Samsung 960 Evo not detected in Z96 Extreme6 BIOS

benro2 wrote: Hi guys, I've got a problem with detecting my Samsung 960 Evo SSD (m.2 NVMe MZ-V6E250) on my Z96 Extreme6 MB. I have installed it into the M2_1 slot (the one which is labelled "Ultra M.2").  Please see these images which show my BIOS after the SSD was installed: As you can see in the second image, M2_1 is not detected. This looks to me like it's not a driver problem, it's a BIOS problem - is there some setting in the MB I need to change to get it to detect? As a side note, I am using Windows Home Server 2011, and all of my 10 SATA ports are being used.  I could not get the Samsung NVMe driver to install as it said it was an invalid OS - however once I get the drive detected in the BIOS I will look into that problem further.  I am hoping to use a generic Windows driver... Any help is much appreciated!

Which UEFI/BIOS version are you using? You should really have the 2.70 UEFI version installed, since it has the best added NVMe support of all versions. Z97 Extreme6 download page:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme6/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

Your 960 EVO MUST be in the M2_1 slot, or it will not work with your current configuration. If you are using the M2_2 slot when the SATA3_4 or SATA3_5 ports are in use, the M2_2 slot will not work. Also, the bandwidth of the M2_2 slot is less than half of the M2_1 slot, so the performance will be much lower.

Did you try looking in the UEFI, Tools\System Browser screen?

If you find it there, then there is no problem. Boards like yours (I own one too) that were released just before or close to the time NVMe SSDs were first available, may have the issue you have, NVMe SSDs are not shown in the Storage Configuration screen. That was the case for X99 and older chipset boards, which were released before NVMe SSDs were available, and NVMe support was only added afterwards. The base UEFI code being used at that time was not able to detect NVMe SSDs well in the M.2 or PCIe slots.

Also, check the Advanced screen in the UEFI, and see if you have an NVMe Configuration screen. I haven't used this board in a while, so I forget if that screen was added in the latest UEFI version. All it does is list NVMe SSDs. But as I said above, if you can see the 960 EVO in System Browser, you are fine.

Did you try opening Disk Management in Server 2011? Your 960 EVO won't be seen by the OS until you initialize and format it. But you may have a further problem using Server 2011, no native NVMe driver. Windows 7 does not have a native NVMe driver, so they cannot be used as the OS drive unless an NVMe driver is added to the installation files. I'm not sure about Server 2011, but given how old it is, I doubt it has an NVMe driver.

The Samsung NVMe driver only supports Windows 7, 8.1, and Windows 10. See this document, in the System Requirements section:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/downloads/software/Samsung_NVMeDriver_InstallationGuide_Rev22.pdf

The Windows NVMe driver is called stornvme.sys. You can apparently download it from the page below, but I have never used it in this form or downloaded from this source. I have no idea if it is usable or not, just offering it as is. You can find other sources of this driver, but none I have seen are directly from MSoft. Also, none list Server 2011 as compatible, so you may be out of luck using it:

http://www.pconlife.com/fileinfo/stornvme.sys-info/





Edited by parsec - 26 Aug 2017 at 10:21am

benro2 wrote: Hi parsec, Thanks very much for the prompt and detailed reply! I have upgraded the BIOS to 2.7 and now the SSD is being detected, but only displaying in the new NVMe Configuration screen.  It may also be in the System Browser (as there is an m.2 section highlighted with a yellow box) but I am unsure what this looked like before. I could also see the 960 Evo is now included in the boot order. When I booted into WHS 2011 a couple of pieces of software must have detected the hardware as they requested a license update. However, I still cannot see the drive.  I tried rebooting a second time, going into Disk Management and doing a disk rescan, no change.  Windows also attempted to get the drivers automatically but came back with nothing. I took a look at the link you supplied to download stornvme.sys directly and before playing this file into the following directories, just wanted to know what might happen if it's in the incorrect file: - C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ - No stornvme.sys exists here (as expected) - C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\stornvme.inf_amd64_dc8c4cf7f3dd94bb\ - This directory does not exist - should I create exactly as shown? - C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_stornvme.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16421_none_a24795fbc8263471\ - This directory does not exist - should I create exactly as shown? I also tried searching on pconlife.com for "stornvme.sys" and quite a few search results were returned.  Within the file version they contained some clue as to the OS they are meant for, however I am unsure what they mean.  For e.g.: 6.3.9600.16421 (winblue_gdr.131004-2100) - This is the one you linked me to 6.1.7601.18615 (win7sp1_gdr.140928-1509) - Presumably Win 7 SP1, 64-bit 10.0.10240.16384 (th1.150709-1700) - Unsure of Win version, 64-bit 10.0.14393.0 (rs1_release.160715-1616) - Unsure of Win version, 64-bit ... and so on... Do you know which win versions correspond to the text inside the brackets? At least now I know the hardware is not faulty and is being detected.  Now I just need Windows to recognise it! Do you think it is now just a driver issue?

