Hey guys, hopefully someone can guide me here…I have an Asus Rampage III Formula (X58) with the upgraded Intel RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527 with the universal mod for TRIM on Raid 0 and that seems to be working…I have hooked up to it 2 Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD’s… I have installed windows 8.1 Pro and have when I open my device manager the driver showing up there is 12.0.1.1019 from Intel Corporation. My question relates to the functionality of this driver…since that version is supposed to be using the filter driver, should it not work with my setup? Don’t I need to install the driver 11.2.0.1006? or with Windows 8.1 do I need to use the v12 eRST OROM and the last v12 driver? I have read over and over how the classical driver would be best suited for this setup. but am a little confused…I have searched and sincerely appologize if this has come up before as I haven’t read about this issue… I know that at first windows read this as a HDD but after running winSAT it is now setup as a SSD for the purposes of optimizing… I usually install the RST software package as well…I’m not sure what my next move should be…If Fernando or anyone can provide some further guidance, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Thanks again for this wonderful forum. 
Yes, it will work, but not the best way, because this RAD driver belongs to the RST(e) RAID driver development branch.
Microsoft has put a new generic Intel RST(e) RAID driver v12.0.1.1019 named iaStorAV.sys into the OS Win8/Win8.1 (all previous Operating Systems don’t have this RAID driver).
You don’t need to install it, but I recommend to do it, if you want the best possible performance.
Warning: Windows 8/8.1 will let you "downgrade" the in-use Intel RAID driver to the RST v11.2.0.1006 WHQL one from within the Device Maager, but after the following reboot you may get an unrepairable BSOD (this is what I always got, when I tried it). The generic Intel RST(e) driver iaStorAV.sys seems to prevent a successful installation of an "classical" Intel RST RAID driver like the v11.2.0.1006 one.
Nevertheless I was able to successfully install the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 WHQL onto my Z77 RAID system running Windows 8.1, but I had to do it from scratch by starting a fresh OS installation. Then I simply loaded the Intel RST driver v11.2.01006 WHQL at the beginning of the OS installation - and got it still working once the OS was up and running.
After having completed the OS installation I have executed the Intel RST Drivers & Software Set v11.2.0.1006 WHQL (Note: .NET Framework 3.5 has to be additionally installed before you do that). After the next reboot you can enter the Intel RST Console v11.2.0.1006 and enable the Write-Back feature. This will give your RAID array a big boost regarding the WRITE performance.
Good luck!
Fernando
Regarding the BSOD, it is very much repairable. The easy way (at least worked for me) would be to go into Safe Mode first. Then reboot and it should not BSOD. Otherwise, you can always load a command line from a recovery cd or similar and fix it that way.
Both options didn’t work for me.
Booting in safe mode doesn’t help, because the RAID driver is absolutely needed, when the OS is within the RAID array, booting off the installation media and using the "Repair" option didn’t help either.
Not the "Repair" option, this is generic and won’t really solve the problem. I was talking about actually starting a command line interface or a registry editor outside windows via a recovery disk for example.
Ok, it may be possible to solve the problem by changing some registry settings from outside the OS, but I have never tried this option, because I not even know how to do it.
A fresh OS reinstallation is much less dangerous and quickly done for me, because all my personal data are outside the OS partition.
It’s no more dangerous that performing the same actions via Windows. Either way, I have found a great little bootable environment that can easily do such things without any format required. For most people formatting takes a lot of time especially if you want the OS to perform a specific way or do not have all the data outside the computer. At some point I will write a small guide about how that can be done.