Update to Windows 10 1903 requires updated Intel Rapid Storage Technologies

This is really a confusing mess. The iaStorA.sys driver is associated with SATA controllers. A number of suggestions here recommend renaming all iaStor*.sys files. What problems can that cause? Does the driver update change the driver being used by the SATA controller to one of the other iaStor*.sys files?

JohnD

@johnptd, do you have any devices using the iastora.sys driver?  It appears this version was abandoned in recent versions of the Intel controller install...  Just check your system. 

There may be some older systems still using it but none of mine are.

Hi JohnD,

When the most recent (or next most recent) version of RST is installed, the SATA controller uses the iaStorAC.sys driver.

When you install RST, the SATA controller uses the iaStorA.sys file.  This is why it is important to restart the computer after uninstalling RST BEFORE you rename the iaStorA.sys file.  Once the computer has restarted and loaded Windows, you can rename the iaStorA.sys file without causing a problem, provided you do not shut down and restart your computer before upgrading Windows.

When you install the Windows upgrade, the iaStorA.sys file is reinstalled (the one you renamed is also still there) and, as I pointed out earlier in this post, the reinstalled file is the same version as the one that blocked the Windows update.

When you reinstall the latest RST version, the SATA Controller driver switches to iaStorAC.sys and the iaStorA.sys file is still in the Drivers folder on the hard drive.  The other iaStor*.sys files are also installed but the iaStorA.sys version remains the same.

As Saltgrass pointed out, the problem is that iaStorA.sys is not upgraded when you do an RST upgrade and may not even be being used.  Unfortunately, the Windows update installation program queries the version of iaStorA.sys to determine if RST is up-to-date.  An obvious bug fix would be to have the install program query the version of iaStorAC.sys.

Hi Maurice,

I have got the same problem as you, so :

1. I have uninstalled Intel RST
2. Renamed the four files iaStor*.sys
3. Installed the windows 10 update
4. Installed the last Intel RST (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/55005/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-)

This works for me.

Regards

Can you provide the steps for doing this?

This is awful advice and I just hosed somebody's computer by listening to you.

Thanks for your advice and quick response.  I had done most of what you recommended before my most recent attempt at updating:

• made sure I had the most recent BIOS and other drivers by scanning computer at Dell website.
• downloaded the Media Creation tool and used it to make an ISO
• installed the latest Intel RST update
• ran the install from the mounted ISO

After doing all this, I still got the message about the iasota.sys file: "The inbox storage driver iastora.sys doesn't work on these systems and causes stability problems on Windows. Check with your software/driver provider for an updated version that runs on this version of Windows."

After receiving your suggestions, I used the Intel Driver Utility  and found that the only drivers needing an update were Bluetooth and the wireless card.  I performed these updates, but have not attempted to update Windows again.  I do not believe these changes will have any impact.

I am not ready to go through the torture of a clean install, especially since I believe that even that will stop because of the iastora.sys version issue.  What I believe is required is a workaround for this particular problem.  To reiterate, the two options I can think of are:

1. the iaStorA.sys file is obsolete and no longer needed now that the RST driver has been updated and the iaStorAV.sys file is the current driver.  If true, I could simply rename the file to iaStorA.old and attempt to update Windows again.
2. the updated RST driver still uses the old iaStorA.sys file, which is perfectly functional.  In this case, I believe the only way to do an install would be to wait for an update to the SetUp program that assesses the RST compatibility by using criteria other than the iaStorA.sys file.

Finally, I did download the f6flpy-x64.zip file for RST version 15.9.6.1044 (the one Microsoft recommended to use) to see if it contained an iaStorA.sys file that I could use to replace mine.  It did not (nor did the zip file for the RST version that I did install).  This is what leads me to believe that the old iaStorA.sys file is either no longer used by RST or is still used, but is perfectly functional with newer RST versions (in which case it should not be used to assess the installed version of RST).

Thank you for this. This is pretty much my situation since last week - when Windows informed me that my 11 month old Omen laptop would soon be unsupported. Then when I tried to update it, ran into the Windows Update block.

I updated my intel rapid storage driver both from the site recommended by Windows (the problems with the update page), and I even tried from HP, the producer of the machine. No joy. I have tried the recommended driver version, and the latest one. In fact the HP utility I ran to check my hardware gave me the following message, "you have the newest drivers. No update is available".

Neither do I want to go through the torture of a clean install. I hope someone fixes this ASAP. I have looked at my system files, and I too have the listing in explorer you have shown. Most of them are of a newer date, but I have an old iastora.sys from 2016. And I have heard stories that computers might not start at all if one goes deleting this file.

So all in all, I'm very uncertain about what I am to do here.