Thinkpad P50 - NVMe M.2 Raid 0 - Can't install windows - No Drive Listed

[burninghelix123]

I recently updated to the new bios, 1.30, that adds RAID support for the Thinkpad P50.

My P50 came with 2x pcie nvme 512gb m.2 drives. (I think they ship with the sm951, but not 100% sure)

Upon activating raid in the bios, I can select "M.2 SSD" as the mode, and successfuly create a raid volume from the 2 drives. The new raid volume shows up in the boot manager and appears to be healthy.

Macrium Reflect can even see and clone to the Raid volume.

However the installer for Windows 7, 8, or 10 cannot see the Raid volume. (Using a usb drive since i opted out of the cd drive).

I assumed this was a driver issue and proceeded to download basically every Intel RST driver I could find including the 3 on the Lenovo driver website and all the below:
64bit Intel RSTe AHCI & RAID drivers v15.2.0.1008

64bit Intel RSTe AHCI & RAID drivers v14.8.12.1059 WHQL

64bit Intel RST AHCI & RAID driver v11.2.0.1006 WHQL

64bit Intel NVMe Windows Driver v1.7.0.1002 WHQL

64bit Intel RSTe NVMe drivers v4.5.0.2122 WHQL for Win8-10 x64

RSTe_4.5.0.2123

RSTe NVMe 4.5.0.2125

intel_rst_14.8.1.1043

intel_rst_14.8.0.1042

Universal 64bit Intel RST Software v15.0.2.1044

Universal 64bit Intel RST Software v14.8.12.1059

Even after trying every single one of these, I still can't get Windows to see the raid volume on install. I tried turning on and off secure boot, and CSM, but made no difference. There's really not many options provided in the Lenovo bios.

I've done a normal raid setup with HDD's on hundreds of computers, but can't for the life of me figure this one out.

From what I can tell this seems like it should be possible, and I'm pretty sure is even a configuration option offered by Lenovo.

Any help would be super appreciated!

[burninghelix123]

Just to add a bit more, I do have premium support and was on the phone with 6 different people for 2 hours, none of which could really help or understand what was going on. In fact several didn't even know what Raid was and needed help spelling it. Below are the ticket numbers to keep everything together.

Ticket #'s:
402NCL7
402NC9M
402NC77

[goretsky]

Hello,

If the ThinkPad P50 has Samsung SM951 NVMe SSDs, perhaps using the following NVMe driver from Samsung will work:

Samsung NVMe Driver Installer Version 1.1 - http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/downloads/software/Samsung_NVMExpress_Driver_rev11...

Samsung NVMe Driver Installer User's Guide - http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/downloads/document/Samsung_950_PRO_NVMeDriver_Inst...

As the User's Guide notes, this is actually for the 950 PRO, but I'm wondeirng if it will work with the SM951 as well.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[harrisb]

Did you slipstream the Intel RST driver into the Windows 10 installation media? I had to do this when I was creating a WinPE USB for my P70. Otherwise, I suppose that you could create the install on the HDD and then move it over to the RAID 0 array.

The M.2 SSD's are SM951 BTW. I assume that you have initalized the RAID 0 array as GPT before trying to do the Windows 10 install.

[richk]

Is this an install from a microsoft media or download, or is it from Lenovo recovery disks?

[burninghelix123]

I did click the "Load Drivers" button during install, if you mean actually modifying the install image to include the drivers I did not. I actually thought the point of the "Load Drivers" button was to prevent the user from having to do that, however if that's the solution I might give it a go, I know it just takes a bit of time to get set up.

It sounds like what you did is similar to what I'm trying, I'm also using a usb. I actualy did trying installing to a HDD and then using macrium to clone it over to the raid volume, however I kept getting "boot device inaccesible", which appeared to also be a driver related issue, so I gave up on that route, assuming a clean install would be easier.

Lastly this might seem stupid, but I was under the assumption that as part of the windows install it created the partition table, I did not try doing anything special beforehand other than creating the raid volume. I typically use gparted for that kind of thing, but can't get it to see the raid volume either, have any reccomedations for that?

Thanks for taking the time to help!

[burninghelix123]

They were from Microsoft and just base images, as is, all on usb. They've all worked for a variety of other computers using different hard drive and raid combinations.

Thanks for the help!

[harrisb]

OK, let's save yourself anymore grief. Go to this site and download the preload image for your system to a USB key and then start with the correct Windows preload.

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht103653?LinkTrack=Solr

Hope this helps.

[burninghelix123]

I wanted to avoid the default Lenovo image if I could help it, just because there's so much extra stuff on it they don't want in a corporate environment.

However if it get's me up and going I'd be willing to try it.

After going to that website and typing in the serial number I get "Recovery Media has already been requested for this machine.". With no option to download anything, guessing support must have done something during the five people I talked to.

Thanks again for the help!

[Amy_PI_Lenovo]

Burninghelix123,

In response to customer reports that RAID drives are not recognized after using the Windows installer on P50 and P70 ThinkPads, Lenovo is releasing updated IRST drivers, v. 14.8.0.1042 and up, for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, to resolve this issue.

The IRST Windows 10 drivers, ver. 15.0.2.1044, for P50/P70 can be found here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS105421

The IRST Console Windows 10 drivers for P50/P70 using RAID systems can be found here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS112725

The IRST Windows 10 drivers, ver. 15.0.2.1044, SCCM Release for P50/P70 can be found here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS105232

I will post again when the Windows 7.1 and 8 drivers have been released in the next week.

Thank you,