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Go to SolutionPCIe samsung 970 EVO not recognized while installing Win 10
Hello Community:
I am writing here to find any help to install Samsung M.2 PCIe 970 EVO SSD on my T7920, after complete 2-days of trials with no success.
Bellow is the explanations of what I want, what I have did, and the problem:
I want to install PCIe M.s Samsung 970 evo 500-GB SSD on one of PCIe slots and make it the booting drive, instead of the current HDD. My OS is Windows 10 Pro for workstation.
I did the following steps:
1. I installed the hardware NVMe M.2 Samsung 970 evo into PCIe slot number 1 on the motherboard using the following adapter that I bought from Dell website:
2. Cloned the HDD to the SSD. Both are GPT initiated.
3. Remove the HDD from the PC so that it will not interfere with the new SSD installation process, and keep it safe in case the SSD OS is harmed.
4. The new SSD is detected in all of Disk manager, Windows My computer, and also defined/readable in the BIOS.
5. However, some driver (sound) gets disabled after sometime of windows updates &/ software installation &/ drivers update from Dell website (drivers & download). I tried a lot of repairs to overcome this with no successful results (including Reltek drivers update in normal and safe modes, PC diagnistics, ...). This leads me to install a fresh copy of Windows. Another reason that leads me to install the fresh copy of windows is that a successful installation of new bootable SSD needs this fresh installation as I learned from my deep search on many web documents, discussions, and movies. Another thing that leads me for fresh install of WIn. is that the driver I download from Samsung for this SSD gives me the following message while I am trying to install it: "Samsung NVMe Express device is not connected. connect the device and try again."
6. I creadted a Windows installation USB from MediaCreationTool1803. I tried both ways:
a) directly creating bootable USB.
b) create ISO file and use Rufus to create bootable USB. see following link (I tried also both NTFS and Fat32 formatted USB)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJGwOIgusnE
7. When starting installation process, both SSD and USB are UEFI bootable and available in BIOS (UEFI boot is enabled and Legacy is disabled). By starting from USB boot, and starting the installation process, the SSD is not recognized when reaching the step of choosing the disk where we want to install the OS.
Here I tried many procedures to deal with this issue including making SATA configuration RAID (default) / AHCI. try to add driver of the SSD while installing, where I downloaded several version of Intel Rapid Storage Tecnology and extract it in same USB and also different USB. to give a glance on what so over I did, I will list the below discussions I followed (some of them are from Dell knowledge Base and community):
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/uefi/
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-oem-faqs-and-downloads/
https://tinkertry.com/how-to-boot-win10-from-samsung-950-pro-nvme-on-superserver
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/help-cant-install-windows-10-on-samsung-960-evo.804210/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLwIpcwsdKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IJCgfDNEYs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoKnmRTbDGg
Dear all any help on how to overcome this issue of recognizing the SSD while installing? I really get hopeless.
Thanks a lot in advanced
I am reading your last discussion throughly and compare with what I did before, so that, I can get some conclusion on how to overcome this issue. I am trying to build the big picture of this issue and identify what are possible causes for these drives not getting detected.
Thanks for your discussion.
@grysql wrote:
@Tesla1856 wrote:
Well, I suppose Dell and Samsung should look into this.
I can tell you I have a Samsung PM-961 512gb SSD (M.2 PCIe NVMe) in my Aurora-R6 and it works fine.
I'm sure you checked this, but just in case ... after a good install attempt ... does the BIOS show "Windows Boot Manager" as boot Priority #1?
I thank you for your effort here, my Samsung 950 Pro works great too. Maybe there is still some time for me to get in a little blast of Wreckfest!
Yep, WinBootMgr is #1 priority in the BIOS. I'll keep trying some tricks, maybe copy the boot partition from the 950 to the equivalent partition on the 960 and see what explodes, haha. Not very tidy but at this point why not?
Right.
It seems that either due to new Windows v1803 or more likely due to the new controller in 960-Pro, something is not getting written to the SSD properly. Maybe a wrong signature or pointer.
I would suggest trying ...
Doing the install the way we know works on the 950. After it fails to boot, use the Windows Recovery Console to repair the boot sector so that Windows Boot Manager works properly (as it should).
Dell Rockstar
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@Tesla1856 wrote:
Right.It seems that either due to new Windows v1803 or more likely due to the new controller in 960-Pro, something is not getting written to the SSD properly. Maybe a wrong signature or pointer.
I would suggest trying ...
Doing the install the way we know works on the 950. After it fails to boot, use the Windows Recovery Console to repair the boot sector so that Windows Boot Manager works properly (as it should).
The 960 will not allow my Win10 Pro USB stick or a new Media Creation USB to install Win10 Pro past the 1st restart, the 'Alert: No hard drive' always stops further install procedures. Using a Recovery Tool at this point will not recover the 960 past a certain point when a ’There was problem...' window appears and stops recovery or reset.
I went so far as to do a complete clone of the bootable 950 to the 960. Then put the 960 in the same bootable interposer card that was booting the 950, no joy. After that, I attempted to recover this cloned 960 to see if it could be repaired, no joy.The Samsung 950 is 2D MLC NAND Flash, the 960/970's are 3D TLC NAND flash. I still suspect that my T7610's SMBIOS v2.7 and the Samsung 960's Photon and the 970's Polaris on-board Controller are not compatible, even though the BIOS is in UEFI Mode.
