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On the AsRock EZ Mode main page, "VMD Support" is not enabled. It should be disabled since enabling it would require RAID and Optane support, which isn't listed in the motherboard manual.
I remember seeing VMD in the bios. I’ll look into it more tomorrow night after work.
Begin setting up on a blank storage space. I realized how Windows requires partitions to be arranged in a specific way for booting. This became clear recently. I installed Windows on a ready-made partition and it functioned properly until I removed my existing boot drive. It wouldn’t start at all, even though the same drive was present in the system I’d previously used. I had to clear every partition and create an unallocated area. After installing Windows, I had to reshape the main partition as needed. Regarding Linux, if you prefer something other than Ubuntu, have you considered Mint? It’s my top choice—it works with everything Ubuntu does, but it lacks the restrictions and includes proprietary codecs and other features Ubuntu doesn’t.
I’ll remember this when I attempt to set up Windows again tonight. When comparing my tries on the second PC versus the main one, Windows on the main system forms two partitions on the boot drive—first the bootloader area, then the usable section. On the second PC, regardless of version or ISO, it creates three partitions. I’m unsure what the third one is. One possible approach could be using Aomei partition assistant (included with the Ghost Spectre ISO) to remove that extra partition. Perhaps this is the reason Windows isn’t functioning properly. My preferred distro right now is Mint, based on Ubuntu. Although I favor PopOS, I won’t switch until System76 releases Cosmic DE and updates it past 22.04. I did install Mint on the second PC after a rough Ubuntu experience, but it froze during installation—maybe that was intentional or a real problem. It works fine on my laptop, which is simple and non-gaming. Honestly, if Red Hat hadn’t made certain choices, I’d be open to trying Fedora instead, but configuring it would take more time than setting up any other distro, even Arch-based ones.
You shouldn't set up multiple custom ROM copies on an OEM machine because the drivers may not function properly. Issues like my SAS card failing after installation happen because the outdated drivers don't support newer systems. Even if you change some registry keys, many were removed entirely, making the process impossible.
I noted earlier that both the official Windows 11 and Windows 10 ISO files weren't functioning, and even the official Microsoft USB creation utility didn't work for the latter.
It's unclear how this worked, but I finally managed to install Windows 11 using the Ghost Spectre iso. The VMD feature was already turned off. I tried reactivating TPM and Secure Boot, which should have been fine since I disabled them during setup with Rufus, but it didn't help. The version of GS Windows 11 I've used before (which has functioned multiple times on other machines) is the Superlite edition that includes Windows Defender. After a recent failed installation attempt, I opted for the Superlite version without the Defender option and managed to get the OS installed and booted smoothly. I'm puzzled since official Windows installers and other custom versions didn't work, requiring me to exclude Defender to succeed.
It doesn't seem logical at all. As I mentioned earlier, standard Windows 10 and 11 installers wouldn't function properly. Custom versions like Tiny11 and Ghost Spectre (with a defender) didn't work either; Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Garuda handled the installation smoothly afterward. From a security standpoint, I don’t really prefer using a defender. I previously ran Malwarebytes on my Windows systems along with a defender, but now I rely solely on Kaspersky for protection.