Samsung 960 EVO windows 10 help

Greg Giaquinto

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Aug 29, 2014
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Just bought a new rig and been having a nightmare of a time getting windows onto the 960.

I have searched all through this site/YT/reddit’s build a pc, and so far nothing has helped....

Hardware:
MSI M5 z370 updated to latest bios
Samsung 960 EVO in m2_1 (also tried m2_2 with no luck)
USB with windows 10 install media

All SATA devices are unplugged, but my bios and windows 10 installer is not detecting the m2 drive


BIOS:
In bios I have the raid option turned on and the m.2/optane genie turned on.

Sata mode set to raid/optane mode
M2_1/2 RST pcie storage remapping enabled

Windows 10 WHQL support turned on windows 7 installation turned off msi fast boot turned off.

Msi hardware board explorer does not detect the card in the slot and when i run the windows install, it’s not detected either.

On the storage list in bios, the drive is not detected.

I thought this might be DOA but in the RST section of the bios, it reads the drive info listing off the model, serial, size, status, controller type, and interface.

The status is non-raid.
Controller type is NVMe
Controller interface is PCIe.

Not sure what to do :( so if anyone can help then please I would really appreciate it. Been trying for 2 days and hours of interweb hunting with no luck.
 
Solution
- turning off the optane should not turn off the NVMe option all together, and it should still allow you to select AHCI mode
- Your best bet is to do a nice walkthrough your bios setting from an online tutorial, motherboard review of your motherboard Bios setting or from it's manual or through a youtube video, to make sure you're not missing out on any elementary step or settings especially MSI UEFI Bios interface is not the best out there and could be very confusing.

Here is a quick view from your motherboard manual available here : >>http://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/E7B58v1.1.zip
Page 55

>> SATA Mode [AHCI Mode]
Sets the operation mode of the onboard SATA controller.
[AHCI Mode] Specify the AHCI mode for SATA storage...

R0GG

Distinguished
- definitely get rid of the optane thing, make it AHCI and M2 in mode PCI express 3 x4, verify that both M2 slots are enabled
- check DRIVES BOOT ORDER, and for the HARD DRIVES LIST and SSD check that your M2 is a choice available for boot.

- During windows 10 installation select load drivers to load latest NVMe drivers from a spare usb dongle after downloading them.
- Try M2_2
- last resort : - downgrade bios to previous version.

I just spent 3 weeks working on installing windows 7 on Samsung 960evo and samsung PM961 NVMe SSDs, on Asrock fatality z170ac gaming (i7 6700k) and Asus z270E (i7 7700k) with success after long hours of trial and error with installation itself and drivers, don't get discouraged especially that you're installing windows 10 which is much easier.
 

Greg Giaquinto

Reputable
Aug 29, 2014
7
0
4,510
Hi rogg, that didn’t seem to help :/ also cannot find the nvme drives to download. Turning off the optane also turns off the m2. Also noticed from a YT video, I don’t have a create raid volume option.
 

R0GG

Distinguished
- turning off the optane should not turn off the NVMe option all together, and it should still allow you to select AHCI mode
- Your best bet is to do a nice walkthrough your bios setting from an online tutorial, motherboard review of your motherboard Bios setting or from it's manual or through a youtube video, to make sure you're not missing out on any elementary step or settings especially MSI UEFI Bios interface is not the best out there and could be very confusing.

Here is a quick view from your motherboard manual available here : >>http://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/E7B58v1.1.zip
Page 55

>> SATA Mode [AHCI Mode]
Sets the operation mode of the onboard SATA controller.
[AHCI Mode] Specify the AHCI mode for SATA storage devices. AHCI


[RAID/Optane Mode] Enables RAID function for SATA storage devices and Optane >> DISABLE THIS
function for NVMe or PCIe storage devices.

M2_1/ M2_2-RST Pcie Storage Remapping [Disabled]
Enables or disables Intel Rapid Storage Technology for M.2 PCIe devices.

M.2 Genie [Disabled]
Enables or disables M.2 storage to build RAID volume.
-
-- Samsung NVME driver: >>> http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/samsung-nvme-ssd-driver-download.html
I think winidows 10 should have NVMe drivers included but just in case you could select load drivers within windows 10 installation you never know.
 
Solution