Driver is missing during Windows 11 installation, seems intel RST driver

[Yotsuya]

To be honest, it's my first and last HP laptop. I faced a BIOS installation error that soft-bricked my laptop when it was plugged in a few days ago. That's fine, not a big deal, it seems like a regular HP update issue, which I managed to fix.

But now, when I'm trying to install Windows 11, I'm getting an error about missing drivers. I know that this is because of the VMD driver, which is usually packed with Intel Rapid Storage packages. So, it's the third day of my attempts to find one. THERE IS NO FILE ON THE OFFICIAL DIRECTORY OF MY EXACT MODEL, so I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING from where I can extract those drivers. Yes, I've tried recovery tools. Yes, I have parsed about 100 Intel RST drivers for Windows 10-11, but still, no luck in finding the proper ones. Yes, I've tried different Windows images, and still, no luck. I don't want to open this laptop and take out the SSD just for installing the operating system on another PC. So, HP support, what should I do right now?

i5-1235u BIOS v. F.06

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Try the Intel storage controller drivers that I zipped up and attached below.

I got them from the Intel website back in March of this year and they are good for PC's with the Intel 11th gen to 13th gen core processors.

[Yotsuya]

Hello, thanks for a try. No compatible driver with my pc hardware. I've tried every single one from folder with untogled compatibility mark, no luck, still no new devices driver were found. Seems i stuck with Linux forever on this cool fancy innovative thing

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Sorry that the driver didn't work.

The only other suggestion I can offer would be to try the Intel storage controller drivers for a Dell notebook.

Here is the guidance:

Intel 11th, 12th, and 13th Generation Processors, No Drives Can Be Found During Windows 10 and Windo...

Use the W11 IRST driver for the Dell Latitude 7330 Laptop, which has an i5-1235U processor and should use the same RST driver as your notebook.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Application | Driver Details | Dell Montenegro

I don't think you can use their tools to extract the driver, but I used the free 7-zip file utility, extracted it for you and attached it below.

The driver that may work is probably in the VMD sub-folder.

[Yotsuya]

I can, but it seems same as you linked before just in another folder. Still no luck, parsed all even if they aren't compatible 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I don't understand why there aren't any IRST drivers that will work for your notebook.

I have given the first driver to other forum members with the Intel 12th gen core processors and they reported it worked such as the last post on this discussion...

Problems installing windows 11 (RTS drivers) (intel 12th gen... - HP Support Community - 8541426

I assume you saw these articles?

What Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver Is Supported on My...

Unable to Detect the Drive When Installing a New Windows* OS on a... (intel.com)

[Yotsuya]

I don't understand either. I'm a tech-savvyl with quite solid experience of fixing different things. Those laptops usually come with Samsung SSD storage that actually doesn't require any specific drivers and needs generic Intel RST ones. Maybe I'll try a Windows 10 installation to see how it goes.

Edit. Yes, i saw those already

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes, I guess at this point, you will have to try different things.

If you get W10 to install, you can always take the free upgrade to W11.

The notebook was designed to support W11, so there aren't any W10 drivers for it.

[Yotsuya]

Yep, i know it. The only single thing left was to install win 10. Still same, ill try repartitioning and disk cleaning. Again

[Yotsuya · Accepted solution]

So I've unscrewed back panel, removed battery connector, removed NVME SSD. Plugged SSD in normal PC and installed Windows 11 without any struggle. Then moved it back to laptop, booted successfully and updated all drivers. After I've tried to reinstall Windows on laptop again, now it didn't give me any error. So it's seems fixed. I don't think that this is my skill issues, because i have installed intel RST drivers few times before without any issue, but this time I've got worst user experience ever