Windows 7 cant recognize my nvme SSD m.2 (Samsung 960 EVO)

[Ceka]

Hello everyone,

I have already tried everything to install Windows 7 to my m.2 SSD, from the CD, from bootable USB but still didn't work. Tried using drivers into the windows install CD but still didn't work.

Can anyone please tell me how to install it ?

Thank you....

[DGroves]

windows 7 did not come with any SSD support and while it is possible to add SSD support it is not easy to implement

i strongly recomend you upgrade the os to windows 10 which has the nessary SSD support files intergrated into the OS

even win 8.1 has the nessary ssd support files

if you insist sticking with win 7, then you will need to slipstream the 3 ssd hotfix files into your win 7 setup files and then

modify the win 7 setup files with files from win 10, or do some fairly extensive win 7 changes to allow the windows 7 setup to know about SSD's

or use the win 7 add driver during setup method (f-6)

you might want to google for the details on each method, but i again stress that win 10 is the way to go

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2990941/update-to-add-native-driver-support-in-nvm-express-...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/guide-installing-windows-7-on-an-nvme-ssd-from-a-usb-3-0-thu...

[SDH]

DGroves,

You may wish to add "NVMe" before each use of "SSD" to clarify that there is a difference between "SSD" and "NVMe SSD".  I know you're aware of that.....

In some workstations BIOS support has to be added too.  This is a transition period we're in as M.2 drives become more popular.  I've even had my own issues with which of two HP-approved Storage Controller driver works or blue screens.

[DGroves]

sigh,....yes SDH is absolutely correct!!.... that depending on the motherboard/chipset it may or may not support nvme based ssd's and only support  SATA/AHCI based SSD's a good rule of thumb is that x99 (2014) and later based  motherboards will have full support for nvme  as boot and data drives,  x79 (2011) and earlier will usually not support booting from nvme (but can boot from SATA based SSD's) but will still be able to access nvme ssd's as a non bootable/data drive

while there were a few nvme based ssd's that included the nessary boot code in their onboard OPROMS such as the samsung sm950, intel 750 PCI-E ssd card,... i'm not aware of any current ssd's which still have this feature and the older ones that did have this support can only be found used nowadays

i work with this so much that i sometimes forget that not everyone is aware of the diffrences between SATA/nvme in reguards to booting support

thanks to SDH for reminding me, i'll try not to forget this again  (at least not in the near future!)