Intel RST drivers on Z690/Z790 - are they needed?

[OpenSource Ghost]

Intel RST drivers for SATA exist only for 300/400/500-series motherboards. For 600/700-series mother, there are only Intel VMD RST drivers, but I don't know to what device I am supposed to apply them on my Z790 motherboard. Windows 10 and 11 can install Intel VMD RST drivers, but they do not apply them to any hardware components. Do Z690/Z790 chipsets simply use default/generic Windows 10/11 SATA drivers?

 

[chameleoneel]

Intel RST drivers for SATA exist only for 300/400/500-series motherboards. For 600/700-series mother, there are only Intel VMD RST drivers, but I don't know to what device I am supposed to apply them on my Z790 motherboard. Windows 10 and 11 can install Intel VMD RST drivers, but they do not apply them to any hardware components. Do Z690/Z790 chipsets simply use default/generic Windows 10/11 SATA drivers?

Asrock has an RST download listed for my Z690 ITX board?
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITXTB4/index.asp#Download

Z790 version of that board (looks like its the same RST version)
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z790 PG-ITXTB4/index.asp#Download

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

Looks like Intel RST on Z690/Z790 works only for NVMe PCIe (not SATA) and only for RAID. If RAID is disabled, Intel RST also gets disabled. Intel RST VMD drivers replace neither stock SATA drivers nor stock NVMe drivers. They apply only fo RAID function.

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

I installed Intel RST drivers (19.X), enabled Intel RST VMD RAID in BIOS/UEFI and after reboot Device Manager detected new storage controller device and new storage devices. Standard Windows AHCI SATA and NVMe drivers became inactive and Intel RST drivers became active. In other words, you must enable Intel RST VMD RAID in BIOS/UEFI if you want to use Intel RST on non-RAID storage devices.

Some Windows PE and Windows Recovery bootable USB environments stopped detecting all storage devices once Intel RST was enabled in BIOS/UEFI. I had to integrate Intel RST VMD drivers into those environments (boot.wim, install.wim) for them to recognize SATA and NVMe drives. I had to do that to Windows 10 Pro install environment (boot.wim) as well or else there was no way to install Windows because it wasn't able to detect drives without Intel RST driver integration.

 

[tordogs]

I installed Intel RST drivers (19.X), enabled Intel RST VMD RAID in BIOS/UEFI and after reboot Device Manager detected new storage controller device and new storage devices. Standard Windows AHCI SATA and NVMe drivers became inactive and Intel RST drivers became active. In other words, you must enable Intel RST VMD RAID in BIOS/UEFI if you want to use Intel RST on non-RAID storage devices.

Some Windows PE and Windows Recovery bootable USB environments stopped detecting all storage devices once Intel RST was enabled in BIOS/UEFI. I had to integrate Intel RST VMD drivers into those environments (boot.wim, install.wim) for them to recognize SATA and NVMe drives. I had to do that to Windows 10 Pro install environment (boot.wim) as well or else there was no way to install Windows because it wasn't able to detect drives without Intel RST driver integration.

Thank you! I just went through this very Hell today after a BIOS update. Lost the IRST drivers somewhere along the way and could not get the machine to boot with any setting--"inaccessible boot device" per the BSOD. Tried a reinstall of Windows and couldn't do that either as no drive was recognized. Had to eventually find the proper driver then inject it within the install process and finally the drives were recognized. Hated to do the re-install but glad it finally worked. Had horrible thoughts about a new motherboard, a new NVME drive and so forth.

I'd say the Intel RST drivers are needed.

 

[chameleoneel]

Raid drivers have always needed to be added manually, at the beginning of a Windows install. Not sure why this is news?

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

Raid drivers have always needed to be added manually, at the beginning of a Windows install. Not sure why this is news?

Intel RST and RAID aren't the same thing. You don't have to have any drives in any RAID configurations to have Intel RST working, but some motherboards with newer Z690/Z790 chipsets inaccurately label Intel RST as RAID and require enabling "Intel RST VMD RAID" to have Intel RST working for non-RAID configurations. Such wasn't the case with Z270/370 chipsets, which did not even require Intel RST drivers when Intel RST was enabled. It wasn't necessary to include any custom drivers in Windows 10/11 installation process for Windows 10/11 to detect all drives correctly.

On my current Z790 motherboard you can enable Intel RST VMD RAID setting globally and then disable the actual RAID within Intel RST settings while leaving non-RAID drives under Intel RST's control.

Also, on Z270/Z370 chipset Intel RST doesn't control NVMe and doesn't overriding NVMe drivers, but it takes control of all of SATA devices (fully disabling Windows native SATA drivers), such as older hard drives and BD drives. On Z690/Z790 chipsets Intel RST overrides all NVMe controllers and drivers, but does not cover older SATA devices and Windows native SATA drivers are needed for such older devices.

 

[sc5mu93]

Thank you! I just went through this very Hell today after a BIOS update. Lost the IRST drivers somewhere along the way and could not get the machine to boot with any setting--"inaccessible boot device" per the BSOD. Tried a reinstall of Windows and couldn't do that either as no drive was recognized. Had to eventually find the proper driver then inject it within the install process and finally the drives were recognized. Hated to do the re-install but glad it finally worked. Had horrible thoughts about a new motherboard, a new NVME drive and so forth.

I'd say the Intel RST drivers are needed.

added note: i did an in place upgrade on Z690 from alder lake to raptor lake, and got the inaccessible boot device. discovered that you have to install RST 19.5 or higher for raptor lake, prior to swapping out CPUs.

 

[bigdogchris]

Intel RST drivers for SATA exist only for 300/400/500-series motherboards. For 600/700-series mother, there are only Intel VMD RST drivers, but I don't know to what device I am supposed to apply them on my Z790 motherboard. Windows 10 and 11 can install Intel VMD RST drivers, but they do not apply them to any hardware components. Do Z690/Z790 chipsets simply use default/generic Windows 10/11 SATA drivers?

On my 600 series, I only needed the downloaded drivers when in VMD mode. If in AHCI mode, Windows 11 has integrated drivers and can detect the disk during install. I do not believe Intel has released a driver for AHCI mode for the newer chipsets (DEV_7AE2) so your only choice is using the built-in Windows driver or modded drivers.

When I built my new system, I started in AHCI mode but due to excessive load/unloading of my storage drives I moved to VMD to see if the raid drivers had that turned off which unfortunately they do not.

Check out win-raid.com for more details about storage drivers.

 

[chameleoneel]

Can any of you confirm that direct storage is working, while using the VMD/RST drivers for your NVME?

 

[bigdogchris]

Yep, XBOX game bar says DirectStorage Supported for my C:\ which is in RST VMD mode.