How to Change the Disk Driver to Virtio or IDE in Virtualizor

This guide shows you how to switch the disk driver of your VPS between Virtio and IDE from the Virtualizor end user panel. The disk driver, sometimes called the disk bus or storage controller, is the virtual hardware interface your operating system uses to talk to its disk. Virtio is a paravirtualised driver that gives much better disk performance, while IDE is plain emulated hardware that almost every operating system supports out of the box. This article is for Noiz VPS customers who manage their server through the Virtualizor control panel.

Last reviewed: 27 July 2026, against Virtualizor 3.2.9 (latest stable). This article describes the Enable Virtio setting on the VPS Configuration page of the Virtualizor end user panel; Virtualizor does not publish a single dedicated procedure for this task, so the steps below are assembled from the official end user guides and the end user API reference. Virtualizor releases frequently, so always cross-reference the current version of the official documentation before starting; direct links to every section used in this guide are provided below.

Official Documentation Reference

• Virtualizor End User Guide: List VPS
• Virtualizor End User Guide: Manage VPS
• Virtualizor End User API Reference: VPS Configuration (HVM Settings)
• Virtualizor End User Guide: Re-Install OS
• Virtualizor Admin Guide: Manage VPS (full disk driver options, provider side)

Prerequisites

• A Noiz VPS running on KVM virtualisation. The disk driver setting does not apply to container-based VPS products.
• Your Virtualizor end user panel address and login details, sent in your Noiz VPS welcome email.
• A recent backup of any important data on the VPS, in case you need to reinstall the operating system.

Virtio or IDE: Which Should You Choose?

Choose the driver based on what your operating system supports:

• Virtio is the recommended choice for performance. Modern Linux distributions include Virtio support in the kernel by default, so the standard Noiz Linux templates work with Virtio immediately. Windows does not ship with Virtio drivers, so a Windows VPS only boots with Virtio if the Virtio drivers were installed inside Windows first.
• IDE is slower but universally compatible. Use it when your operating system has no Virtio drivers, for example an older or custom Windows installation, or an appliance image you imported from elsewhere.

The best time to change the disk driver is before you install or reinstall the operating system. If you switch an already installed system from IDE to Virtio and the system has no Virtio drivers, the VPS will fail to boot until you switch back or reinstall.

In the Virtualizor end user panel this choice is a single checkbox called Enable Virtio rather than a drop-down list: ticked means your VPS uses Virtio, unticked means it uses emulated IDE hardware. Enabling Virtio also switches the virtual network card to Virtio, as noted in the panel's own help text for the network interface type setting. Other disk driver types, such as SATA or SCSI, can only be set on the provider side, so open a support ticket with the Noiz support team if you specifically need one of those.

How to Change the Disk Driver

Step 1: Log in to the Virtualizor End User Panel

1. Open the panel address from your Noiz VPS welcome email in a browser. It has the form https://panel.yourdomain.com:4083, where panel.yourdomain.com is an example you should replace with the address in your welcome email.
2. Enter your username and password, then sign in.

Step 2: Open the Management Page for Your VPS

1. In the left-hand menu, click List VPS.
2. Hover over the VPS you want to change; the row is highlighted. If you have only one VPS, there is a single row.
3. Click the Manage icon at the end of the highlighted row. Depending on the panel theme, this is drawn as a wrench or as an arrow next to the VPS ID.

Step 3: Open VPS Configuration

1. On the VPS management page, click the Settings tab.
2. Select VPS Configuration.

Step 4: Set the Disk Driver

1. On the VPS Configuration page, find the Enable Virtio checkbox.
2. Tick Enable Virtio to use the Virtio disk driver, or untick it to use IDE.
3. Leave the other options, such as Boot Order and Select ISO, as they are unless you have a reason to change them.
4. Click Submit.

Step 5: Reboot the VPS

1. Return to the VPS management page and click the Reboot icon, then confirm.
2. Wait a minute or two, then check that the VPS status shows as online and that you can reach your services.

The new disk driver only takes effect after this reboot. If you changed the driver in preparation for a fresh operating system installation, run the reinstall now so the installer detects the disk on the new driver from the start.

Troubleshooting

The VPS does not boot after enabling Virtio: your operating system has no Virtio drivers installed. Go back to Settings, then VPS Configuration, untick Enable Virtio, click Submit and reboot. To move to Virtio permanently, either install the Virtio drivers inside the operating system first (required for Windows) or reinstall the operating system with Virtio enabled.

You cannot see the VPS Configuration page or the Enable Virtio checkbox: these settings can be hidden on the provider side, and they are not shown for container-based VPS products. Open a support ticket with the Noiz support team and the change can be made for you.

The panel reports that the VPS is in rescue mode and cannot be changed: VPS Configuration is locked while rescue mode is active. Disable rescue mode from the VPS management page, then repeat the steps above.

Disk performance is still poor after switching to Virtio: confirm the operating system is actually using the Virtio device. On Linux, Virtio disks appear as /dev/vda rather than /dev/sda or /dev/hda; run lsblk to check. If the disk still shows as an IDE device after a reboot, the change did not apply, so submit the form again and reboot.

If you are unsure which driver your operating system supports, or your VPS will not boot after a change, open a support ticket with the Noiz support team and include your VPS hostname and the driver you were switching to.