XPS 8700, Samsung NVMe driver, Windows 10 install

BlakeWeaver10,

Q: Do I need to do anything for my NVMe drives to work with my Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 image?
A: MAYBE - Depending on how your image was prepared and the source operating system used, you may need to inject NVMe drivers into your Windows 8.1/10 image.

Frequently asked questions regarding NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs)

What are PCIe SSDs and how to use them as a boot drive for a Dell PC?

The default Boot Mode is set to UEFI and the operating system is installed in the UEFI Mode from the factory. The System will display the following error if the Operating System was installed in UEFI Mode and the Boot Mode has been changed to Legacy or Vice Versa.

To correct this error, The user needs to change the Boot Mode in the System Setup from Legacy to UEFI Mode.\

How to fix a no boot caused due to wrong Boot Mode set in System Setup?

The System will display the following error if the operating system was installed in UEFI Mode and the Boot Mode has been changed to Legacy or Vice Versa.

How to install windows in UEFI Mode?

Select UEFI using the arrow keys to navigate and press enter.

as indicated in my post i am booting with uefi, secure boot is disabled, and load legacy oprom(cms) is also disabled.

Yes night i was using an older image of win 10 and it did find the drive during the windows install and attempted to install windows 10.  I walked away and when i returned it had rebooted back to the USB drive since it was selected first on the boot sequence.  I unplugged and rebooted but it couldnt find a boot device.  

I decided to grab a newer copy of win 10 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) since my usb drive was a little old.  when i did this and tried to install windows again, it wouldn't detect the drive.

---

@BlakeWeaver10 wrote:

Download the driver for 970 evo on samsungs website but its in .exe format.  When i copy to usb drive and click the "load drivers" on win 10 install it doenst find the driver (guessing because its in exe format.)  

 

---

No, that is not required. Anyway, the "F6-Driver" is only for SATA drives, and this is instead the PCIe/NVMe Interface.

UEFI-Mode, and SecureBoot OFF (for now, during install) should be fine.

On other machines, it also seems to help if you switch SATA Interface from RAID to AHCI (in BIOS).

SSD should be completely blank (preferably RAW and uninitialized) before you start.

I'm not going to get into Diskpart and WINDOWS PE

WinPE version     Current CAB
WinPE 10     A08 (04/24/2018)

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/11530.winpe-10-driver-pack

You have to UNZIP the cab files using 7ZIP or similar then Burn to DVD or usb flash drive.

The F6 Driver for N V M E is very recent and IS REQUIRED to SEE the hard drive. AHCI is for SATA  drives. PCIe is for N V M e  this means you setup as RAID in SATA OPERATION NOT AHCI.

1. make sure the bios is updated. a lot of bios patches for nve.
2. use windows media creation tool to make the newest windows 1803 iso on a usb dvd drive if you do not have built in.
3. sometime you may have to change sata operation to RAID PCI-E instead of AHCI.
4. with new bios and windows 10 set the bios to windows 10 boot.
5. for speed booting you can set the bios to efi only and turn off the legacy bios.
6. if you turn on fast boot you may not be able to get F2 back into bios.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27518

Applies to ALL WINDOWS VERSIONS

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2990941

You have to UNZIP the files and Burn to CD or put on USB Flash Drive and POINT to the OTHER DRIVERS to SEE the drive.


Windows 10, 32-bit*
Windows 10, 64-bit*
Windows 8.1, 32-bit*
Windows 8.1, 64-bit*
Windows 8, 32-bit*
Windows 8, 64-bit*
Windows 7, 32-bit*
Windows 7, 64-bit*

Language: English
Size: 1.51 MB
MD5: e1e2cf4676483f6e05af87428b3397c7
https://downloadmirror.intel.com/27518/eng/SetupNVME.exe

Language: English
Size: 0.23 MB
MD5: 42606238ab1963c70a6218bbb2fbd285
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/27518/Client-x86.zip

Language: English
Size: 0.24 MB
MD5: 606554b6af00ebb5180bffcdcdd5329d
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/27518/Client-x64.zip
Intel RSTe NVMe GUI requires the presence of Microsoft .NET 3.5 or greater on the system.  ALL VERSIONS OF WINDOWS DO NOT HAVE THIS by default.
 

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/ssdc/ssd-software/Intel_RSTe_NVMe_for_Windows_Guide.pdf

---

@BlakeWeaver10 wrote:

I stuck a new HDD in the desktop and loaded windows on it.  When booted to windows i can use diskpart and i see the NVMe drive, i even did a "clean" command on it.  I loaded the drivers for it from samsungs website and rebooted.  However, when i boot from my usb win10 media on the "select drive to install windows on" screen it does'nt list the drive still.  Using SHIFT+F10 i can get to diskpart and no NVMe drive listed there or in bios.  Can someone confirm my Dell XPS 8700 with bios update A12 will support booting from NVMe drives? I read it did but just wanted to confirm

---

Since you finally saw the NVMe SSD in Windows, you know the SSD and PCIe-card are installed properly and working (hardware wise).

