# I installed Windows with VMD disabled so as to see SSDs. Will this lead to problems?



## jamieboo (Mar 30, 2022)

Hello folks

So I finally built my new system and started installing windows from USB, but when asked where I wanted to install Windows, the option box was empty. I had a Samsung 980 Pro installed but the installation process was not detecting it. It just said "We couldn't find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver" and clicking Load Driver was a dead end.
A bit of googling revealed that maybe if I disabled something called 'VMD' then maybe my drive would show up. So I disabled VMD in bios, tried the installation process again and, sure enough, this time my drive showed up and I could continue with the installation.
All good.
Then I noticed that I couldn't subsequently install Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Not a biggie but it just made me think something might be amiss.
Then someone on Linus Tech forum said I should've kept VMD enabled, but had some Intel RST driver packages also present on the bootable USB, and then pointed to them when the "Load driver" option appeared.
Now I'm concerned that by disabling VMD - which I cannot now re-enable - I've installed Windows in some kind of imperfect state, especially because the guy on LTT said that VMD even enhances NVME performance.
What do you think?
I haven't added much beyond Windows. Do you think I should reinstall, but this time follow the method that lets me do it with VMD enabled?

Thanks


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## Nico5 (Mar 30, 2022)

you may find some interesting discussion and info in this thread:






Intel VMD or just plain NVMe?


I have a laptop with i7 11th Gen CPU. I can either turn on Intel VMD and use the VMD driver from Intel (part of IRST) for my two SSDs - with no RAID, I am not interested in setting up RAID, or I can disable Intel VMD and run standard NVMe drivers (or Samsung NVMe for my one Samsung SSD). Does...




www.elevenforum.com


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## Pictus (Mar 31, 2022)

You should not install Intel RST and do not need VMD.


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## jamieboo (Mar 31, 2022)

Nico5 said:


> you may find some interesting discussion and info in this thread:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks Nico5. Yeah, I'd already come across that page. So it _seems_ there is no performance difference between VMD enabled/disabled.



Pictus said:


> You should not install Intel RST and do not need VMD.


Thanks Pictus - that's reassuring to hear! I don't want to mess up my foundation!

I guess I was just a bit concerned because VMD is new tech that is apparently related to how the CPU talks to storage.
There's a lot of stuff that definitely does not relate to me - eg. Raid enabling, hot-swapping, LED control, and other 'data centre' benefits - but I was a bit concerned about supposed CPU communication advantages.
And someone said that if you disable VMD then an NVMe using the CPU PCIe lanes might somehow switch to using the less efficient chipset lanes instead. Is this possible? Is there anyway to test/verify which PCIe lanes are being used?

I guess I just want to be as sure as possible that I'm not laying a foundation and omitting things that I might regret in future.

**Here's some blurb about the benefits of VMD. It seems to relate extensively to Xeon build, but might relate to any modern Intel CPU? It mentions the processes bypass something called a Hypervisor and so is therefore more efficient. Or something.


https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/volume-management-device-direct-assign-brief.pdf


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## Pictus (Mar 31, 2022)

You are welcome.
Not possible, the lanes are physically defined by the M.2 slot wiring.
If it is connected *direct *to the CPU, will not magically change to the chipset or vice-versa.
I think in the past with motherboards with PLX chips we had a case of a slot that could
be assigned to CPU or chipset, but the connection always passed through the PLX chip.

The less you install, better it is... Driver or software...
Stuff you do not use like WiFi, onboard sound, etc, should be disabled in the BIOS.


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