ASRock X99 OC: Windows 7 x64 UEFI on Samsung SM961

skunkworks wrote: Hi, X99 OC Formula 3.1 CPU E5-2683 v4 Samsung SM961 m2 SSD ASUS GTX1060 Turbo HyperX Fury 4x8GB SSD sits in m2 ultra slot and GTX in PCIe slot1. Any Idea how to install Windows 7? >I don't like windows 8/8.1/10 I've tried integrating NVMe drivers (W7 hotfixes) with NTlite. Made USB stick with Rufus using GPT for UEFI. No Success. I get error  Boot\BCD missing. Status: 0xc000000d. Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file is missing required information Note that I have CSM disabled - the GTX is GOP, so all devices are UEFI bootable. Any Help & Ideas are much appreciated!

IF you are certain you have an NVMe driver integrated into your Windows 7 installation media, that is the first fix for Windows 7. But there is another problem with Windows 7 and UEFI booting (CSM set to Disabled).

The Win 7 EFI boot loader file in the Win 7 installation files and folders is in the wrong location, the installation program cannot find it. I will give you a link to a guide that describes this problem and how to fix it. This problem is ONLY with Windows 7. That error message describes it perfectly.

Also, I do not use Rufus to create the USB flash drive installation media, I have seen more failures when people use it than not. The guides that use Rufus seem to forget, or assume, that Rufus fixes the Windows 7 EFI boot loader problem. It doesn't.

I install Windows in UEFI booting mode if I'm just using a regular SATA SSD, to get the benefits of UEFI firmware. I've done that with Windows 7, so I know this fix is required.

In the guide below, skip ahead to Option Two, Manually Create a Bootable UEFI USB Flash Drive:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

Double checking a few things, when you select the USB flash drive Windows installation media in the boot order, you must select the entry with, "UEFI: <flash drive name>", otherwise the installation will not work.

You must ONLY have the target OS drive connected to the mother board, or at least no other drives connected to power during the installation.

Do not pre-format the SM961. Since it is now formatted, either secure erase it (IF possible, be VERY careful, I would not try using Parted Magic) or delete all the partitions using diskpart before the installation, or delete the partitions during the installation, in the Custom installation option.

Let the Windows installer format the SSD. Once it is unformatted and recognized in the Custom installation screen (meaning your NVMe driver integration worked) just click the New button. That should result in five partitions on the SSD, GPT formatted.

Since it is Windows 7, you must use a USB 2.0 port.

No idea what NVMe driver you are using, but some users have trouble with the Windows NMVe driver and the Samsung SM series of NVMe SSDs. You can try to install the Samsung 950 Pro driver after the Windows 7 installation, unless you are using the extracted Samsung NVMe driver files from the Samsung Windows NVMe driver installation program.