Cannot install Intel RST Nitro5 AN515-57-74TT.

JohnsNitro5

I'm trying to install Windows 11 on a Nitro5 AN515-57-74TT.

The M.2 drive is blank after a failed dual boot to linux.

I downloaded all the drivers from Acer's website and put them on a separate usb from the Win11 installer.

I reset the BIOS, set the BIOS password, and disabled secure boot.

As per https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/668097/an515-57-cannot-recover-or-restore#latest the Win11 installer needs a media driver just to read the M.2 drive.

I've tried IRST and the I/O drivers, but every single driver I try returns a no drivers found for this hardware error.

What driver is the installer even asking for?

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JackE

At present, dual booting Linux alongside Windows can only be done in AHCI or normal RAID sata mode. iRST, iRST with optane & intel VMD mode won't work or will corrupt the boot drive so it is no longer able to be factory re-set. If you originally had an m.2 boot drive with a 2.5" HDD, it was probably in iRST with optane. You can easily install the generic Microsoft Win11 in AHCI or normal RAID mode on either the 2.5" HDD or the m.2 SSD but the original factory Windows is no longer recoverable unless you're in the US or Canada. Then you may be able to buy a factory recovery USB stick for your particular model from the ACER store. About $50usd.

StevenGen

JohnsNitro5 said:

I'm trying to install Windows 11 on a Nitro5 AN515-57-74TT.

The M.2 drive is blank after a failed dual boot to linux.

I downloaded all the drivers from Acer's website and put them on a separate usb from the Win11 installer.

I reset the BIOS, set the BIOS password, and disabled secure boot.

As per https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/668097/an515-57-cannot-recover-or-restore#latest the Win11 installer needs a media driver just to read the M.2 drive.

I've tried IRST and the I/O drivers, but every single driver I try returns a no drivers found for this hardware error.

What driver is the installer even asking for?

What bios are you running on your AN515-57, is it the last version 1.17? What I would suggest is that you first go into bios and go to Exit and load default settings and exit, then do the install of Win-11 as it should work with the install of the IRS drive. This is the IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver Version: 18.6.1.1016.2 for your AN515-57 that you should use, the reason I suggested what I did is because it worked 100% on my Nitro 5 AN515-56 with an M.2 WD NS530 NVMe drive (which you should also have the same?) as when I did a clean install of Win-11 and my M.2 wasn't recognised I installed the IRS drive for my AN515-56 which made the Win-11 installation recognize my M.2 drive and the installation worked 100% but I never did a Linux pre install on my M.2 drive, so you might have to pre format to a clean M.2 drive with the GUID (GPT) before install of Win-11. As your AN515-57 laptop is the same as mine and the same should work for you like it did for me. Otherwise either your bios settings have been changed while doing the Linux installation (so check that) or your M.2 drive is not inserted properly, faulty so check all that out as it should work.

Commodore_1995#

Is the ssd showing up in the bios info tab?

billsey

Extract the iRST drivers to your W11 install media. When you get to the screen that asks where to install, with the SSD missing, tell it to look in the folder you created when extracting the iRST drivers as the source for a driver. It should find the correct iRST driver, install it and then show you the SSD. Make sure all partitions are removed from the SSD and install Windows to the unallocated space and it will create all needed partitions.

JackE

At present, dual booting Linux alongside Windows can only be done in AHCI or normal RAID sata mode. iRST, iRST with optane & intel VMD mode won't work or will corrupt the boot drive so it is no longer able to be factory re-set. If you originally had an m.2 boot drive with a 2.5" HDD, it was probably in iRST with optane. You can easily install the generic Microsoft Win11 in AHCI or normal RAID mode on either the 2.5" HDD or the m.2 SSD but the original factory Windows is no longer recoverable unless you're in the US or Canada. Then you may be able to buy a factory recovery USB stick for your particular model from the ACER store. About $50usd.