ASRock Z170 X6 - Will Not See M.2 Samsung 950 Pro PCIE Drive

[RhoXS]

I just completed a new build using an ASRock Z170 X6 and a Samsung 950 Pro 500 GB PCIE M.2 Drive. The M.2 drive is seen by the bios as a Boot Priority but it does not show as an installed drive under Storage Configuration. As a result, W7 does not see it when I try to install the OS.

I just updated the bios to the latest P1.70 but that did not help.

I tried all the usual obvious troubleshooting steps (reseated the M.2 drive, cleared the bios, etc.) and I have nothing plugged into any of the Sata ports. It seems strange that the M.2 drive is seen by the bios as a boot priority but it does not show as an installed drive.

I am assuming there is a bios setting or jumper that needs to be changed but there is nothing obvious. I would appreciate some help as the 500 GB Samsung PCIE 950 Pro M.2 drive is the only drive I intend to use with this system.

 

[zir_blazer]

Windows 7 does not work out of the box with NVMe based SSDs, it is not aware of them. Its exactly the same that trying to install Windows XP with the SATA Controller running in AHCI mode.

 

[RhoXS]

Windows 7 does not work out of the box with NVMe based SSDs, it is not aware of them. Its exactly the same that trying to install Windows XP with the SATA Controller running in AHCI mode.

Is there any solution if I want to use W7?

This problem appears to me to be more of a bios than a Windows issue because strangely (to me) the bios only sees the drive as a Boot Priority but not as a Storage Device.

 

[vailr]

This first video mentions that only the very latest Intel RST driver version 14.6 or later is required to be available (on a USB thumb drive) during the Windows installation, whether for Windows 10 or earlier Windows 7/8/8.1 version (64-bit only).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhB7K13SXZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No-ct8pQcIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLwIpcwsdKY

https://tinkertry.com/how-to-boot-win10-from-samsung-950-pro-nvme-on-superserver

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...nt/Samsung_NVMe_Driver_Installation_Guide.pdf

 

[Dahak]

What need to be done is like zir_blazer said, you would have to add the drivers for the Samsung pro drive when you go to install Win 7, after selecting the language, there will be an option to Load Drivers at the empty partition window. Click on that and specify the usb drive that you have the drivers stored on

Unfortunately Samsung only has them listed as a .exe and no option to extract it so you would have to get them from here
http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

And you want to get the ">pure 32/64bit Samsung NVMe Driver v1.4.7.16 WHQL<"
Download that and extract it and copy those files/folder to a usb drive and you should be good

The other thing I find is Win7 is picky with pure UEFI mode for the bios, so it would be a good idea to enable the CSM mode and leave it on

 

[RhoXS]

Thanks for the advice.

One thing I don't at all understand. If the bios is not correctly seeing the drive, how will the drivers resolve the problem as I perceive Windows works through the bios for the I/O functions associated with all drives and all the drivers do are to facilitate Windows playing nice with the bios?

 

[RhoXS]

I made the drivers Dahak referenced above available to the W7 installer and, to my surprise, it worked perfectly. I don't understand how any drive is available to Windows that the bios does not see but it obviously is as I am typing this on the machine I was asking about. Thanks

 

[Z15CAM]

Another example as to why we are losing our privacy over MS Operating Systems Vs Hardware forcing Win10.

Some what trivial argument when there is a fix when we have to do it - Not MS.