Question Maximus VII Hero M2 SSD Trouble

[Jaggy]

Ok I got this M2 the other day- XPG SX8200 PCIe NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 960GB
Now I know I wont get the full speed of this since I have an older M2 slot but I don't care. Trying to use this drive as storage and not a boot/OS drive. But the drive isn't recognized in drive management, so obviously can't format it.This is in Win7 Ultimate 64-bit fully updated. I have confirmed in the manual this M2 slot is PCIe based and not SATA.

My BIOS and device manager do indeed see the device.

Here's what I've done so far:
BIOS set to Default settings
BIOS updated to 3201, haven't tried the newer Beta 3503 yet (release date is only a year apart)
Enabled the M2 slot in the BIOS

Any ideas? Do I need to pickup an adapter? Didn't think this was necessary since I have the 2280 M2 slot. Here's my MB manual.

 

[Bearmann]

I think if you are using any of the PCI slots except for the last one (PCIEX4_3), the M.2 slot is disabled. (p. 1-26 of the manual)
You set the bios to M.2 mode? (p 3-38)

 

[DavidM012]

Windows 7 doesn't include NVMe support. There's a hotfix and a previous question and you will have to ask XPG for a windows 7 driver for it I don't see a download driver link on their page tho.

 

[Jaggy]

I think if you are using any of the PCI slots except for the last one (PCIEX4_3), the M.2 slot is disabled. (p. 1-26 of the manual)
You set the bios to M.2 mode? (p 3-38)

I dont have anything in that bottom slot. Just my two 770s in SLI above it. No sound card.
Yes I have M2 mode enabled in BIOS.

 

[Jaggy]

Windows 7 doesn't include NVMe support. There's a hotfix and a previous question and you will have to ask XPG for a windows 7 driver for it I don't see a download driver link on their page tho.

Yeah I was starting to lean towards needing a driver. But having trouble finding it, like you also noticed XPG has no drivers to download and MS no longer has it. Will start scouring for one and get in touch with ADATA.

 

[Jaggy]

Here's a pic of my device manager and two pics of my BIOS:

Sent in a support ticket to ADATA, will see how it goes with them.

 

[Bearmann]

I dont have anything in that bottom slot. Just my two 770s in SLI above it. No sound card.
Yes I have M2 mode enabled in BIOS.

Yes, I misinterpreted the manual. Why don't you upgrade to Windows 10? I haven't had time to study David's links, yet.

 

[Jaggy]

Ok problem solved, I needed the driver for Win7 and found it here! MS doesn't host the hotfix/driver anymore and neither ASUS or ADATA have it. So it was a bit of a scavenger hunt to say the least.

 

[Jaggy]

Yes, I misinterpreted the manual. Why don't you upgrade to Windows 10? I haven't had time to study David's links, yet.

I think Win7 is still great, at least until support ends next year. MS knows this and has a paid option for extended support. These will leak out to the die hard hold outs as well, at least any critical ones. (heard not long ago of a 10 update gimping gaming performance?) So as the gaming industry slowly fades out Win7 then I'll migrate over.

They made 10 much better than 8 but still looks and feels closer to it than I like. Also probably gonna be doing a new pc build in about a year anyway. This PC im on now is almost 5 yrs old, so its time.

 

[Bearmann]

Is your NVMe drive working?