Do I need Intel SATA Preinstall driver / Intel® Rapid Storage Technology?

Important Drivers General: Storage Drivers (AHCI/RAID, NVMe and USB)
1

I’m a simple guy who likes as little bloatware as possible. Gonna install Win 7.
I’d like to skip those drivers if I don’t need them.

I will use 1 SSD in AHCI mode for OS (Can I just make it AHCI mode on BIOS and be done with it?)

My 8th gen intel mobo’s support page shows there’s
- Intel SATA Preinstall driver
- Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Do I need neither of them?

2

@Hoodiepoo :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
It depends on the OS you want to install.
All Windows Operating Systems from Vista up have a generic in-box AHCI driver, which supports all SATA AHCI Controllers.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

3

@Fernando :
Hello mate, i’ll install win 7, do you think I had better installing these?
- Intel SATA Preinstall driver
- Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

4

@Hoodiepoo :
You cannot install the complete Intel RST Drivers & Software Set, before you are starting with the OS installation.
By the way: For AHCI users I generally recommend to load resp. install just the " pure" AHCI driver.

5

@Fernando

What does it mean to "to load resp."?

6

“resp.” stands for “respectively”.
What I meant was, that Intel AHCI users should load/install only the “pure” Intel RST AHCI driver.

7

@Fernando

The only place (W7) to update RST AHCI driver is under Device Manager> IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers right?

Another question while you’re here, is there any pure intel LAN drivers around here? Or do I have to install this (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa…-?product=36773) along with the bloatware? Such as PROSet, ANS, FCoE, and DCB support. Do you know any of them to be necessary for a normal guy?

8

Yes!

Yes, look into >this< thread.