Fix: ‘We Couldn’t Find Any Drives’ on Intel 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen Windows 11 Setup

Root Cause: Why Windows 11 Cannot See Your NVMe SSD

When installing a clean copy of Windows 11 on Intel 11th Gen (Tiger Lake), 12th Gen (Alder Lake), 13th Gen (Raptor Lake), or 14th Gen platforms, the drive selection partition screen frequently displays the error: “We couldn’t find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver.”

This failure is caused by an architectural storage abstraction layer known as Intel VMD (Volume Management Device). In modern Intel platforms, motherboards frequently route CPU and chipset PCIe lanes through the internal VMD controller. When VMD is enabled, the operating system kernel cannot communicate directly with the standard NVMe hardware ID.

Instead of addressing the solid-state drive as a standard PCIe NVMe device via the inbox Microsoft NVMe driver (stornvme.sys), the platform presents a specialized Intel RST VMD Managed Controller. Retail Windows 10 and Windows 11 installation images do not bundle native drivers for these newer Intel VMD hardware endpoints. Consequently, the installer’s WinPE environment cannot enumerate the storage bus, resulting in an empty drive list even though the SSD is physically functioning and visible inside the UEFI device list.

Method 1: Inject the Intel RST VMD Driver During Setup

The standard manufacturer-supported resolution is providing the Intel RST VMD controller driver to the installer environment using the Load driver prompt. This preserves full Intel VMD functionality and RAID capabilities without altering hardware management settings.

Step 1: Download and Extract the IRST Driver Files

The Windows installer requires raw INF, SYS, and CAT files (often referred to as the F6 driver package). Standard .exe installation setups cannot be loaded directly by Windows Setup until they are extracted.

1. On a secondary working PC, navigate to your motherboard or laptop manufacturer’s official support page (such as ASUS, Lenovo, or Gigabyte) or Intel’s download repository.
2. Locate the Chipset or Storage download section and download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) driver package (for example, packages matching version branches 18.x, 19.x, or compatible revisions).
3. If the file is distributed as an executable installer (such as SetupRST.exe or manufacturer wrapper VMD_DCH_Intel_F_...exe), execute the installer.
4. When prompted by the wizard, do not perform a standard installation on the host system. Select the Extract option.
5. Set the extraction destination path to the root directory or a dedicated folder (such as \RST\) on your bootable Windows 11 USB flash drive.
6. Verify that the extraction directory contains subfolders housing raw driver components (including the RST directory with files for the Intel RST VMD Controller).

Step 2: Load the Driver in Windows 11 Setup

Once the extracted files are present on your installation media (or a secondary USB drive), return to your target system to proceed with the OS installation.

1. Connect the USB drive containing both the Windows 11 installation media and the extracted driver files to the target machine.
2. Boot into the Windows 11 installer using UEFI mode.
3. Proceed through the initial language selection and license agreement prompts until you reach the “Where do you want to install Windows?” storage screen.
4. Click the Load driver option located beneath the empty drive selection box.
5. Click Browse in the pop-up dialogue box.
6. Navigate to the directory on your flash drive containing the extracted IRST files, highlight the RST folder, and click OK.
7. The installer will scan the folder and list compatible controller drivers. Highlight Intel RST VMD Controller (or your specific hardware ID variant, such as Intel RST VMD Managed Controller) and click Next.
8. Allow Windows Setup to initialize the storage driver. Once the driver is applied, all attached internal NVMe and SATA partitions will immediately populate in the drive list.

Method 2: Disable Intel VMD Technology in BIOS/UEFI

If you are running a single NVMe SSD and do not intend to configure a hardware-managed Intel RAID array, you can bypass the driver requirement entirely by disabling Intel VMD. This releases the PCIe lanes back to native board routing, allowing Windows 11 to interface directly with the M.2 drive using standard inbox NVMe drivers.

