After updating Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers from 15.0.0.1039 (2016-05-23) to 15.2.0.1020 (2016-12-20) the 'Create' button is no longer visible in the RST UI despite making no other changes.
Process:
3x SATA HDDs are connected to a Z170 chipset (and the OS SSD on another controller) with the SATA controller in RAID mode. [Note 1]
I am about to create a RAID using these disks, and so had UI open with the 'create' button available, and even opened the dialogue to choose disks and RAID type, but did not continue.
I saw that new drivers were available and so updated to drivers released today.
After rebooting, the 'create' button is gone (and is not in the 'status' window either).
According to this now-locked forum post: https://communities.intel.com/thread/20792 and the Intel document linked within, a bit of free space is required in order to create a RAID, and I suspect this is the reason (have not touched partitions yet, want to hear what Intel say first)
Quote from http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/chipsets/imsm/sb/irst_user_guide.pdf (2011 document) page 29:
7.2 System Requirements
In order for a system to be considered RAID-Ready, it must meet all of the following requirements:
* Contains a supported Intel chipset
* Includes a single SATA hard drive
* RAID must be enabled in the BIOS
* Motherboard BIOS must include the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology option ROM
* Intel® Rapid Storage Technology must be loaded
* A partition that does not take up the entire capacity of the hard drive (4-5MB of free space is sufficient)
Questions for Intelintel_corp
1: Are there any circumstances where the create button will be disabled between reboots, with no other changes, other than installing new driver and changes within those new drivers? I.e. could there be another explanation than having no available free space?
2: Why did the 'create' button disappear between driver revisions, if free space available has been a requirement for years(/always)?
3: What would have happened if I had created my RAID without the required available space?
4: Where in the "Help" file accompanying RST UI-software does it list the requirement for free space?
In the help file, Introduction > System Requirements mention supported operating systems and chipsets. Creating a Volume > Volume Requirements say exactly this:
Creating a volume is only available as an option if the following requirements are met:
* You are logged on as an administrator.
* The computer is RAID-Ready (refer to the user’s manual available on Intel's online support web site for assistance on setting up a RAID-Ready system).
* Two or more disks, including the operating system disk are connected, in a normal state, and unlocked (only applies to password-protected disks).
* There are less than four volumes present at any point in time in the storage system.
[Note 1: I had originally connected the disks in AHCI mode (including creating the partitions on the drives - using the maximum size that Windows suggests/allows), tested the drives, then changed in BIOS to RAID and booted up. Create button was available. I then updated driver. I'm not 100% sure if I rebooted between starting up the 1st time in RAID mode and rebooting to update drivers. It is possible that a signature was written to the disks at this point?, and that if rebooting without updating drivers, the described scenario would still happen? However my money is on that not being the case, and it instead being a limitation in the new drivers.]
Keywords for search:
intel rst update driver create button gone disappeared disabled unavilable free available space