HP PCs - No drives can be found during Windows 11 or Windows 10 installation (Intel 11th Generation

[SophieBrown]

I recently purchased the following:

HP Slim Desktop S01-pF2145xt

Windows 11 Home

Intel® Core™ i5-12400

16 GB DDR4-3200

512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD

1 TB 7200 rpm SATA HDD

It came with the Windows 11 Home OEM.  

I would like to install a Windows 11 Home Retail version.  I created an installation usb with the Windows media creation tool.  Unfortunately, when I tried to install it, it couldn’t see the hard drive.

In researching the problem, I found the following document in the HP Customer Support – Knowledge Base:

support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4859717-4859823-16 

In that document it states:

HP PCs - No drives can be found during Windows 11 or Windows 10 installation (Intel 11th Generation processors)

My processor is an Intel 12th Generation processor, so I assume the same issue applies.

As a solution, the document says:

Download Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) drivers from the HP Software and Drivers webpage and extract them to the USB flash drive:

1. 
   1. Go to HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads, and then type the serial number, product number, or product name to find the software and drivers for your computer model.
2. 
   2. From Driver-Storage, download the Intel RST driver (RAID) driver to your desktop. Do not install the downloaded file.
3. 
   3. Copy and paste the downloaded .exe file to the USB flash drive that you are going to use to install Windows 11.

Unfortunately, the latest driver available at HP for my computer is for Windows 11 version 22H2. 

But the Windows 11 Home version I am able to purchase and download from Microsoft is version 23H2.

I tried the HP driver I downloaded anyway to see if it would recognize the drive.  The installation process was not able to see the driver I had installed to the installation usb, and it could not see the hard drive for installing.

Further research online took me to the Intel website where I was able to download another version of the IRST driver that says it supports Intel generations 12 and 13.  But I am afraid to try it in case it does something unexpected as it may be different than what HP would come up with.

Here are the two drivers I downloaded:

Download from HP:      File version                    0.2.75.23816

                                          Product version             19.5.2.1049

                                          This is the one that I tried but it didn't work.

Download from Intel:     File version                    19.5.0.13

                                             Product version             19.5.2.1049.5

                                             This is the one I haven't tried, but am worried to since this is over my head.

Does anyone out there know where to get the right driver, or a workaround for installing Windows 11 without the driver?

I tried HP Support, but they just said I need a software specialist and they can't help me.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You have to install the Intel storage controller drivers that I zipped up and attached below, which are good for PC's with the Intel 11th gen > 13th gen core processors.

Copy the 5 files from the F6/VMD/f6vmdflpy-x64 folder to a USB flash drive.

iastorvd.cat

iastorvd.inf

iastorvd.sys

rstmweventlogmsg.dll

rstmwservice.exe

Have the flash drive and your W11 installation media plugged into USB ports.

Boot from the W11 installation flash drive.

When you get to the screen where no drives can be found, click on the Load driver option, browse to the flash drive with the storage controller drivers on it.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Click Next, and Windows should find the drive and install.

[SophieBrown]

Worked like a charm.  Thank you!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.