ASRock Z77 Pro3 and Windows 10

GarviD wrote: Hi all, I notice that Windows 10 support has been added on the official site of my motherboard, but I don't see Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and utility and XFast USB. I tried to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and utility for Windows 8, but it cause a BSOD... I found on this page http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?cat=Drivers Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and utility ver:14.8.0.1042 that is compatible with Windows 10, but it is for the motherboard Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming i7. Can I install it anyway? The lastest version of XFast USB on the official site of my motherboard is the 3.02.31, and I found the version 3.02.38 on this page http://www.asrock.com/feature/XFast/XFastUSB/index.asp but I don't read if it is compatible with Windows 10. Is it compatible with Windows 10? Thank you in advice to who will help me :)

You should be able to install IRST 14.8 from the X99's board page, or from here directly from Intel:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver

If you check the ReadMe file on that page, the Intel 7 series chipsets, which includes your Z77 chipset, is still supported by this version of IRST, and is for Windows 10:

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/25165/eng/ReadMe.txt

XFast USB is not included in any ASRock Windows 10 download page. Windows 10 changed the way it uses USB 3.0 drivers. You won't find any Intel USB 3.0 drivers on the download pages of any of their boards for Windows 10.

Just like we have not installed USB 2.0 drivers on our boards for a very long time, Windows 10 now uses its built in USB 3.0 driver only. XFast USB does not seem to be compatible with the Windows 10 USB 3.0 driver.

New ASRock boards that use the Intel 100 series chipsets do not have the XFast USB feature anymore. That is probably caused by the way these chipsets only now use the USB 3.0 driver for the USB 2.0 ports. If you try to install Windows 7 on these new boards, none of the USB ports will work, since Windows 7 does not have a built in USB 3.0 driver. We must add the USB 3.0 driver to Windows 7 to fix that problem.

So I don't think we will see XFast USB updates anymore, for Windows 10. That is also because USB 3.1 is available now.

I have an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 board, and have IRST 14.8 installed:




How did you install Windows 10? Was it a new, fresh installation, or a Windows 10 upgrade?

Did you install the INF driver ver:10.1.1.8, from your board's Windows 10 download page? That might be the problem from what I can see in the Log file, but I'm not sure.

What is the SATA Mode set to in the BIOS? It must be AHCI or RAID. If you have it set to IDE mode, change it to AHCI, which is the default.

Do you know what BIOS version you have in your board?

Thanks for the information, it all looks good and is fine.

I forgot to tell you that the reason for your drives being removable is caused by the Windows 10 AHCI driver (storahci), or possibly a bug elsewhere in Windows 10. I had the same situation on my X99 PC, which has four extra Intel SATA ports that do not support RAID, and use the storahci driver automatically. The drives on those four ports were eject-able, and in Device Manager, had the Policies option to set them as eject-able. That option was not checked, but it was still on. Confused

Recently, that situation just disappeared, the drives are no longer eject-able. Why that happened I don't know. I assume it was a Windows 10 update that fixed that problem. How old is your Windows 10 installation? If it is very new, then you might find that fixed after a Windows 10 update.

I was going to suggest you use an older version of the IRST software, but as far as I can see, Windows 10 is only supported by IRST 14.x versions.

I don't know if this would make a difference, but I am using BIOS version P2.90M, found in the Beta Zone area of this board's download page:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Beta

But before you try a BIOS update (which you may do if you want to, or use the official 2.90 BIOS version in the standard BIOS download area), some more information for you.

I saw a thread in another mother board forum (OCN), about your problem, not being able to install IRST 14.x on a Z77 board. Not an ASRock board too, and everyone in that thread with a Z77 board could not install IRST 14.x. Some people in that thread thought IRST 14.x does not support the Intel 7 series chipsets (like your Z77), but the ReadMe file states it does support the Intel 7 series chipsets. That could be a mistake in the documentation, I don't know.

So how did I get IRST 14.8.0.1042 installed? I'll tell you:

First, I had the SATA mode set to RAID when I installed Windows 10.

Next, I installed the 14.8 "f6flpy-x64" driver during the Windows 10 installation.

The IRST f6flpy-x64 driver is just the RAID driver files, without the IRST Windows program that is included in the SetupRST.exe installation program. You must select the Windows Custom installation option to do that, and use the Load Driver option.

Finally, and this is something that you just can't do without verifying some hardware compatibility, is installing Windows UEFI booting mode. That is, either setting the CSM option in the BIOS to Disabled, or with CSM Enabled, setting the CSM sub-option Launch Storage OpROM Policy to UEFI Only.

Is all of that worth it to you, just to install the IRST driver?

Another possible option is to have the SATA mode set to AHCI, and install the IRST AHCI driver, during a new Windows 10 installation, using the Custom option and the Load Driver option. You might not need to configure the CSM option as I described above to do this, but I have never done it myself, so I don't know if it will work.

I was hoping this would not be difficult for you, but after reading that thread at OCN (Intel Mother Board forum), I see now that it isn't.

The simplest thing you could try is updating your BIOS to P2.90M, and then try to install the IRST driver again, in AHCI mode. But I'm not sure if that will work.