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How To Install Windows On A PCIe SSD

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Eric View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eric Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Mar 2016 at 9:21am
Point of clarification: I am installing from DVD not USB. When the "missing driver" thing comes up, it does not seem in terested in actually loading one.  I can't get it to look for the driver (the one that worked for the legacy install) on the CD. So I copied it to a USB drive but it made no difference.

Again, thanks for the efforts of everyone here.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Mar 2016 at 11:21am
Originally posted by Eric Eric wrote:

Thanks for this guide.

My trouble started when I tried to add some data drives in a RAID array to what I thought was a successful windows installation. Turns out I had installed in legacy mode (before I found this guide).

Starting over and following the instructions, I had the same trouble as thecrimsonchin with the missing CD/DVD driver. This was not my experience the first time around. That time, I got past "install now" and had to use the "load driver' button to load the NVSe driver. This time I don't get that far as I get "...required CD/DVD driver is missing".

He solved his problem by buying a new OS, I don't want to do that just yet.  Thanks in advancec for any help anyone can provide.

Eric




What OS are you using? Would that be Windows 7? It sounds like you are, but you did not specify.

If you are using Windows 7, there are two issues with installing Win 7 in UEFI (non-legacy) mode.

I'll wait for confirmation of that to explain further. It is possible to use Win 7 now with NVMe SSDs in UEFI mode, but it is not a simple task.

A list of your basic hardware, mother board, UEFI version, the drives you are using, and your OS version will make both of our lives easier. Wink

What PCIe SSDs are you using? Are they the ones in the RAID array?

NVMe SSDs used as data drives can be used with legacy Windows installations. UEFI mode is required for NVMe SSDs as the OS/boot drive, or RAID arrays of NVMe SSDs.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eric Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2016 at 12:20am
Thanks for responding, and sorry to have posted without giving all the relevant information.

I have a z170 extreme7+ and I am attempting to install Windows7 on a Samsung 950 in M2_1.  I was actually able to do that, incorrectly I think. I located an F6-able NVMe driver at http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html (sorry I can't seem to create a proper hyperlink here) and provided it at the "where are we installing" step which made the 950 visible. Windows installed and updated.

Then I decided to add a pair of HDDs from my old system. They had been in a RAID 0 array there, so I wanted to see if I could reproduce the array in the new build so I wouldn't have to restore data from backup. I went into UEFI and switched the SATA contoller over to raid, grumbling to myself that I hadn't done that before installing windows. At that point the 950 drive vanished and would not even show up in the system browser in UEFI.

After considerable swearing I was able to get the drive back but nothing I do seems to make the machine able to get back into windows. That's when I came here and realized I had installed windows in legacy mode and shouldn't have done it that way. So no great loss in the previous installation.

So I went with method #2 in your original post, but it froze where windows has the colorful dots that coalesce into a window. So I re-enabled CSM and set the video to legacy; not sure why I should have needed to do that as skylake is definitely post sandy bridge.

Verifying that I had a "UEFI" prefix for my DVD drive, I put the windows disk in and booted. It came up fine. Click "Next". That should have taken me to the "where will we be installing" screen where I would click "load driver" to load the NVMe driver to make the 950 show up like last time. But like thecrimsonchin, I don't get that far. I get the missing CD/DVD driver message.

When that comes up, I click "browse". A "my computer" style window comes up and there are three drives listed -- C:system reserved, D:something I can't remember, and X:Boot. Selecting any of these results in "no driver found". I can browse X, that appears to be the Win7 image in a RAM drive. D: gives me "you must format this drive", and C: appears empty.

Figuring it's not actually a DVD driver that it's looking for, I have the disk in the drive onto which I burned the NVSe driver that worked before, but the installer shows no sign of wanting to go look for it there. Copying the driver to a USB drive doesn't work either, the USB stick lights up but there's no other evidence that anything knows it's there.

So I am stuck. Thanks again for any help you can provide.

Eric
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2016 at 2:10am
Thanks for the information. I figured you were trying to use Windows 7.

Win 7, or really the location of an essential file for a UEFI booting installation, is in the wrong place among all the files used for an installation.

The Win 7 installation program cannot find the EFI bootloader file/program. It expects it to be in a certain folder, but it isn't. That program must be used instead of the legacy bootloader. As you saw, the Win 7 installer cannot find this file, not that the error message being displayed is informative. That is the problem you are having.

