SOLVED: How To Get Intel RAID / VMD Storage Controller Driver Files To Complete a Fresh Install of Windows 10 / 11 on Lenovo and Other Computers

A client of ours has a Lenevo Thinkbook 14 Gen 2 which she wants to wipe and load a fresh Windows 10 or Windows 11. She followed our video instructions on how to do a bare metal Windows 11 (same as Windows 10) install but got stuck on the WHERE DO YOU WANT TO INSTALL WINDOWS screen.

As you can see in this screenshot, she knew that she had to click the LOAD DRIVER link and then BROWSE but couldn’t find the drivers.

The solution should have been very easy. Until just recently you used to be able to download the driver files directly from Intel or Lenovo, but now they’re only available in a compressed form that will not run during Windows installation. This was very frustrating but there are two easy ways around it.

1 – Download Intel RST drivers for VMD, RAID, and AHCI From Us

Unzip those files to a folder on your Windows 10 / 11 USB stick named RST. Note that the folder name actually makes no difference. We are specifying it only to make the instructions below less complex. also you could use a different USB stick if you wanted but that just seems to add complexity.

We downloaded these drivers directly from Intel and extracted them using a method we explained below so if you don’t trust us just keep reading.

2 – Download Intel RST drivers for VMD, RAID, and AHCI Directly from Intel & Decompress Them Yourself

1. As of the time he wrote this the most current versions of the Intel rapid storage technology driver installation kit could be downloaded directly from Intel here:
   
   • Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver Installation Software with Intel® Optane™ Memory (11th up to 13th Gen Platforms)
     or
   • Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver Installation Software with Intel® Optane™ Memory (10th and 11th Gen Platforms)
     
2. After you’ve downloaded the desired Intel SetupRST.EXE, copy it to C:\TEMP
3. Open a Powershell as an Administrator
   • That CMD prompt and Windows terminal will not work. It must be a Powershell
4. Enter this command: .\SetupRST.exe -extractdrivers C:\RST\
5. copy the resulting RST folder to your Windows 10 / 11 media USB stick (or use a different stick… your call)

Have the Windows Installer Use Intel RST Storage Drivers

1. Boot up off of the Windows Media Installation Disk and start the Windows installation process
2. On the Where Do You Want To Install Windows screen, click LOAD DRIVERS (bottom left)
3. This file should be under ..RST\Production\Windows10-x64\15063(or other number)\Drivers\VMD on your USB stick
4. Select the file iaStorVD.sys

At this point Windows should be able to talk with the Intel Disk Controller and in turn show you the hard drives you have available.

If this is on a new hard drive, You are on your way but if you’re using an old hard drive with data on it already we normally select each existing partition and the click DETELE, on all of the existing partitions so we can start completely fresh.