Inspiron 15 7577 and Samsung 960 Evo NvMe SSD

Short answer: There's nothing to worry about in terms of performance or reliability, but it's true that you won't be able to use Samsung Magician in this mode.  If the latter is a problem, chances are you'll need to do a full reinstall of Windows unless you have a specialized application like the paid version of Macrium Reflect.

Long answer: AHCI mode exposes the raw hard drive interfaces (both NVMe and SATA channels meant for HDDs, if any exist) to the OS.  RAID mode places all of the hard drive interfaces behind an Intel Rapid Storage controller.  The latter is the default factory configuration for a few reasons.  First, it enables a configuration used on some systems that involve a large spinning hard drive and a small (32B) SSD, with the latter serving as a large cache for the former in order to increase performance.  Second, it allows Windows 7 to be installed on NVMe SSDs (assuming there aren't any other compatibility issues such as too new of a CPU), since Windows 7 does not natively support NVMe, but can use it if all it's seeing is a storage controller that's handling NVMe on the backend itself.  The reason you can't switch is because Windows does not take kindly to changes in certain types of hardware.  With RAID mode, your Windows installation is set up to expect to load the Intel RST driver and find the boot drive there -- when you change it to AHCI, it basically loads an unneeded driver and now doesn't know where to find it.  Yes, the system still can boot from the hard drive after you switch to AHCI, but as strange as it sounds, it is possible for Windows not to be able to find itself, for reasons that would make this post too long.  You would find the same problem if you had installed Windows while the system was set in AHCI mode and you later tried to switch to RAID.

As I mentioned in my short answer, the typical answer is that if you want to change this setting, you should expect to have to perform a clean install of Windows so it will set itself up properly for the new storage interface, in fact normally a warning to this effect appears when you change this setting in the BIOS.  Did you not see such a warning when you made this change?  There are sometimes ways that you can tinker around with Windows in advance of the change so that you can shut down, make the change, and then have Windows boot properly again after the change.  I remember long ago in the XP days there was some sort of registry change you could make in advance, for example.  There's also a popular backup application called Macrium Reflect that includes a tool in its paid versions called ReDeploy, which is explicitly intended to facilitate restoring an image backup performed from one PC onto another PC (e.g. after a system failure), and it therefore is able to make some changes to Windows from an offline environment to prep it for booting on dissimilar hardware.

But basically, if you don't really care about Samsung Magician, just leave it alone and enjoy your PC.  If you really want Magician, you'll have to decide between looking for some sort of free solution to facilitate this, or performing a clean install, or finding an application, possibly paid, that will facilitate this change in-place for you.

I Know this is an OLD Post, but upon my searching this is the one that I found, so assuming it's still relevant:

Dave a Dell 15 (7577) 
Purchased a 970EVO MVMe M2 500GB Drive.

When Purchasing the drive be sure it is a "M" Slotted drive (MVMe) and not a "B" or 
Was able to finally get it all sorted with the best speeds, and the Samsung Magician software.
Test Speeds at the bottom of the Post.

The following steps were taken to get it all sorted.:

Please read all instructions prior to starting.

------ Part 1: Set up the BIOS.
If your coming from a Standard (Factory) Install, you will need to make some changes to the BIOS for the drive to function properly.
Unless you made these changes prior to now, you MUST re-install windows for this process to work If you CLONE your Data from the existing drive, you will boot loop as Windows was installed in NON-AHCI drive access mode.

1) Using the Dell Media Creator download software, Create Recovery media.
2) Backup all data you wish not to loose.
3) Remove the current NVMe Drive.
4) Install the Replacement drive.
5) Insert Install media in the USB Port
6) Press F12 after starting the computer, and on the menu select BIOS Setup.
7) Under System configuration -> SATA Operation, Change from RAID on to AHCI.
8) Save, Exit.
9) Repeatedly tap the F12 key when rebooting.
10) Select Boot device options.
11) Select your USB Stick.
12) Follow the directions to re-install your OS from when you Created the media.
13) select all your options for Windows 10 install.
------ At this point you should have a Clean install for windows, be logged in, and have internet access-----
14) Go to: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/
Download the following:
Under: Samsung Magician Software for Consumer SSD(3)
Magician Software, At the time of this was version 5.2, May be newer.
Under: Samsung NVMe Driver(2) 
NVMe Driver, At the time of this is Version 3.0
15) Install the Driver 1st.
16) Reboot.
17) Verify through Device manager the drive is listed under disk drives:
 NVMe Samsung SSD xxx SCSI Disk Device
18) Install Magician software.
19: You should be able to access all tools your drive supports hrough the Magician software at this time.

