Intel RAID system is unable to locate the operating system drive.
Intel RAID system is unable to locate the operating system drive.
Hello! I'm facing a bit of issue where my old PC's main drive failed. On that machine, I had two SSDs set up in RAID0 using the BIOS tool from Intel Rapid Storage Tech (the old drive was an ASUS Maximus VI Hero). When I swapped out the CPU, memory, and RAM for a new i3-12100F, I can view the RAID volume in BIOS but can't boot into the operating system on another disk. From the pictures, if Intel Rapid Storage Tech is active, BIOS recognizes "Intel Games RAID," yet it can't locate the boot partition from the Kingston drive. If I turn it off, Windows boots from the Kingston disk, but Intel Games RAID still isn't detected. Could there be a setting I'm missing to treat those two non-RAID drives as regular SATA disks and the two RAID drives as RAID? My PC specs are ASUS Prime B760M-K D4 with an Intel Core i3-12100F and some G.Skill DDR4 RAM. Thanks for any assistance!
I think the main issue with Windows booting on the new 12th generation platform was related to Intel Rapid Storage (VDM). It seems the driver needed to be enabled during installation, but since my OS is nearly a decade old, those drivers weren’t available. I’m puzzled why the boot drive vanished when VDM was turned on. For safety, I created a direct copy of my operating system drive. When I attached the original drive, the boot drive appeared again. However, when trying to start Windows, I encountered a BSOD about not finding a bootable image. Fortunately, I managed to get a step forward.
I searched online for instructions on installing Intel VDM drivers into an existing Windows installation and found a helpful guide. I booted from a USB drive, used the troubleshooting tools, and copied the Intel VDM drivers onto the same USB. This allowed me to install them using DISM. After running the DISM command, the driver was successfully added to the Windows image.
I then tried booting with the original Windows loader, which worked without issues. When I reached a final problem with a system32 boot file, I was able to select the boot option and chose Windows 10. It booted in Safe Mode with Networking, and the VDM drivers were installed properly using the SetupRST.exe tool. After another reboot, everything functioned as before—even my original Intel RAID was working correctly, and Steam could locate its library.
In conclusion, even if you’re using someone else’s PC, setting up a backup system is wise. It saves time and frustration when troubleshooting boot issues later on.
the primary issue stems from most BIOS storing raid drivers within the BIOS for startup. with recent updates, PE drivers are absent. they typically appear during the disk selection process. having an installation complete could have sped up setup if you began the install to load drivers. rebooting at that stage might have helped. I’m uncertain about the exact storage location, but it could involve outdated drivers alongside newer hardware that isn’t supported. They might even embed drivers directly onto the drives. I’ve used RAID0 on my drives since 2018, including NVMe, and switched from an ASUS Z370 to a Z390 board without issues. On earlier setups, I had to install new Intel drivers. During swaps between manufacturers, drivers often needed reinstallation, though that worked in some cases. In my BIOS, there’s an option about keeping disk controller drivers in the BIOS or not.