Disabling VMD on ASUS UEFI Interfaces

1. Power on the PC and immediately tap F2 or Delete repeatedly to access the UEFI BIOS Utility. (On handhelds, hold Volume Down and tap Power).
2. Press F7 to enter Advanced Mode.
3. Navigate using the top menu bar to the Advanced tab.
4. Scroll down and select the VMD setup menu.
5. Locate the Enable VMD controller setting and switch it from Enabled to Disabled.
6. Confirm the prompt acknowledging that disabling VMD disables RAID functionality.
7. Press F10 to save changes and exit setup. Select OK to confirm and reboot.

Disabling VMD in MyASUS in UEFI Interface

1. From the MyASUS UEFI dashboard, press F7 or click on the Advanced Settings prompt.
2. Go to the Advanced category in the navigation menu.
3. Select the VMD setup menu entry.
4. Select Enable VMD controller and set the value to Disabled.
5. Click OK on the warning dialogue.
6. Press F10, confirm the changes, and reboot the system into the Windows 11 installation media.

After disabling VMD, restart the Windows 11 installation media. Because the storage controller layer is removed, the installer uses its standard inbox stornvme.sys driver to detect the M.2 NVMe SSD instantly without external files.

Hardware and Firmware Failure Points

If neither loading the IRST driver nor disabling VMD reveals the drive, troubleshoot secondary configuration issues that cause drive enumeration failures in Windows PE.

1. BIOS Revision Lacks 14th Gen Platform Microcode

Deploying a 14th Gen processor (such as the Core i7-14700K) on an older revision of an Intel 600 or 700 series motherboard (such as a Z790 board on base revision F3) can result in broken PCIe lane negotiation. Without updated BIOS firmware containing updated microcode and management engine protocols, the board may initialize the CPU but fail to enumerate secondary CPU-attached M.2 slots. Flash your motherboard to the newest stable UEFI release using USB BIOS Flashback or Q-Flash before attempting OS installation.

2. Non-Initialized Partition Tables (Diskpart Clean)

If the storage driver loads successfully but the partition window remains blank or throws write errors, the drive may contain corrupted partition tables or legacy MBR layouts from an existing installation. Windows 11 requires a GUID Partition Table (GPT) in pure UEFI mode.

1. On the Windows Setup screen, press Shift + F10 to invoke the administrative Command Prompt.
2. Type diskpart and press Enter.
3. Type list disk and identify your primary SSD disk number (e.g., Disk 0).
4. Type select disk 0 (replace 0 with your physical drive index) and press Enter.
5. Type clean to wipe residual partition headers.
6. Type convert gpt to write a clean GPT partition layout.
7. Type exit, close the command prompt window, and click Refresh in the Windows installer.

Intel Platform Storage Architecture Matrix

Storage initialization workflows vary significantly across Intel architectures. Consult the table below to determine the expected behavior of your CPU platform during Windows 11 setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does disabling Intel VMD reduce SSD read/write performance?

Disabling Intel VMD does not reduce the sequential or random read/write throughput of a single NVMe SSD. VMD functions primarily as an enterprise and enthusiast management abstraction layer to handle software RAID, Optane memory configurations, and error routing. For standard desktop builds utilizing an individual drive, operating directly over the standard NVMe protocol via AHCI/PCIe provides equivalent performance without driver dependencies.

Can I re-enable VMD in the BIOS after Windows 11 finishes installing?

Re-enabling Intel VMD on an operating system installed while VMD was disabled will cause Windows to crash during boot with an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue-screen error. Because the storage controller switches its hardware identification, Windows cannot initialize the storage stack early enough in the boot chain. If you intend to use VMD, it must remain enabled throughout the clean install while supplying the RST driver at setup.

Why did Ubuntu or Linux detect my NVMe drive when Windows 11 did not?

Modern Linux distribution kernels include open-source kernel modules built specifically to negotiate directly with Intel VMD controller endpoints out of the box. Retail Windows 11 installation media utilizes Windows PE with a static set of generic storage drivers that excludes the proprietary Intel RST VMD controller INF files.