Updatred samsung 950 PRO NVMe driver released

[The Original Ralph]

For those with a samsung 950 PRO as the title states, samsung has released an updated NVMe driver as well as an updated vs of magician

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html?CID=AFL-hq-mul-0813-11000170

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[The Original Ralph]

no problem - one of the mods on the asus mobo support forum noticed it first

forgot - in the installation guide, there's an instruction to install the new driver PRIOR to installing the OS - not sure why, as everyone has had no issue installing on an existing OS - at least i didn't on win 7 x64

 

[rcald2000]

I appreciate the notification, as I wasn't aware of the updated driver nor magician.

The thread below summarizes my initial experience with the 950 Pro.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2907040/upgrade-intel-750-samsung-950-pro-random-read-iops-spec.html

 

[jdevola]

no problem - one of the mods on the asus mobo support forum noticed it first

forgot - in the installation guide, there's an instruction to install the new driver PRIOR to installing the OS - not sure why, as everyone has had no issue installing on an existing OS - at least i didn't on win 7 x64

Where is the instruction to install prior to OS install (it does not appear in the guide PDF)?

 

[The Original Ralph]

no problem - one of the mods on the asus mobo support forum noticed it first

forgot - in the installation guide, there's an instruction to install the new driver PRIOR to installing the OS - not sure why, as everyone has had no issue installing on an existing OS - at least i didn't on win 7 x64

Where is the instruction to install prior to OS install (it does not appear in the guide PDF)?

Earlier there was a notation "Note
Install driver before the device is put to use!" - and a discussion on the asus mobo support forum trying to decide how to install the driver before windows was installed, as it wasn't a F6 type driver - that notation has apparently vaporized

but was that question really worth posting?

 

[jdevola]

no problem - one of the mods on the asus mobo support forum noticed it first

forgot - in the installation guide, there's an instruction to install the new driver PRIOR to installing the OS - not sure why, as everyone has had no issue installing on an existing OS - at least i didn't on win 7 x64

Where is the instruction to install prior to OS install (it does not appear in the guide PDF)?

Earlier there was a notation "Note
Install driver before the device is put to use!" - and a discussion on the asus mobo support forum trying to decide how to install the driver before windows was installed, as it wasn't a F6 type driver - that notation has apparently vaporized

but was that question really worth posting?

Yes, I asked the question in the hope that the source of that instruction would lead to HOW to install the NVMe drivers prior to OS install -- which is what I would like to do since I cannot install the OS (Win7 install does not see the SSD, which is where I am trying to install the OS). I still have not found a solution to this problem, and I have tried the latest updates from Samsung's website.

 

[The Original Ralph]

no problem - one of the mods on the asus mobo support forum noticed it first

forgot - in the installation guide, there's an instruction to install the new driver PRIOR to installing the OS - not sure why, as everyone has had no issue installing on an existing OS - at least i didn't on win 7 x64

Where is the instruction to install prior to OS install (it does not appear in the guide PDF)?

Earlier there was a notation "Note
Install driver before the device is put to use!" - and a discussion on the asus mobo support forum trying to decide how to install the driver before windows was installed, as it wasn't a F6 type driver - that notation has apparently vaporized

but was that question really worth posting?

Yes, I asked the question in the hope that the source of that instruction would lead to HOW to install the NVMe drivers prior to OS install -- which is what I would like to do since I cannot install the OS (Win7 install does not see the SSD, which is where I am trying to install the OS). I still have not found a solution to this problem, and I have tried the latest updates from Samsung's website.

don't think you're going to install win 7 on the 950 without installing it on a Sata SSD first, then installing the NVMe driver and then cloning from it to the 950

here's the thread on the asus mobo forum https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20160113095659921&board_id=1&model=Z170-DELUXE&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

[jdevola]

Thanks, Original Ralph, for your suggestion. Originally, I tried migrating from HDD to SSD via Samsung Magician software, but this apparently caused a problem with alignment (as indicated by AS Benchmark software). Since Win7Pro cannot be installed directly to the SSD (BIOS/UEFI sees the drive, but Windows Installer does not -- and also tried running install from Windows (rather than booting to the DVD), which I thought was going to work... but didn't), I took your suggestion of migrating from another SSD (e.g., SATA) to the M.2 SSD, but instead did it this way:

I cleaned the HDD (remove all partitions and format as NTFS at 4096 byte allocation unit size), and I did the same to the M.2 SSD, but also did a secure erase via DISKPART (clean all) beforehand.

Then, I migrated (this time I used Macrium Reflect instead of Samsung Magician). Everything seems fine: running well, boots to Win7Pro, AS Benchmark says alignment is okay, and this is confirmed under msinfo32, so I am happy!

Thanks for your help! Hope this info helps anyone else with similar issues.