F5F Stay Refreshed Software Operating Systems Device boot fails during SSD relocation on Tiger Lake (11th Gen) system.

Device boot fails during SSD relocation on Tiger Lake (11th Gen) system.

Device boot fails during SSD relocation on Tiger Lake (11th Gen) system.

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HellNether
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05-20-2021, 06:32 AM
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For our nonprofit client, we’re working with an NVMe SSD on an i5 8th Gen laptop that’s currently nonfunctional. They purchased a replacement with a Pentium Gold 7505 processor and a low-end Tiger Lake chipset. Interestingly, its Passmark rating is similar to the original i5, making it adequate for everyday office tasks. After removing the S***Mode setting on the new machine, I attempted to transfer the NVMe SSD from the old laptop to the new one. Unfortunately, I encountered the common issue of Boot Device Inaccessible, as modern systems like the Tiger Lake rely on Intel’s VMD/RST drivers.

I tried installing an 8th Gen Dell laptop with the old SSD, which worked fine. Once hardware compatibility was confirmed, I performed a fresh Windows 11 installation using F6 to install the VMD/RST drivers. I also generated both a standard Windows recovery USB and a Macrium Rescue USB to help with boot issues. The plan was to swap in the old SSD and let the recovery USB handle driver installation.

However, when I booted into the Windows Recovery USB, no drives were detected. It seems the Intel drivers weren’t loaded. After some research, I found ways to use pnputil and DiskPart to locate the old SSD on the Tiger Lake system, but even then, adding the VMD/RST driver failed. When prompted to fix startup problems, the Macrium tool couldn’t locate the SSD or install drivers properly.

Reflecting on the SATA/AHCI transition, I realized that even running a live OS with AHCI/RST/RAID drivers can keep a system functional. I returned the old SSD to my 8th Gen Dell and tried installing the VMD/RST driver from Intel. Unfortunately, it didn’t install because my machine wasn’t a 11th or 12th Gen processor.

Given that everything is now cloud-based, I’m wondering why Intel’s VMD/RST drivers aren’t natively integrated into Windows. With fewer storage controllers in use, it makes sense that they’d be managed separately. Also, surprisingly, when creating a Windows recovery USB from a VMD/RST machine, the tool didn’t install the driver and lacked an F6 option for driver setup. It would have been easier to update the new laptop directly instead of relying on a recovery USB.

If this isn’t helpful, I’d appreciate any advice on resolving these issues. I might consider testing a fresh Windows 10/11 install on an 8th Gen machine before moving the SSD to a Tiger Lake device just to verify the process.
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H
HellNether
05-20-2021, 06:32 AM #1

For our nonprofit client, we’re working with an NVMe SSD on an i5 8th Gen laptop that’s currently nonfunctional. They purchased a replacement with a Pentium Gold 7505 processor and a low-end Tiger Lake chipset. Interestingly, its Passmark rating is similar to the original i5, making it adequate for everyday office tasks. After removing the S***Mode setting on the new machine, I attempted to transfer the NVMe SSD from the old laptop to the new one. Unfortunately, I encountered the common issue of Boot Device Inaccessible, as modern systems like the Tiger Lake rely on Intel’s VMD/RST drivers.

I tried installing an 8th Gen Dell laptop with the old SSD, which worked fine. Once hardware compatibility was confirmed, I performed a fresh Windows 11 installation using F6 to install the VMD/RST drivers. I also generated both a standard Windows recovery USB and a Macrium Rescue USB to help with boot issues. The plan was to swap in the old SSD and let the recovery USB handle driver installation.

However, when I booted into the Windows Recovery USB, no drives were detected. It seems the Intel drivers weren’t loaded. After some research, I found ways to use pnputil and DiskPart to locate the old SSD on the Tiger Lake system, but even then, adding the VMD/RST driver failed. When prompted to fix startup problems, the Macrium tool couldn’t locate the SSD or install drivers properly.

Reflecting on the SATA/AHCI transition, I realized that even running a live OS with AHCI/RST/RAID drivers can keep a system functional. I returned the old SSD to my 8th Gen Dell and tried installing the VMD/RST driver from Intel. Unfortunately, it didn’t install because my machine wasn’t a 11th or 12th Gen processor.

Given that everything is now cloud-based, I’m wondering why Intel’s VMD/RST drivers aren’t natively integrated into Windows. With fewer storage controllers in use, it makes sense that they’d be managed separately. Also, surprisingly, when creating a Windows recovery USB from a VMD/RST machine, the tool didn’t install the driver and lacked an F6 option for driver setup. It would have been easier to update the new laptop directly instead of relying on a recovery USB.

If this isn’t helpful, I’d appreciate any advice on resolving these issues. I might consider testing a fresh Windows 10/11 install on an 8th Gen machine before moving the SSD to a Tiger Lake device just to verify the process.

Reply
Reply