During the installation or reinstallation of Windows, some motherboards with Intel CPUs may encounter the problem of not detecting any disk drives. This article provides two possible solutions.

• Loading Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) Driver During Windows Installation
• Disabling RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) Technology

Loading Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) Driver During Windows Installation

All MSI laptops equipped with Intel Core Ultra processors will have the Windows Studio Effect feature by default.

Download and extract the IRST driver.

1. Visit the MSI Official Website and find your model's support page to download the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver." Extract to get the driver from the file and store it on a USB drive.

The image is for reference only. Please download the latest version from the support page of your motherboard model when performing actual operations.

2. After downloading the driver, open the folder, select "Extract all," → "Browse" and click "Extract" to extract the file to the prepared USB drive.

Loading IRST Driver During Installation

1. Insert the USB drive containing the driver into your computer. On the Windows installation page, click "Load driver."

2. Click "Browse."

3. Locate the folder you previously extracted, select the files under "VMD," and click "OK."

4. Choose "Intel RST VMD Controller," then click "Next" to start installing the driver.

5. After the driver installation, the disk drive should display normally.

If you still cannot find the disk drive during Windows installation, you may consider disabling RAID mode to continue with the installation.

Disabling RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) Technology

Note: Disabling the Intel Volume Management Device (VMD) will render your computer unable to use RAID disk arrays.

1. Restart your computer and press "Del" to enter BIOS settings when the MSI logo appears. Press the "F7" key on the keyboard or use the mouse to click "Advanced (F7)" to enter advanced mode.

2. In advanced mode, find and click "Advanced."

3. Under "Advanced," click "Integrated Peripherals."

4. Click "RAID Configuration (Intel VMD)."

5. Find the "Enable VMD controller" setting and set it to "Disable."

5. RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) mode is now set to disabled. Press "F10" on the keyboard, then click "YES." The computer will restart. You should now be able to find the disk drive during the Windows installation process.

If you have tried the above troubleshooting methods and still cannot resolve the issue, please reach out to the MSI customer service center for further assistance.