Windows 10 NVMe M.2 Clean Install Question

[RhoXS]

About 2.5 years ago I installed W7 on a new Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe drive and new ASRock Z170 Extreme 6 Mobo. I had a very difficult time getting W7 to see the M.2 drive until I downloaded the appropriate M.2 drivers and copied them to the USB device with W7 on it. At the time it was also necessary to download the correct drivers in the correct format. In other words, using an M.2 drive required a lot of research and unexpected time to determine how to make it work.

The time has come to start from scratch and do a clean install so everything is fresh, fast, and reliable. Except for a different mobo (an ASUS Z170M-Plus), and W10, I will be reusing the same Samsung 950 Pro. During the W10 install process I will make sure the drive is reformatted so it will be a true virgin clean install.

Do I still need to manually add the correct drivers etc. to the W10 install USB device or is everything now included in W10? I cannot afford much downtime with this computer so I want to make sure this time I know exactly what I need to do.

 

[UsandThem]

Do I still need to manually add the correct drivers etc. to the W10 install USB device or is everything now included in W10? I cannot afford much downtime with this computer so I want to make sure this time I know exactly what I need to do.

Windows 10 saw my 960 EVO when I bought and installed it around a year ago. I had zero issues.

I personally set my UEFI only in the BIOS (or Windows 10 / non-legacy, just look at your manual as each motherboard maker calls it something different). Windows 10 saw my drive, formatted it in GPT format, and installed itself crazy fast.

Also, you don't need to format the drive when you do this, as you can simply just delete the partition under advanced options in the install, and Windows will create a new partition for you.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Do I still need to manually add the correct drivers etc. to the W10 install USB device or is everything now included in W10? I cannot afford much downtime with this computer so I want to make sure this time I know exactly what I need to do.

You shouldn't have any issues with 10. Windows 8.1 added an NVMe class driver (stornvme), so you don't need additional drivers for it. Also included are USB3 class drivers, so you can use USB3 devices at full speed during the install.

 

[RhoXS]

Thank you for the quick and useful replies.

Now that I have a better understanding with what to expect with respect to the drive, rather than start a new thread, I have a couple of other questions.

I have the Windows install key for my current installation. I am just reinstalling everything from scratch. Except for a different mobo, all other hardware will be the same. I will download Windows 10 from Microsoft.

-Is it better to use a DVD or USB device for the Windows install or, as I suspect, does it not matter?
-Will I get any hassle from Microsoft because of the new mobo and can this be resolved via the manual registration process?

 

[UsandThem]

-Is it better to use a DVD or USB device for the Windows install or, as I suspect, does it not matter?
-Will I get any hassle from Microsoft because of the new mobo and can this be resolved via the manual registration process?

I generally just use a USB install because it's quicker and easier for me. Just download the newest version from Microsoft.

It will likely deactivate your license, but depending on if you have an OEM or retail key, you'll likely have to call in to reactivate it. If you are using an OEM license, it just depends on difficult the customer service agent is. You can click on "recently changed hardware" if it doesn't automatically activate, and that might do the trick before having to call in.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I performed a clean install on a new build a couple of weeks ago with 10 home x64 on a usb3 drive and the 1709 installer didn't have any problem with the nvme ssd. Windows was already activated on that hardware so changing the boot drive from the old hd to the ssd was painless self activating upon the first boot.

 

[jkauff]

Two suggestions. If you have any other hard drives in the system, disconnect them before your clean install to force Windows to put all its boot files on the SSD.

Then, after the install, download the latest NVME drivers from Samsung. They're optimized for the Samsung controller, while the Win10 driver is generic and hasn't been updated in years.

 

[Kaido]

If you have a large USB stick or USB hard drive, you can use Macrium to (1) make the USB media bootable on that machine, and (2) clone over the entire boot drive to a backup image. That way if your installation doesn't work, you can just zap your original install back over.

But yeah, the latest MCT on USB has done a good job with NVMe detection for me. NVMe's are the bomb!