See this:

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/td-p/6073037

You can also run DiskPart from PE embedded in bootable USB Macrium Rescue FlashDrive to easily erase SSD (with DiskPart clean) and leave it uninitialized.

Before clean-install, go into BIOS and be sure SSD is showing-up in BIOS, and also reporting the correct size.

.

---

@speedstep wrote:

 

The F6 Driver for N V M E is very recent and IS REQUIRED to SEE the hard drive.

 

Hmm.

Well, all I know is ...

I recently clean-installed Windows-10 (as above) on an Inspiron 5570 Laptop (with a Samsung 512gb PM961 NVMe/PCIe SSD) with only the Microsoft USB-bootable ISO (made with Media Creation Tool).

Additionally, many here have reported success doing the same with similarly equipped (ie NVMe SSD installed) Aurora-R5/R6.

Maybe something changed recently, but that is my prior experience.

UPDATE:  Thanks for all the help on this so far guys.

So i changed the drive option to RAID instead of AHCI in the bios.  And booted to my win 10 usb drive(i am using the latest 1803).  I was then able to see the NvMe drive during the windows install. Only thing i did was change to RAID option.  even though i was able to see the new drive, I attempted to load the drivers from the extracted CAB you mentioned anyway but when searching the usb drive that i copied the files to, it said no drivers were found.  I proceeded to install windows anyways on the new nvme drive and it completed and restarted.  I removed the win10 usb drives during reboot but it cant find any boot devices.  "No boot device available", when booting.  The drive still isnt listed in the bios either.  Might need some more direction on this.

---

@BlakeWeaver10 wrote:

UPDATE:  Thanks for all the help on this so far guys.

1.  I was then able to see the NvMe drive during the windows install.

2. I removed the win10 usb drives during reboot but it cant find any boot devices.  "No boot device available", when booting.  The drive still isnt listed in the bios either.  Might need some more direction on this.

---

1. So now you know ... no extra Drivers (F6 or otherwise) are required.

2. I would not remove Win10-USB so early. Wait until later ... after machine is booting on it's own C: drive. 

It doesnt seem to matter how soon i remove the usb drive. It just tries to go back through the install proves since it cant find any other bootable device.  Apparently some driver is needed because my bios is still not detecting the ssd drive.  When i go through the install process though it appears it created all the necessary recovery partitions and theres about 20GB less free space on the disk now.  

In my bios there is no section that lists anything about PCIe or NVMe device.  I'm wondering if bios update A12 really does support booting from NVMe drives.  

Hi Blake - I am in a similar situation but it sounds like you have made it further than me.  I just picked up a Samsung 970 EVO after I thought I verified that my Dell 8700 has an MSATA slot.  I have tried plugging it in multiple times (in both AHCI and RAID but no matter what I do, the BIOS doesn't recognize it and if I go into the A12 Bios with F2 and navigate to MSATA it always says empty.

I was reading your post and it sound like you installed a PCI Adapter and mounted the drive in there, correct?  A few questions:

1) For the 8700 on BIOS a12 is installing that adapter (rather than using the MSATA slot) required?

2) Somewhere else I thought I read that you could not boot off of a drive in that type of adapter.  Have you made any headway?  I was hoping to clone my OS from my older, slowing down Samsung P800 but would be fine with re-imaging Windows if that is necessary

3) Any other advice?  Am I better of sticking with a standard SATA SSD like the 860 (which should be much speedier than my PM800)?

Thanks in advance

Larry

---

@LarzR wrote:

 

3) Any other advice?  Am I better of sticking with a standard SATA SSD like the 860 (which should be much speedier than my PM800)?

Thanks in advance

Larry

---

I guess this is one of the first SSDs ever created.

This says the Samsung PM-800 is mSATA form-factor and only SATA-2. That should mean it's limited to 300 speed. You should see sequential read speeds about 250, with writes a bit slower.

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-pm800-128gb-msata-ssd-review-samsung-quietly-releases-another-top-tier-ssd/

Yes, a SATA-3/600 is conceivably about twice as fast. You should see reads around 500 (as long as the controller is also SATA-3).

Thanks Tesla!  Just a quick update, after purchasing a PCIe adapter and trying for the better part of a day to get anything (BIOS, Windows Install, Disk Management) to recognize the NVME disk with no success, I surrendered and exchanged the drive for a Samsung 500GB EVO 860 which I installed successfully and partitioned into two drives.  On the first partition I cloned my fully configured OS from my old PM800 and on the second one I restored a backup of a clean Windows 10-1803 install and both are now booting fine and performing WAY better than on the PM800. 

Thanks for the help!

Larry