I’m really at a loss, I can’t get Windows 10 to even start to install on a new system without getting a “DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL” iaStorAVC.sys failure! This occurs before anything comes up. I never even get to the “install” button screen. My system configuration is this:
i7-8700
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra MB
64GB (4x16) G Skill ram
2 x ADATA XPG SX6000Pro 512MB NVMe drives
I have the 2 drives in a RAID 1 configuration. I did this through the BIOS following the MB instructions. I used the media creation tool from windows to make my install USB.
I have no idea what driver to use to make windows load, and I have no idea how to add the driver to the windows install file on the USB!!
Can anyone tell me how to do this and what drives to use??
Did you watched this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqpX-kiM8iQ ?
It’s for RAID0, but it shouldn’t be that different.
I have watched that video but the problem is I can’t get windows to even come up!! It gives me a BSOD before it ever loads. I have the BIOS set correctly and I can see my RAID1 drive in the BIOS, but the window install won’t even start to load. If I remove the RAID and just have two separate drives, it loads fine!! The BSOD says its a driver failure, but I don’t know how to get the install to load to a point where I can install drivers. So, I’m left with putting the driver in the install file, but I don’t know how to do that or what driver to use!!
@IDTooTall :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum and Happy New Year!
Your problem to get Win10 installed onto your Intel RAID NVMe array is caused by the fact, that the Win10 in-box Intel RAID driver only supports SATA RAID configurations and not RAID arrays, whose members are connected to M.2 or PCIe ports and support the NVMe protocol.
Solution: You should either integrate or load an Intel RAID driver, which supports Intel RAID NVMe arrays (all Intel RST drivers from v16 platform up).
BTW, for me it doesn’t make much sense to create a RAID1 array consisting of 2 NVMe SSDs and to boot off it, but this is your decision.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Fernando, thanks for getting back to me. I want to have a RAID 1 boot drive because I had a SSD in my system that died right in the middle of work, and in front of my boss!! I couldn’t recover and had to get a new drive and reinstall everything. It took 2 days, and the boss wasn’t happy!! I use AutoCAD and have a ton of custom settings, and even with an image of the drive backed up, I still lost a bunch of work and took too much time to recover. My thought is, if I have a RAID 1 setup, if a drive dies, I still will be able to work and recover without reinstalling everything. Since AutoCAD lives on the main drive, I have to have it be the RAID. I’m I correct in this thought or is there an easier way to do it? Also, how do I get the correct drivers into the install USB? Since Windows won’t even begin to load, I don’t know where to add the drivers.
@IDTooTall :
What means “Windows won’t even begin to load”?
As first step you should create an UEFI mode bootable and FAT32 formatted USB Flash Drive with the desired Win10 image in it and a separate USB Flash Drive, which contains the extracted Intel RST NVMe RAID driver.
Then you have to boot off the USB Flash drive in UEFI mode.
When you come to the point, where the Setup asks you where to install the OS, the RAID1 array will not be detected and shown. Now you should hit the “Load driver” button and load the related Intel NVMe RAID driver.
I have a bootable usb that was created with Microsoft Media Creation tool. I insert the usb, and turn on the computer. The spinning dots start, which means Windows is starting to load. After about a minute, the spinning dots freeze for a second and then I get a BSOD with a driver fault. Windows never actually loads before it crashes!!! This is why I’m so confused.
@IDTooTall :
If you want to get Win10 installed onto an NVMe SSD or an NVMe RAID array, you have to pay attention to some things.
My advice: Follow the chapter 4 of the “This is what you should do” section of >this< guide.
I have watched that video but the problem is I can’t get windows to even come up!! It gives me a BSOD before it ever loads. I have the BIOS set correctly and I can see my RAID1drive in the BIOS, but the window install won’t even start to load. If I remove the RAID and just have two separate drives, it loads fine!! The BSOD says its a driver failure, but I don’t know how to get the install to load to a point where I can install drivers. So, I’m left with putting the driver in the install file, but I don’t know how to do that or what driver to use!!
@ghubell :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
If you want help, you should give us answers to the following questions:
1. Who is the manufacturer and which is the model of your mainboard/system?
2. Has its BIOS native NVMe support?
3. Which OS do you want to get installed onto the RAID1 array?
4. How did you prepare the bootable USB Flash Drive containing the desired OS Image?
5. Which are the BOOT related BIOS settings?
6. Have you read the start post of >this< thread (esp. point 4 of the chapter “This is what you should do:”)?
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)