[SOLVED] 4TB NVMe M.2 SSDs that work in W7?

jhayat

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Hi all :)

Does anyone know if there are any 4TB NVMe M.2 SSDs on the market that will work in W7?

You may already know this, but.... W7 SP1 (even tho fully up to date) does not have native NVMe support. Some time back, I bought a WD NVMe M2 SSD, and even though tech support said it should work, it did not. I retuned it, and purchased a Samsung EVO SSD, and that works b/c Samsung has a W7 driver.

I found the Sabrent 4TB ROCKET SSD, but support says that there is no driver for it, and it will not work w/W7.

I called Samsung, and they currently have no M.2 SSDs that are 4TB.

Any options?

Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
That Sabrent drive is the ONLY 4TB NVME consumer drive, period, that I can see. Windows 7 is going to be very limited on newer hardware because manufacturers don't want to waste time developing drivers (Yes, this costs them TIME and MONEY to do) for an operating system that is going to be EOL (End of life) and no longer supported come this January. If you continue to use Windows 7 after December, you will be on your own. Microsoft isn't going to support ANYTHING for that operating system anymore, except probably, as with past OS's, a few very critical security focused updates here and there. Drivers and optional updates, quality of life updates, everything, gone.

If your system is new enough to run a Samsung NVME SSD, it is new enough...
That Sabrent drive is the ONLY 4TB NVME consumer drive, period, that I can see. Windows 7 is going to be very limited on newer hardware because manufacturers don't want to waste time developing drivers (Yes, this costs them TIME and MONEY to do) for an operating system that is going to be EOL (End of life) and no longer supported come this January. If you continue to use Windows 7 after December, you will be on your own. Microsoft isn't going to support ANYTHING for that operating system anymore, except probably, as with past OS's, a few very critical security focused updates here and there. Drivers and optional updates, quality of life updates, everything, gone.

If your system is new enough to run a Samsung NVME SSD, it is new enough to run Windows 10, and I would suggest that you bite the bullet and update now, while you can still do so for free. I suspect after they kill off Windows 7, that capability is going to disappear.
 
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Solution
You could get 2x 2TB of Samsung SSD's put them on a PCIe expansion card that has two m.2 slots, then configure them as RAID 0. Though this is also a bit troublesome as it may also not be supported by W7. In the end, you're pretty much out of luck. W7 is old and there simply aren't any 4TB NVMe's on the market.

I also choose not to question what you'd want with a single 4TB NVMe that would cost nearly 800$ on an outdated OS.
 
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jhayat

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Thank you kindly gents :)

You could get 2x 2TB of Samsung SSD's put them on a PCIe expansion card that has two m.2 slots, then configure them as RAID 0.

My understanding is that if you do that, you are losing at least some (if not most) of the performance benefits that the M2 brings to the table.

I also choose not to question what you'd want with a single 4TB NVMe that would cost nearly 800$ on an outdated OS.

I currently have 5.3 TB of data. I need four M2 slots: O/S SSD, projects drive SSD, and two 4TB data SSDs. This will give me the opportunity to add more data as time moves on, which I will def want to do. I wouldn't mind having four 2TB data SSDs, but finding a MB that handles 128 GB RAM, and has four M2 slots which do not share b/w with a PCIe slot is going to be extremely difficult, if not next to impossible. Six slots? No way. Unless someone knows of one? :)

Thanks again.
 

popatim

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Sabrent doesn't have a driver for it because it uses the Microsoft driver. Check their other Rocket drives, no drivers for them either, even for Win10.

I don't see why Win7 would have an issue with it after you go thru all the painful hoops of getting it installed.

I just remembered, If I remember right, MS took the Win7 driver off their site for download so maybe that is what they mean...
 
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Yes, MS wants everybody moving to Windows 10, so if they can encourage that by removing critical support systems from Windows 7 users then they can force them onto one platform. It actually makes sense, because Windows 10 is superior anyhow in almost every regard but more importantly, it allows Microsoft to only have to focus primarily on ensuring compatibility with ONE operating system for drivers and other considerations, instead of being spread thin across many versions like they are now. If they put all the resources used to ensure compatibilty with Windows 7 and 8 into only Windows 10, they might actually be able to fix things that didn't break other things.
 
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jhayat

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Sabrent doesn't have a driver for it because it uses the Microsoft driver. Check their other Rocket drives, no drivers for them either, even for Win10.

I don't see why Win7 would have an issue with it after you go thru all the painful hoops of getting it installed.

I just remembered, If I remember right, MS took the Win7 driver off their site for download so maybe that is what they mean...

Yes, that is what they mean. Thanks.
 

popatim

Titan
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Since MS doesn't offer it, being a moderator and all, I cant really link to copy of the Microsoft NVME Driver for Windows 7 from an unofficial source but i'm sure with a little google-fu you can come up with it from a well respected Windows Seven forum.
 
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I don't think linking to third party or unofficial drivers is a problem. I don't see any way it could be. Link to it if you wish to.

I just don't see continuing to use Windows 7 as the solution, because in less than 48 days, that OS is done anyhow. There will be no further driver development for any future hardware and there will be no support for any aspect of Windows 7 unless perhaps you are a corporate client, and maybe not even then.

Certainly there are ways and means to get around it, and sometimes you can find drivers that "work" for certain things, but it's simply not worth the hassle or headache.
 

jhayat

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Since MS doesn't offer it, being a moderator and all, I cant really link to copy of the Microsoft NVME Driver for Windows 7 from an unofficial source but i'm sure with a little google-fu you can come up with it from a well respected Windows Seven forum.

Ok

Microsoft NVME Driver for Windows 7

I will start with that, and see where it takes me. I will then head over to the W7 forum, where I have gotten help before. If I can get that Sabrent drive working, I owe you a beer!