I think there is a newer version of RST based on NVMe and it has the same problem: if the system is in RST mode the SSDs aren't visible. Dell even has a recent article about this exact problem: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000188116/intel-11t...
Also, you can reboot into safe mode on Windows 10/11 and even 8/8.1, and before it reaches Windows initialization, enter the BIOS/EFI, toggle the AHCI/RAID/RST mode flag, save and exit BIOS/EFI, continue booting Windows to safe mode, install drivers if they aren't automatically installed by Windows, then reboot to exit safe mode. Apparently safe mode re-initializes the HAL similarly to the first install reboot OOBE mode, but normally HAL doesn't like you doing this in normal boot mode.
enter the BIOS/EFI, toggle the AHCI/RAID/RST mode flag
He said (with screenshots) that flag doesn't exist. Maybe he didn't look hard enough for the flag and didn't look hard enough for the driver though. I got a "I don't want to fix my laptop; I want to complain" vibe from the blog post.
I suspect that Fast Startup and/or dirty bits on partitions are causing the EFI to disable those modes, and/or secure boot and/or Windows 8/10/11 "optimized settings" checkboxes causing the mode to not display or otherwise not be available, as I allude to in another thread on this post. Dell is not the only offender in this, as I've seen even more locked-down EFIs than Dell's that won't even allow you to disable secure boot.
Yes, I would agree! I also agree with you that OP didn’t seem to be troubleshooting as much as venting, but from the Reddit thread that someone else posted, OP seems sympathetic and responsive to helpful commenters, so I hope that they see this HN post if they still need it, which was unclear from the Reddit thread.
