Setup says no drivers were found even though you copied the driver to the USB. It is telling the truth — about the folder, the generation, or a checkbox. Here is how to find which one, in minutes.
You did everything the forums said — downloaded the Intel driver, copied it to the USB, clicked Load driver — and setup shows you an empty list, a greyed-out button, or "no device drivers were found". Almost never is the laptop at fault. The failure is one of three precise mismatches: the folder, the generation, or a checkbox. Work them in this order.
Setup reads .inf files. It cannot open a SetupRST.exe, and it cannot see inside a zip. On the working PC, extract the package until a folder shows files like iaStorVD.inf, iaStorVD.sys and iaStorVD.cat, and copy that folder to the USB. When you browse, open the folder itself — if the file list is empty, you are one level too high or too low; the .inf must be in the folder you select or a subfolder.
Intel RST is not one driver. Each platform generation — 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th generation — has its own RST platform version, and a package built for one generation may contain no entry at all for another generation's controller. The symptoms are exactly yours: the folder browses fine, the list stays empty. The cure is not a newer driver from a random site — it is the driver from your laptop maker's support page for your exact model, which is matched to your board at the factory.
Choose carefully when unticked — the list now shows drivers for hardware you do not have. Picking a wrong one simply fails and returns you to the list; it does not damage anything.
Occasionally setup loses the USB stick itself — usually when the driver USB was plugged into a port handled by a controller setup has not loaded, or the stick was removed and reinserted mid-flow. Move the stick to a USB 2.0 port if the laptop has one, return to the drive screen, and click Load driver again. Keeping the drivers on the same stick you booted Windows from avoids this entirely, because setup is already reading that device.
Watch the video to see a successful driver load, then use this page if your attempt lands on the empty list instead.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause in the folder you selected there is no .inf file whose hardware ID matches your storage controller. Usually the package was never extracted (setup cannot use an exe or a zip), or the RST version belongs to a different Intel generation than your laptop. Extract the package fully and take the driver from your laptop maker's page for your exact model.
Yes — unticking only changes what the list displays; it installs nothing by itself. Setup sometimes hides the correct VMD controller entry by mistake. With the box unticked, select the Intel RST VMD Controller entry for your platform and continue. Choosing a genuinely wrong entry just fails harmlessly back to the list.
Then the loaded driver does not match the controller — typically a generation mismatch — or the BIOS cannot see the drive either, which no driver can fix. Confirm the drive appears in the BIOS storage page, then re-download the storage driver using your laptop's exact model or serial number on the maker's support site.