Hi,
I have recently bought samsung 950 pro 256 gb m2 drive and am currently trying to install windows 8.1 on it (this is my only hard drive). I have MSI x99a sli plus motherboard. Unfortunately it is written on msi site that the mobo only supports the 512 gb version (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/…tml#support-hdd). Therefore, the drive is not detected in bios.
1. Is it possible to boot windows 8.1 on this hardware?
2. If I installed windows 8.1 on another drive and installed the drivers could I then boot from m2 drive?
3. If I exchanged the 256 to 512 version would I have the same problems as I am having now?
Best regards,
Revist
@Revist :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
Provided, you your mainboard BIOS contains a suitable NVMe EFI module and you are going to install Win8.1 in UEFI mode using the GUIMode Partition Table, I think, that it will be possible.
That wouldn’t make any difference. You should better install the OS directly onto the Samsung 950 Pro SSD.
If you should not be able to get the OS installed onto the 256 GB Samsung 950 Pro SSD, it would be a surprise for me, if you would succeed with the 512 GB variant of the sams SSD model.
Questions:
1. Did you already check the "Secure Boot" setting within your BIOS? It should be set to "Disabled".
2. Have you already tried to install Win10 x64 onto your Samsung 950 Pro? If not, why?
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Thank you for the response.
1.I have set the option Windows 8.1/10 WHQL Support to Enabled which enabled me to see the Secure Boot. In Secure Boot menu I have set Secure Boot to disabled and Secure Boot mode to Standard. I have Key Management underneath but would have to change mode to Custom to do anything with it (and I don’t know what it does). Unfortunately it did not help.
2. I did not know that windows 10 makes any difference in this problem. Therefore no I did not try it yet.
I also tries to install pure drivers for the drive via the windows 8.1 installation process but unfortunately the drive still does not show up. How do I check if my mobo has a suitable EFI module?
You can see the EFI modules of your mainboard BIOS, if you open it by using the AMI Aptio UEFI MMTool.