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ReformedSS · ‎06-11-2017

Hello guys, I seem to be having trouble installing my M.2 SSD. I've followed every forum post regarding this issue, but every time I get to the windows install section I don't see my driver listed for me to install windows 10 pro on to it. Currently windows 10 pro is installed on my HDD. I made a bootable usb using the Microsoft media creation tool.
*Full system specs:
Motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Bios: 3401 - Can't update to 3402 as Ez installer doesn't find it using the internet, also tried doing it manually and it fails to read the .cap file.
Ram: 16GB @2133Mhz
HDD: Weston Digital Blue 1TB
M.2: Samsung 960 Evo 250GB (SSD0581 (MZ-V6E250BW))
OS: Win 10 Pro

I've tried all the forum post I found from tomshardware, but all end up in the same result, not being able to find the SSD as a driver. Samsung 960 Evo driver is a .exe therefore everytime I try and run it I get "Samsung NVM express device is not connected. Connect device and try again." If someone could give me some steps to follow that would be great, I've been struggling to get it to work for 4 days now, I can't talk to Asus support as their opening times is 9am-5pm and I finish work after 5pm. I would have to take a day off just to talk to them.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
**CPU: Intel - Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£199.99 @ Aria PC)
**CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.66 @ Novatech)
*Motherboard: Asus - Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£125.80 @ Alza)
*Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£123.60 @ Aria PC) *
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£114.60 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.88 @ Aria PC)
*Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (£406.80 @ Aria PC)
*Case: NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.33 @ CCL Computers)
*Power Supply: EVGA - 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£58.50 @ Aria PC)
*Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140mm Fan (£18.49 @ Aria PC) *
Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140mm Fan (£18.49 @ Aria PC)
*Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan (£17.59 @ Aria PC)
*Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan (£17.59 @ Aria PC)*

How the M.2 is installed:
*https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/255370137434062849/323268892724297738/20170611_021407.jpg

*https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/255370137434062849/323267003517370369/20170611_020718.jpg **

davemon50 · ‎06-11-2017

Nice job listing all this pertinent information. 😉

OK, so just to confirm what you're doing, you have W10 installed on your WD-1TB drive, AND you now want W10 on your new M.2 drive (presumably to make this the new bootable Windows drive), AND you are installing it to the M.2 from a bootable USB created by your existing W10 OS on the WD-1TB drive, right?

You have a different motherboard, so you might've missed THIS THREAD by chino, but check it out as it still may help you sort this out.

Since you have a bootable USB check whether it is formatted as FAT32 or not. You should know if you haven't already discovered, that Windows installs don't always play nicely when you have an existing installation elsewhere on the computer. If that's what you have, then my recommendation would be to do a shutdown, then disconnect your WD drive SATA port and power cable, then boot into BIOS and ensure that legacy drives are enabled and change your boot sequence to boot off a USB drive. Also may be good to temporarily disable fast boot. Check the chino thread above and see if you can't get further.

Davemon50

ReformedSS · ‎06-11-2017

davemon50 wrote:
Nice job listing all this pertinent information. 😉

OK, so just to confirm what you're doing, you have W10 installed on your WD-1TB drive, AND you now want W10 on your new M.2 drive (presumably to make this the new bootable Windows drive), AND you are installing it to the M.2 from a bootable USB created by your existing W10 OS on the WD-1TB drive, right?

You have a different motherboard, so you might've missed THIS THREAD by chino, but check it out as it still may help you sort this out.

Since you have a bootable USB check whether it is formatted as FAT32 or not. You should know if you haven't already discovered, that Windows installs don't always play nicely when you have an existing installation elsewhere on the computer. If that's what you have, then my recommendation would be to do a shutdown, then disconnect your WD drive SATA port and power cable, then boot into BIOS and ensure that legacy drives are enabled and change your boot sequence to boot off a USB drive. Also may be good to temporarily disable fast boot. Check the chino thread above and see if you can't get further.

Thanks for the response,

What I did was:

I shutdown my PC and powered it off from the plug and also took the cable out,
I then removed the SATA cable from the motherboard that was for my HDD and also removed the power cable,
I then powered my PC back on and went into the BIOS *disabled Fast boot then followed Chinos steps, I pressed F5 and reset everything to the default settings, I then changed my onboard devices to these settings -*http://i.imgur.com/o6K1dJ5.jpg
I pressed F10 - Which saves and restarts afterwards, I went into the BIOS again and changed the CSM settings to UEFI as Chino said samsung used that -*http://i.imgur.com/2JCIQy8.jpg

Chino wrote:
For Samsung XP941 owners, you're stucked with UEFI. Since the UEFI driver is embedded into the firmware itself, you will have no problems installing in this mode. The problem arises when you want to do a legacy installation because it requires a driver to be loaded during the installation process. With the XP941 being an OEM product, there are no drivers available to install in legacy mode.

