BIOS settings for Samsung 950 Pro as boot drive?

[10scor71]

Just finished my first build with Rampage V Extreme/USB 3.1 as my mobo and Samsung 950 Pro 512GB as my ssd. Everything powered up great, the mobo recognized the 950 just fine, but , when I went to install Windows 7 Pro, the OS wouldn't see the 950.

I tried downloading the drivers for the 950 from Samsung's website and instructing Windows 7 to load drivers first, but that had no effect as the OS didn't see the drivers either (though it could see the USB that it was on).

Now the mobo won't see the Samsung either. One second it was there, the next it wasn't.

My questions are:

1) what settings (if any) do I need to change in the BIOS for Windows 7 to recognize the 950 Pro as my boot drive (BIOS version 1601)?

2) how in the world do I get the mobo to recognize the M.2 again?

3) How do I ensure that the mobo is allowing the M.2 to run at the full speed it's capable of (assuming it can see it again)?

My system is as follows:

Case: Corsair 750D
CPU: Intel I7-5930K
Mobo: Asus Rampage V Extreme/USB 3.1
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB NVMe
HDD: 2 Western Digital Black 4TB drives (unconnected to mobo until OS is installed then to be set to RAID 1)
PSU: EVGA 1000P2
Memory: 64GB G.Skill DDR4-2400
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce 980Ti Windforce (second to be added later if I need it)
Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX
Sound: Asus Xonar Essence STX

This isn't meant to be a gaming rig (I don't play), but a graphics/photo/sound/video-intensive workhorse.

[Menthol]

That's because Windows 7 does not have an NVMw driver, the driver for the 950 pro is an .exe file that you cannot install until after the OS is installed.
You can try this driver to load during Win 7 install http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=wk_149537_1&swEnvOid=4059
Or install Win 8 or above

[10scor71]

Menthol wrote:
That's because Windows 7 does not have an NVMw driver, the driver for the 950 pro is an .exe file that you cannot install until after the OS is installed.
You can try this driver to load during Win 7 install http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=wk_149537_1&swEnvOid=4059
Or install Win 8 or above

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. Any ideas about the SSD suddenly dropping out of the BIOS?

[66racer]

You need the drivers as a standalone file which the guys in the link below thankfully extracted from the exe. Look for the samsung nvme driver tab, then I used the 1.4.7.16 installer set. Place it on a usb or cd and point the windows installation to that location to be able to use the 950pro as an option for the OS install.

http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html