My Win10 Pro version is: Build 10.0.16299, Version 1709 “Fall Creators Update”/”Redstone 3”
@grysql wrote:
The 960 will not allow my Win10 Pro USB stick or a new Media Creation USB to install Win10 Pro past the 1st restart, the 'Alert: No hard drive' always stops further install procedures. Using a Recovery Tool at this point will not recover the 960 past a certain point when a ’There was problem...' window appears and stops recovery or reset.
I went so far as to do a complete clone of the bootable 950 to the 960. Then put the 960 in the same bootable interposer card that was booting the 950, no joy. After that, I attempted to recover this cloned 960 to see if it could be repaired, no joy.The Samsung 950 is 2D MLC NAND Flash, the 960/970's are 3D TLC NAND flash. I still suspect that my T7610's SMBIOS v2.7 and the Samsung 960's Photon and the 970's Polaris on-board Controller are not compatible, even though the BIOS is in UEFI Mode.
My Win10 Pro version is: Build 10.0.16299, Version 1709 “Fall Creators Update”/”Redstone 3”
Oh course, you are right. Not sure what I was thinking. :Embarrassed:
The SSD has to properly boot itself (instead of the inserted USB Flash drive) to finish phase-2 of the install. If it could do that, it would be working already. :Smile:
Also interesting that the direct clone didn't work.
When the 950 works (and the only thing you change is the 960-SSD) it's pretty obvious that there is some kind of compatibility problem with your machine and the 960. Hard to say if ultimate fix is inside your machine or the 960-SSD (or both). Samsung and Dell would have to examine it. I would report to both. Maybe you or your company has some "influence" with one of them?
Luckily, the 950 works fine. I would be tempted to do this about now (and get back to my life):
950 C: bootable for Windows (and plenty of extra space)
960 D: Programs and whatever (and plenty of extra space)Something like that. Or, if C: is big enough for both (Windows, all programs, with plenty of space to grow) ... just install the 960 in a different machine that needs a SSD.
Interesting problem. Sorry I could not be of more help.
Dell Rockstar
Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS Developer (Retired)
- Like many of you, I can appreciate a good game-engine.
- I answer questions here, but I'm not a Dell employee.
- Consider giving posts you like a "thumbs-up"
- Posting models-numbers and software versions speeds trouble-shooting.
- Click "Mark as Accepted Answer" on any post that answers your question best.I was sick in the past few days, so that I could not follow you.
However, I did some test with not hope. My final definitive conclusion is that the Samsung 970 M.2 is not recognized to the workstation as a bootable drive. This may come from one (or both) of two compatibility issues:
1. Some interposer cards are not help these SSD's to be booting drives, while other cards do.
I found the following page usefule:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/what-pcie-add-in-cards-can-boot-a-nvme-m-2-ssd.2498673/
2. The driver of PCIe drive is also very important to recognize the disks as bootable.
I found that Dell is gives some such drivers on website and name them as: Toshiba ... PCIe ... dirver, Intel ... PCIe ... driver, and so on. However, nothing found for samsung drives.
as you already have some cards which can help these drives to be bootable, then, I think the remaining issue is the driver.
Thanks
Another clue that the issue should be considered Started from Dell side is that the Samsung NVMe PCIe 960 and 970 EVO SSDs are installed as a PCIe bootable drives for other motherboard manufacturers, as can be seen by simple web search.
Thanks
@Hassan-WS wrote:
1. Some interposer cards are not help these SSD's to be booting drives, while other cards do.
2. The driver of PCIe drive is also very important to recognize the disks as bootable.
1. Right. But his adapter card is tested "good" with 950-SSD.
2. Right, but the 950-SSD works. Also, this "Intel F6 Driver" you are referring to does not apply to UEFI/AHCI configuration. At least, not that I've even seen.
Dell Rockstar
Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS Developer (Retired)
- Like many of you, I can appreciate a good game-engine.
- I answer questions here, but I'm not a Dell employee.
- Consider giving posts you like a "thumbs-up"
- Posting models-numbers and software versions speeds trouble-shooting.
- Click "Mark as Accepted Answer" on any post that answers your question best.
@Hassan-WS wrote:
Another clue that the issue should be considered Started from Dell side is that the Samsung NVMe PCIe 960 and 970 EVO SSDs are installed as a PCIe bootable drives for other motherboard manufacturers, as can be seen by simple web search.
Thanks
Agreed. But still, it is possible that Samsung "dropped support" for older configs. Either intentionally or accidentally.
It's rare, but I've seen something similar once...
Many years ago, Dell tried shipping Micron SATA SSDs on some new machines (as Micron entered the SSD market). IIRC, the problem was they would not boot. They had send-out techs to swap the SSDs to different model. Many other customers just returned the machines.
That's when we truly learned that Dell doesn't actually "boot machines" and test them before they leave the factory. As you know, that is done by the customer (and they then do the Windows "First time Setup").
Dell Rockstar
Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS Developer (Retired)
- Like many of you, I can appreciate a good game-engine.
- I answer questions here, but I'm not a Dell employee.
- Consider giving posts you like a "thumbs-up"
- Posting models-numbers and software versions speeds trouble-shooting.
- Click "Mark as Accepted Answer" on any post that answers your question best.
grysql
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Posted September 19th, 2018 20:00
I thank you for your effort here, my Samsung 950 Pro works great too. Maybe there is still some time for me to get in a little blast of Wreckfest!
Yep, WinBootMgr is #1 priority in the BIOS. I'll keep trying some tricks, maybe copy the boot partition from the 950 to the equivalent partition on the 960 and see what explodes, haha. Not very tidy but at this point why not?