Acer RST driver tar.gz breaks on Linux – Windows installer can’t find NVMe SSD

Lnarker
Lnarker Member Posts: 1 New User

Heads-up: Acer RST driver ZIP breaks on Linux – Windows installer can’t find NVMe SSD

This isn't really a question — I figured it out after a lot of pain and wanted to share in case it helps someone else.

I have an Acer Nitro V15 ANV15-51, and I wanted to install Windows 11 alongside Ubuntu.
But when I booted the Windows installer, the NVMe SSD wasn't detected — it didn’t show up as a drive option at all.

The BIOS didn’t show any “SATA mode” option (AHCI vs RAID), so I assumed that part was fine.

Eventually, I realized the issue: I needed the Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) driver specific to this laptop.
Without it, the Windows installer can’t see the NVMe SSD because it's likely behind a VMD/RST controller.

So I grabbed the RST driver ZIP from Acer’s support page. All good, right? Nope.

Here’s the gotcha:

Acer’s driver ZIP uses backslashes (\) in file paths, because it’s made for Windows.
Linux unzip tools don’t treat those as folder separators, so when I unzipped it in Ubuntu, the whole thing flattened.

I ended up with files like:
VMD\iaStorVD.inf
HsaExtension\...
HsaComponent\...

Instead of proper directories like:
VMD
HsaExtension
HsaComponent

So when I clicked "Load Driver" in the Windows installer and pointed it to the USB,
it failed with "Error while loading driver" — because it couldn’t find the expected folder paths like VMD.

The Fix:

  • Manually recreate the directory structure.
  • Rename/move files into folders based on the original backslash paths.
  • After that, the driver loaded just fine, and Windows Setup saw the SSD.

I really hope this saves a poor soul hours of frustration.

And if any devs at Acer or Intel ever see this:
Please consider using forward slashes (/) in tar.gz drivers, or offer Linux-friendly versions.
Dual-booters exist! 🙃

Cheers!

Answers

  • Sharanji
    Sharanji ACE Posts: 5,252 Pathfinder

    @Lnarker

    Your solution is solid, and hopefully, others running into the same issue will find this before hours of debugging. Props to you for figuring it out and sharing! Also, consider posting this on forums like Ask Ubuntu. It could help even more people with Acer laptops. All manufacturers really should offer Linux-friendly packaging for essential drivers like this.

    I hope this helps! If this was useful, please hit 'Yes' or 'Like'! Thanks! 😊