As the title suggests, I'm having trouble installing Windows 7 64-bit on a Samsung SM961 M2 SSD drive, via the M2 slot on an Asus X-99 A motherboard.
The drive is visible to the BIOS, but not during the Windows 7 installation. However, if I install the same copy of Windows 7 on a regular drive, it immediately recognises the M2 SSD and makes it usable.
I am almost certain that this is simply a "missing driver during setup" issue, because the OS can see the SM961 after installing on a normal hard drive and, of course, my BIOS can see it just fine.
It's made trickier by the fact that the SM961 is a relatively new/unknown OEM-only part and is not (AFAIK) the same (driver-wise) as the Samsung 960.
Things I have already (unsuccessfully) tried:
- Checked and double-checked various BIOS settings:
- Compatibility mode allows UEFI devices
- Secure boot is disabled
Loading various Samsung NVme drivers during installation:
Slipstreaming the above drivers directly into the Windows 7 setup ISO before installation
Slipstreaming Microsoft's hotfixes for W7 NVme support into the setup ISO, as described on the hotfix page and on this blog:
Following the advice in this Reddit thread.
Following the advice in this Tomshardware thread.
Installing Windows 7 on the same PC using a regular SATA hard drive (whereupon I can immediately see the M2 drive in Windows Disk Manager) and then attempting to clone the install to the M2 drive. The drive did not boot and I haven't got the patience to mess around with "fixing" UEFI boot data.
The only thing I have not yet tried is transplanting parts of the Windows 10 ISO into the Windows 7 ISO as described in the TomsHardware post, above. Because I feel like there should be a native way to fix this and allow the Windows 7 setup to "see" the M2 drive (especially since the OS can see it immediately after installation).
Any thoughts, please?