Windows installers often lack this native driver, resulting in a "No drives were found" error during setup. 📥 How to Get the Driver
Alternatively, visit the and search for "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver Installation Software with Intel Optane Memory."
When your motherboard has Intel VMD enabled by default, the storage controller hides the raw SSD behind the VMD layer. Without the matching driver, the Windows installer cannot communicate with the VMD controller, resulting in the "We couldn't find any drives" error message. Intel Rst Vmd Driver Zip File
Set the destination path directly to the root directory of your Windows installation USB drive (e.g., E:\Intel_RST_Drivers\ ).
Right-click the .zip file you downloaded and select "Extract All..." to a folder on your computer. Windows installers often lack this native driver, resulting
If you are looking for the driver to load during a Windows setup, you generally have two paths:
| Method | Ease of use | When to use | |--------|-------------|--------------| | | Moderate | Fresh installs, WinPE, MDT | | SetupRST.exe | Easy | Inside existing Windows | | Disable VMD in BIOS | Trivial but risky | Quick fix, but loses hot-plug & RAID features | Set the destination path directly to the root
By maintaining a copy of the Intel RST VMD driver ZIP file on your deployment tools, you can streamline OS installation workflows across all modern Intel-powered computing platforms. If you are currently setting up a system, let me know:
To resolve the missing drive issue, you need the driver in a .zip format, an .exe file. The Windows setup environment cannot run executable files; it requires raw driver files ( .inf , .sys , .cat ).
If you try to install Windows via USB, you will likely reach the screen that asks: and find it completely empty.