When you boot from a Windows 11 USB drive, you’ll reach the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen, only to see an empty list. At the bottom, you might see:
Since Intel has removed the standalone .zip versions of these drivers, you must extract them from the installer.
How to Make the f6flpy-x64 Intel RST VMD Driver Work for Windows 11 Clean Installs f6flpyx64 intelr vmdzip windows 11 download work
The problem arises because a standard Windows 11 installation image does not include the specific driver required for the Intel VMD controller. During the "Where do you want to install Windows?" step, the installer only has access to a basic set of generic Microsoft drivers. Since it lacks the correct Intel driver to "talk" to the VMD controller, your NVMe drive remains invisible, making it impossible to select a destination for Windows.
Fix: "No Drives Found" During Windows 11 Installation (Intel VMD Driver Guide) When you boot from a Windows 11 USB
Windows was installed without the VMD driver, then you enabled VMD in BIOS later. Solution: Either disable VMD in BIOS (if you don’t need RAID/hot-swap) or reinstall Windows with the driver loaded at setup time.
Your missing SSD or hard drive will immediately appear in the menu list. You can now format your partition, click , and proceed with your Windows 11 installation smoothly. Alternative Workaround: Disable VMD in BIOS During the "Where do you want to install Windows
If the download is an .exe file, you must the driver files before they can be used during installation: