Setting up VMD/Intel RST post-Windows install (works for ASUS motherboards)
Setting up VMD/Intel RST post-Windows install (works for ASUS motherboards)
During Black Friday I planned to purchase more NVMe SSDs and set up RAID5 with my ASUS Z690-F motherboard. But I found it challenging because VMD wasn’t enabled and one of the M.2 slots was already used for my Windows boot drive. Now that I activate VMD, Windows won’t boot properly. Can I still turn on VMD without reinstalling Windows or risk losing my data?
Wouldn't it be better to employ a software RAID? I could configure a parity RAID using those three drives in the Windows storage areas.
You should install or insert these VMD drivers before starting Windows. First, pull out the VMD drivers from the RST driver package since they’re needed for installation. If you don’t have them, you won’t be able to boot. Then turn on VMD and perform a clean Windows setup. It’s common for the installer to fail to detect disks, but choosing to use previously extracted drivers should fix that. Once that’s done, you should be able to boot into Windows and set up any additional software or storage configurations.
Thanks for the guidance! It turned out the fix was quite straightforward for an ASUS motherboard. No need for a fresh setup or WinPE. Initially, I used @Tridefender's approach, but it didn't help. The drive wouldn't show up during Windows installation even after installing the drivers. I thought maybe I had the wrong ones, so I looked for the correct version. That's when I discovered the download page for my ASUS board included an updated IntelRST driver package (under SATA). Unlike the official Intel release, this version could install drivers on a live Windows image without VMD enabled. Once I turned VMD on in BIOS, it worked perfectly!