I thought you needed the newest UEFI version. The yellow box for the M.2 slot in System Browser shows the 960 EVO.

I know it is a driver issue, you simply do not have an NVMe driver installed. No other type of driver will work with an NVMe SSD. Server 2011 does not have one, and the Samsung NVMe driver installer will not install the driver on any version of Windows Server. It may not be compatible. The same may be true for the MSoft NVMe driver.

You can get the Samsung NVMe driver files without the installation package on this page, but if you don't have a Device Manager entry for the NVMe controller under Storage Controllers, I don't know how you can use the driver besides with a fresh Server 2011 installation. Note that you want the "pure" version of the NVMe driver, scroll down to find it:

http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

Back to the stornvme driver, putting the file into the correct folder/directory is not what you need to do, and won't make the SSD work. If you are looking for a driver version for Server 2011, it does not exist. You just need to try installing different NVMe drivers, until you find one that works. It's is also possible that you may NEVER find one that will install with Server 2011. My guess is use a Windows 7 version, simply because both were released at about the same time. I don't know what version of Windows is identified by those codes.

You need to check Device Manager, and see if you have an entry under Storage Controllers, for the NVMe controller in your 960 EVO. Or a Device Manager entry for an Unknown Device, which would be the NVMe controller in your SSD. Either one will be for a device that does not have a driver, which is the NVMe controller in your 960 EVO.

For either entry, you need to open that entry, and go through the Update driver procedure from the Driver tab, where you Browse my computer for driver software. Then you provide the folder wherever the NVMe driver is located, and hope it installs.

If you don't have an entry in Device Manager for the NVMe controller, then the only other possible way is to try to install the NVMe driver during a Server 2011 installation. That may not work either. I've never done what you are trying to do.

If you plan on using the 960 EVO as the OS drive for a Server 2011 installation, that will be another challenge.

benro2 wrote: parsec, thank you very much for your assistance!  The SSD now appears to be working fine, although I haven't put it through any proper tests just yet.   Apologies for the late reply, but I had to return to work and didn't have much time to have a look at the problem.   Here's what I did after updating the BIOS, just in case anyone else is having similar problems to me:   1. Went to the link you posted above. 2. Downloaded the Samsung "pure" NVMe drivers for Win 7, 64-bit and extracted onto local disk. 3. Opened Device Manager.  In the "Other devices" section, there was an entry with a yellow exclamation mark labelled something like "Unknown PCIe Device".  Right-click this > Update Driver Software. 4. Pointed the updater to the extracted driver files.  They appeared to install but it resulted in an error (Code 10) which was "unable to start device" but I could now see "Samsung NVMe Controller" underneath the "Storage controllers" section, but with a yellow exclamation mark next to it. 5. Rebooted the computer. 6. Ran Device Manager and now the "Samsung NVMe Controller" didn't have any marks next to it. 7. Ran Disk Management and the new disk had been detected. 8. Selected "GPT" and created a new partition, all working fine.   Thanks again!

Great, thanks for letting us know what happened, and I'm glad it worked!

I was not sure exactly what you would see in Device Manager, but what you described makes sense.

The 960 EVO was never able to start without the driver, and once you installed it, the 960 EVO and Sever 2011 needed a restart to get it going. The entry under Storage Controllers for the 960 EVO's NVMe controller is exactly how it is shown in Windows 10. Using GPT formatting is correct.

Now we know that Server 2011 can be used with NVMe SSDs, and just like Windows 7 that does not have a native NVMe driver, we can install the basic Sansung 960 EVO driver via Device Manager.

I'm not 100% certain you can use that Samsung NVMe driver during a Server 2011 installation, to allow you to install it on a 960 EVO, since that is not the method that MSoft suggests for Windows 7.

I don't know if you would be able to clone your Server 2011 installation onto the 960 EVO. What are your plans for it, just wondering?