After all was said and done, Upgrading from the Dell installed drive to the 970 Was amazing.
Startup boot speed After install Firmware update and Windows update was <20 Seconds from Power on to full log in.

Through Magician Software benchmark:
NVME M.2 Samsung 970 EVO:
Sequential Read: 3,457 Write: 2,471
Random Read: 327,880 Write: 293,457

Sata III Samsung 860 EVO
Sequential Read: 555 Write: 517
Random Read: 77,636 Write: 73,486

It feels like a Whole NEW system.
Thank you for reading this long post.

Thanks for the instructions.  Worked perfectly for me.  Samsung EVO 970 1TB NVME is snappy fast now.

---

------ Part 1: Set up the BIOS.
If your coming from a Standard (Factory) Install, you will need to make some changes to the BIOS for the drive to function properly.
Unless you made these changes prior to now, you MUST re-install windows for this process to work

---

@labrown_nc You can do it however you want as long as you realize the two statements above are not correct, especially the bolded one.

I believe it is best to run an expensive NVMe drive in its native configuration.  But newer Intel drivers have added a performance boost and make the two installs comparable.   But you still need the NVMe drivers to be able to run the Samsung utility to update the firmware.

There is no reason to need Samsung Magician, every feature is present is available some other way. I have 6 computers all running Samsung SSD and virtually never use Magician. On my Asus G752 VY I even switch from RAID to AHCI just to see it there were any effective differences I didn't find any, using the Windows Native NVME driver is no different than running the Samsung NVME driver.

The only thing you may miss it the ability to easily run and firmware updates. I personally do not do that, Improvements are few and risk are many.

With all that said there is a way to convert from RAID to AHCI, here is the way

1. Run MSCONFIG
2. Enable Safe Boot (minimal)
3. Reboot into UEFI/BIOS and change to AHCI
4. Boot up into safe mode
5. Run MSCONFIG and disable Safe Boot.
6. Reboot

Ensure you back up your OS SSD before trying anything like this.  is all you need and an external drive to save Images too and a 4 to 8 GB Thumb drive that is data free as creating your recovery USB Media will format the USB thumb drive that you're creating your recovery drive on.

Is Seagate Firacuda 510 1TB SSD compatible with this laptop?

Read this thread, compare the SSD you want to use. Does it have the basic specification as these? m.2 NVME 2280 length.

For you specification on your particular notebook 

To get this information you need to log on to support, enter your model number and most importantly Enter your Service Tag Number. 

That will open all the hardware information on your Particular notebook, You should download and read your Service Manual there you will find out how to open your notebook

 The specification Tab will have all the Specs for your particular notebook. The Section of your Service manual will show you where the SSD goes and wether its SATA or NVME and 2 lanes or 4 lanes. once you know this information then purchase your new SSD.

I was going to install xpg sx8200 Pro, is there any difference from the installation of Samsung ssd? Also do I need to do anything about the windows license before or after the clean installation? Sry this question kinda late...been following up this post for years but didn't ask

SSD there are 3 types 2.5 SATA the same as any other 9mm hard drive.

M.2  SATA Slot has two breaks

M.2 NVME Slot has on break    Some notebooks can use either SATA or NVME you'll find that information if you don't already know it. In your full Specification or your Service manual.

Brands don't matter it's one of these 3 standards. Brands do matter in quality and functionality, warranty, and lifespan.

Some older notebooks also have an mSATA slot mostly tablets and very low-end notebooks. Some older notebooks use mSATA for RAID set up to buffer a Hard Drive.

hi! 

may i know the capacity for the Samsung 970 Evo Plus and Sata III Samsung 860 EVO you installed?

is it possible to 1. install a  SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 1TB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

is there a limit for the storage capacity on both nvme and 2.5 ssd?