The good news it is possible to fix the bug in the location of the EFI bootloader file. The not so good news is it takes some work to fix the location of this file in your installation media.

Below is a link to a guide that describes how to fix the Win 7 installation file layout. This guide works, I've used it myself in the past. It will be far more useful than trying to explain this to you myself:

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

Step 11 is the part that describes the fix for the location of the EFI bootloader file. You will need to study the ENTIRE guide since you will be creating the Win 7 installation on a USB flash drive. You cannot fix the Win 7 installation disk, since you cannot write or modify that disk.

This guide covers multiple ways to create the USB flash drive. That means you don't need to do everything explained in the guide. I strongly suggest you read through this guide and know what you will be doing before you start. If you just try to do a "cookbook" type of procedure, following instructions without reading things first, you will likely make mistakes.

There is no other way I am aware of to fix the Win 7 installation media for a UEFI booting installation.

I'll be happy to help you with this if you have questions, etc. One tip you need to know that is not in the guide is don't use a USB flash drive larger than 16GB. A USB flash drive of 8GB or 16GB is the ideal size. The Windows installation program can't deal with a larger flash drive.

Another thing I noticed, about changing to RAID mode. You cannot just change to RAID mode with a Windows installation that was NOT done in RAID mode. If you are installing Win 7 fresh again, then set the SATA mode to RAID before you do the Win 7 installation.

I'm not sure where you plan on doing the Win 7 installation, on your SM951 or the BX200.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eric Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2016 at 4:12am
Thanks so much for your help! I could never have found that guide on my own. I will read it, follow it, try not to screw up, and then come back here to let you know how it went. The install will be to the Samsung 950 pro; I dont know what a BX200 is Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2016 at 11:49am
Great, thanks!

Don't forget to install the Samsung NVMe driver, which is essential even after fixing the Win 7 installation problem. Win 7 does not have an NVMe driver built in.

I see that MSoft now has a "hotfix" for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that adds an NVMe driver to the installation files. The process to do this looks more complex than fixing the Win 7 EFI bootloader file location. If we can load the NVMe driver during the installation, why not?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eric Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2016 at 5:41am
Okay, I read the guide thoroughly as you suggested, and proceeded, using the rufus method -- on about page 25 of the thread someone asked if rufus took care of the "move the file up a directory" step (step 11) for you, and he was assured it did.

The problem I am having is that my USB won't boot. I loaded UEFI defaults, just in case, and went in and changed two things: SATA mode to RAID, and CSR to disabled. When I do that the only bootable device listed is "UEFI: USB generic". So I exit UEFI and let it boot, but after about three mississippis it just goes right back into UEFI.

I can also use F11 to go to the boot menu, and again my only option is "UEFI: USB generic", but that doesn't make any difference.

Googling things like "UEFI USB won't boot" and similar gives lots of results where people were having trouble between UEFI and legacy booting, but so far I haven't seen anything where someone was experiencing what I am.

You mentioned not to go larger than 16Gb; I am using a 16Gb because that's what I found, easily, anyway. Think it'd be worth trying again with a 4Gb drive?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eric Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2016 at 9:49am
I am a dope. Ignore previous post, as I am a dope. Wait, I said that already.

Turns out, Rufus defaults to MBR for the "partition sccheme and target system type" . I did have the presense of mind to change that to GPT, but then when you select an ISO file it puts it back to MBR. So it wasn't bootable.

Re-did rufus with everything set correctly and I am now installing as I type this.

Thanks, parsec, for this guide and your help with it, without which I would have been utterly unable to properly install my OS.

Eric
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2016 at 1:14pm
Great, thanks, I hope your Win 7 UEFI booting installation works for you! Not to many of those in use. Cool

I've heard about the Rufus situation with MBR and GPT partitioning, which does not make sense to me. I don't use Rufus, and the manual method of creating the USB flash drive does not do anything to cause GPT partitioning of the OS drive. It should be just selecting the "UEFI: <flash drive name>" entry in the boot order. I must be missing something somewhere otherwise... Confused

I let the Windows installation program format my drives, and it always does it correctly.

I must admit I forgot about the problem with Win 7 and doing a UEFI installation... I need to fix my guide and add a section about Win 7, as I described to you. Now who feels like a dope... Wacko
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Arlen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2016 at 4:20pm
Hello,
Trying to install Win10 on Kingston M2 Hyperx Predator SSD.
The system hang after reboot and is not able to complete installation.
I tried disabling CSM or setting disk to uefi only both create same result.
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