Skip to main content

Problem with Z690 platform and intel RAID

Thread needs solution

I have problem with a new computer (asus Z690-P) and latest version of cyber protect home - I can't make fully working rescue boot media. Acronis application installed in Windows works just fine, but bootable WinPE or WinRe version can't see any of my disks connected via intel RAID controller (using VMD driver iaStorVD.inf  07/22/2021,19.0.0.1067). I have single nvme, single ssd and two additional hdd disks in raid 0. I've built this damned iso over 25 times now, adding additional drivers in various combinations (for. example by checking names of loaded drivers for mass storage devices in windows device manager) - but nothing works so far. Strangest thing is, that default raid driver that came with motherboard on dvd, which i have used during windows setup does not work in WinPE. I am Acronis backup user over 10 years now, and had similiar problems in the past - here i have no clue. What I am missing?

0 Users found this helpful

See forum topic: 2019 ATI doesn't find all my drives - which was addressing a similar issue with an older version of ATI that should help point you in the right way.

Mieszko,

You will have to locate the installed vmd driver for your raid storage controller.  You can do this using Windows Powershell as Admin.  At the prompt enter:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_SCSIController | Select-Object -Property Description, DriverName

 

 

This will produce a list of the storage controller drivers and show the driver name to the correct driver for your raid controller such as oem**.inf where ** is a number.

Next use an admin command prompt and enter this command:

dir oem**.inf \s

This will show the path to the driver which should be something like this:

C:\Windows\system32>dir iastorav.inf /s
 Volume in drive C is Windows 10 Pro Workstation
 Volume Serial Number is 0899-471E

 Directory of C:\Windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\iastorav.inf_amd64_87f761c07c99d5e7

12/07/2019  02:07 AM            16,706 iastorav.inf
                           1 File(s)         16,706 bytes

     Total Files Listed:
               1 File(s)         16,706 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  304,800,436,224 bytes free

When you build the media point the Add driver function to the path shown from your dir query.

 

 

Hi

I've solved my problem, after finding topic https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-cyber-protect-home-office-forum…

I used the same drivers as described there (from motherboard dvd)), but in my case firstly I had to uninstall disk drivers loaded automatically from boot stick (pnputil /delete-driver oem0.inf /uninstall) and then reinstall it with pnputil /add-driver C:\IRST\iaStorVD.inf /install

Without uninistalling oem0.inf, pnputil says that driver iaStorVD.inf already loaded and was not detecting any disks - this was happenning even if i did not manually added this driver during creating bootable image. Probably it was all the time added wrongly by iso/image builder. I am Acronis imaging software user over 10 years and this behaviour was very confusing for me. Additionally I've borrowed bootable Acronis 12.5 from work - it had not recognize raid also (of course because it was an old build from 2019/20), but it has an option of loading additional drivers available from UI, and it worked just fine... Cyber Home is missing that option whe booting from pendrive and because of that all this mess with manually (re)install drivers from cmd is required.

Thanks for your help, I tried to add answer to my topic yesterday but forum was unreachable for me then (gateway timeout).

 

Mieszko,

When you created the Recovery Media you said that both WinPE and WinRE would not recognize your RAID controller.  With Intel recently releasing this new VMD storage controller this behavior is expected and not related to Acronis media builders specifically.  As you found adding the appropriate driver solved the issue. 

There is obviously some difference in this particular driver that needs to be looked at to fix this issue.  A user having to use the pnputil tool to uninstall and then reinstall the driver is not acceptable.  I question if the installed oem driver is in fact missing some file or is otherwise corrupted causing this issue.

OEM drivers are those that are supplied by manufacturers to MS for inclusion in Windows installation files including ADK versions for WinPE media.  This suggests that the issue is an Intel/MS problem and they need to fix it.

Thanks for reporting.

I've borrowed bootable Acronis 12.5 from work - it had not recognize raid also (of course because it was an old build from 2019/20), but it has an option of loading additional drivers available from UI, and it worked just fine... Cyber Home is missing that option whe booting from pendrive and because of that all this mess with manually (re)install drivers from cmd is required.

This is something that should be included in the Acronis Boot Disk. Luckily, I can get away with the Linux version of the Acronis Boot Disk. Otherwise, It's not worth the hassle.

The situation with the Intel VMD controller drivers is plaguing the other backup software vendors just like it is Acronis.  Older hardware is fully supported by all the vendors.  Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office media builder tool does have the add driver option and can be found in the Advanced option of that tool.