How can I turn off Intel RST without losing all my data?

Question

I am trying to install Linux on my computer that already has stock Windows 10 on it. The Ubuntu installer asks me to disable Intel Rapid Storage Technology. The only way I have found to disable RST is in the boot menu. But in that menu, changing the storage mode from RST to AHCI warns about losing all data on the disk.

I don't want to lose any data or the Windows on the disk. How can I disable RST while keeping my data and OS safe?

Any workaround that allows to install Ubuntu without disabling Intel RST is also welcome.

Edit: The PC is Lenovo Ideapad S340-15IIL

Answer 1

Whenever installing OSes or doing anything that can potentially mess with the current drives and/or bootloaders, having proper up-to-date, versioned, and known to work (recoverable) backups is a MUST, period.

Users should always have backups of all files they can't afford to loose. Drives can and do fail anytime.

Now, specifically regarding your question, and unlike some comments seem to point out, you can enable AHCI support in an already installed Windows and then install a Linux distro in dual-boot. There is no difference in performance.

Here's the currently recommended method as posted by the user Heynnema at AskUbuntu:

• Right-click the Windows Start Menu. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
• If you don’t see Command Prompt listed, it’s because you have already been updated to a later version of Windows. If so, use this method instead to get to the Command Prompt:
• Click the Start Button and type cmd
• Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
• Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
• If this command does not work for you, try bcdedit /set safeboot minimal
• Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup (the key to press varies between systems).
• Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID (again, the language varies).
• Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
• Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin)
• Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
• If you had to try the alternate command above, you will likely need to do so here also: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot
• Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.

Additional source: http://triplescomputers.com/blog/uncategorized/solution-switch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/

Answer 2

I know this is an older answer, but I will share my experiences. My computer is a HP Envy TE01-1287CB.

I followed the steps listed and changing from Intel Raid was greyed out and not an option for me after setting to safeboot with the command bcdedit /set safeboot minimal and restarting the computer.

If you are in a similar situation, when you go through Computer Management then Disk Management in Windows 11, you may find that there is a smaller drive, in my case it was a 16GB disk that showed.

After inspecting the motherboard, I found that there was a NVME 16GB Intel Optane disk. I removed that, then went into BIOS and found that I could then change the SATA option to AHCI.

So, I would recommend that these steps be added to the how to change from RAID/RST to ACHI.

The steps would be as follows for Windows 11:

1. Type Computer Management in the search bar and select open.

2. Select Disk Management.

3. Look for a single smaller disk listed (16-20GB), if found:

   3a. Check motherboard for Intel Optane drive in a M.2 drive slot

   3b. Remove the disk if found.

   3c. if you have another M.2 disk, you can install it in that drive slot

4. In the search bar type: cmd

5. select run as administrator

6. type: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal

7. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup (the key to press varies between systems)

8. Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID (again, the language varies).

9. Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.

10. Type cmd in the search bar and run as administrator

11. type: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot

12. Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.

13. With AHCI enabled, you can now install any version of Linux you like.

Note: This of course, will remove any drive speed advantages that Optane gives when using the Intel Optane system.

Cheers and I hope this helps others that found themselves in my same situation.