I then pressed F10 to save and restart - then I insert my USB and went into the BIOS again to check if it was there -*http://i.imgur.com/kMl519k.jpg
I pressed F10 once more and skipped the BIOS this time and went to the Windows 10 install after clicking through the options I still wasn't able to install Windows onto the M.2 -*http://i.imgur.com/fvdW5pN.jpg

To answer your question about my USB it is FAT32 - I'm using a SanDisk 3.0 USB 16GB

davemon50 · ‎06-11-2017

I had a similar issue with my M.2, the motherboard did not recognize the M.2 drive until several boots later, I don't recall how many but at least 3.

Davemon50

ReformedSS · ‎06-11-2017

davemon50 wrote:
I had a similar issue with my M.2, the motherboard did not recognize the M.2 drive until several boots later, I don't recall how many but at least 3.

I currently have my HDD plugged in, did you reboot 3 times without anything plugged in for it to show in the BIOS?

Also, did your M.2 show up in the BIOS or did it only show up during the windows install and afterwards it was visible in the BIOS.*

davemon50 · ‎06-11-2017

It would not show up in the BIOS at all until several boots later after installing it. I was working on other settings in the BIOS as well before my W10 install, so I rebooted several times. I was messing with getting the drive recognized at the same time as messing with other settings so I don't really recall how many boots it was, but I do remember being pleasantly surprised after it being recognized one time when I wasn't even suspecting it to. I did not try to install Windows until after the BIOS recognized the drive. If the system doesn't see it first you won't be able to install to it. You can tell if it's being seen simply by looking at the recognized devices.

Davemon50

ReformedSS · ‎06-12-2017

I will keep my bios as these settings for a while and see what happens after a couple of reboots.

The reason I asked was that, after reading some threads for example this one: http://endspacevr.com/install-windows-m-2-sm951-z170/

You wouldn't be able to see the SSD in the BIOS until you installed windows as it will install its own drivers and afterwards you would need to find the right drivers for the SSD. But I can't even see it during the install.

I don't know if the boards m.2 isn't working properly at this stage or it is the m.2, if theres any more information you want me to provide I will try my best to get it for you.

I will try and call asus support during my lunch break, hopefully they can give me steps to try when I get home.

davemon50 · ‎06-12-2017

ReformedSS wrote:

...
You wouldn't be able to see the SSD in the BIOS until you installed windows as it will install its own drivers and afterwards you would need to find the right drivers for the SSD. But I can't even see it during the install.
...

No, you can see the device in the BIOS prior to Windows installation, it will recognize all properly connected devices with or without Windows.

But I see I missed something earlier, your CPU allows for only max 16 PCIe lanes. Your video card may be selected to use 16 lanes. The M.2 you have listed is a PCIe device so it shares lanes with the card. The motherboard should force the card to operate over 8 lanes not 16 lanes, but if it doesn't then you will have a conflict and the M.2 won't get recognized. I suggest first setting your PCIe GPU slot to 8 lanes directly in the BIOS, because in your Users Manual your M.2 is going to share 4 of the lanes with PCIe xx_1 & PCIe xx_3, as well as your LAN card. If you have any other installed items in the PCIe lanes they also share per the grid in your manual. (If it were a SATA M.2 then it would instead disable your HDD in SATA 1).

Davemon50

Darren_Stevens · ‎06-12-2017

Also, in bios, under advanced tab / on board device configuration /*M.2 and SATA Express SATA Mode Configuration / set to M.2, & don't have your HDD in Sata slot 1, top slot plug it into the bottom slot for now.

ReformedSS · ‎06-13-2017

I spoke to Asus live chat yesterday and they told me that all I had to do was enable M.2, however they did say that the Samsung 960 Evo 250GB hadn't been tested on the Asus Z170 Pro gaming, he then provided me with a list of pc parts that had been tested - the list he gave me was 6 months old.

I have sent the SSD back to be tested to see if it works. Back to the people I bought it from which is CCL Computers - I sent it to them today by post so I will have to wait a while to see if the SSD does infact work or not. The Samsung 960 Evo i had was manufactured 2017-04 (says on the ssd and box) so it is only roughly 2 months old.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170-PRO-GAMING/Z170-PRO-GAMING_Devices_report.pdf?_ga=2...

@Darren Stevens

I did check disk management while both my HDD and m.2 was plugged with M.2 enabled in the bios and could still only see the HDD.

Also I am not sure if i still have enough PCIe lanes or not? Will changing my GPU to 8 lanes affect performance?

Thank you guys for the help, I will keep you updated on what happens.

HELP WITH M.2 SAMSUNG 960 EVO 250GB. - Asus Z170 Pro Gaming