrough to VMs - VMs - Unraid The VM starts - and although I set up Windows 10 to handle RDP, it will not connect. I tried changing the VM to use VNC and when it loads, it shows the UEFI Interactive Shell window... only thing I could do there is type exit. Then went to an old school BIOS setting window. Reset or continue does the same thing; circle back to that UEFI shell... its in a loop. What does THAT indicate?
February 21, 20224 yr This guide really helped me repurpose my Windows PC into my UNRAID server while still allowing me to continue with my Windows install on the NVME. Thank you. Back Ground: I used to have all my games on a Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB SSD; in Windows the performance (i.e. data transfer speeds and load times) was excellent. I've since set this drive up as a share, copied my games library and mapped the share to G: Games in Windows. However, I'm getting poor performance (really long load times) with my games with this SSD as a cache drive on UNRAID. Proposed solution: I'd like to use this SATA SSD passed through to windows as a secondary disk for my games, following the guide below. Issue: when passing through an NVME drive for dual boot, and with Primary vDisk set to 'none', attempting to complete the VM template to pass through an additional SATA SSD as secondary disk using its disk ID automatically assigns it as the primary disk, which was previously 'none', excluding the VM the ability to boot from the NVME. Is there any way to get around this?
June 2, 20242 yr Has anyone tried this more recently? And specifically with windows 11? I'm getting booted into grub. Admittedly could be how I installed windows a long time ago (dual boot linux + windows). Maybe I need to do a fresh install? Before I do that, can I get confirmation someone is running this currently with 11?
July 27, 20241 yr I've followed the video guide for this, and I can get into windows etc, however, it says that windows os isn't 'activated'. I've copied the UUID etc over as per the guide, but no dice. Here's a mini breakdown of my hardware, in case it's helpful: Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX motherboard 64GB ram RTX 4070 Ti Super 2TB 990 Pro nvme (this has windows installed on it) And below is the XML for the VM. Does anyone know what might be the issue? <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <domain type='kvm'> <name>Win11 BareMetal</name> <uuid>REDACTED</uuid> <metadata> <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 11" icon="windows11.png" os="windowstpm"/> </metadata> <memory unit='KiB'>16777216</memory> <currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory> <memoryBacking> <nosharepages/> <source type='memfd'/> <access mode='shared'/> </memoryBacking> <vcpu placement='static'>22</vcpu> <cputune> <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='2'/> <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='3'/> <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='4'/> <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='5'/> <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='6'/> <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='7'/> <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='8'/> <vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='9'/> <vcpupin vcpu='8' cpuset='10'/> <vcpupin vcpu='9' cpuset='11'/> <vcpupin vcpu='10' cpuset='12'/> <vcpupin vcpu='11' cpuset='13'/> <vcpupin vcpu='12' cpuset='14'/> <vcpupin vcpu='13' cpuset='15'/> <vcpupin vcpu='14' cpuset='16'/> <vcpupin vcpu='15' cpuset='17'/> <vcpupin vcpu='16' cpuset='18'/> <vcpupin vcpu='17' cpuset='19'/> <vcpupin vcpu='18' cpuset='24'/> <vcpupin vcpu='19' cpuset='25'/> <vcpupin vcpu='20' cpuset='26'/> <vcpupin vcpu='21' cpuset='27'/> </cputune> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-7.2'>hvm</type> <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd</loader> <nvram>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/03560274-043c-05b6-e106-a20700080009_VARS-pure-efi.fd</nvram> <boot dev='hd'/> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv mode='custom'> <relaxed state='on'/> <vapic state='on'/> <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/> <vendor_id state='on' value='none'/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode='host-passthrough' check='none' migratable='on'> <topology sockets='1' dies='1' cores='11' threads='2'/> <cache mode='passthrough'/> </cpu> <clock offset='localtime'> <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/> <timer name='hpet' present='no'/> </clock> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/local/sbin/qemu</emulator> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/> <source file='/mnt/user/isos/virtio-win-0.1.248-1.iso'/> <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/> <readonly/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/> </disk> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-ehci1'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x7'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci1'> <master startport='0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci2'> <master startport='2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x1'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci3'> <master startport='4'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x2'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/> <controller type='ide' index='0'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/> </controller> <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </controller> <filesystem type='mount' accessmode='passthrough'> <driver type='virtiofs' queue='1024'/> <binary path='/usr/libexec/virtiofsd' xattr='on'> <cache mode='always'/> <sandbox mode='chroot'/> </binary> <source dir='/mnt/user/data'/> <target dir='data'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </filesystem> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:0e:2e:5a'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <model type='e1000'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <target type='isa-serial' port='0'> <model name='isa-serial'/> </target> </serial> <console type='pty'> <target type='serial' port='0'/> </console> <channel type='unix'> <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/> <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/> </channel> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/> <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/> <audio id='1' type='none'/> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/> </source> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x03' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/> </hostdev> <memballoon model='none'/> </devices> </domain>
January 5, 20251 yr SpaceInvaderOne: does this still work in in 2025? Anything in Unraid 7.0 rc2 make it easier? One question I have, will Window 10 Pro care if in bare metal boot outside Unraid it is using a 1660 Super and in Unraid using a 1650? Is a matter of which GPU the Windows 10 Pro sees in bare or VM? Don't want to have to change the boot GPU everytime I boot bare metal. In your video your bare metal drive has different partition layout than my fresh install. My fresh Windows 10 Pro Install. Can you still shrink the 😄 drive on my NVME? Edited January 5, 20251 yr by Paul_Ber Additional question
December 25, 2025Dec 25 On 1/5/2025 at 3:01 AM, Paul_Ber said:SpaceInvaderOne: does this still work in in 2025? Anything in Unraid 7.0 rc2 make it easier? One question I have, will Window 10 Pro care if in bare metal boot outside Unraid it is using a 1660 Super and in Unraid using a 1650? Is a matter of which GPU the Windows 10 Pro sees in bare or VM? Don't want to have to change the boot GPU everytime I boot bare metal. In your video your bare metal drive has different partition layout than my fresh install. My fresh Windows 10 Pro Install. Can you still shrink the 😄 drive on my NVME? Did you try it out and dos this still work in 2025/26? Edited December 25, 2025Dec 25 by steve1977
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.