Maximus Code win 7 conundrum on m.2 ssd good luck man...

[atomkey]

Argh!

Man I have never had more difficulty getting an os to install. But then again, it's been about 8 years since I built a machine. This uefi nonsense sent me reading up on the technology. Humans don't like change. Oh well.

For some reason the samsung ssd I'm working on had win 10 on it. New out of the box from amazon. Got me on that. It launched when I powered the computer on the very first time and went through the setup. So I got a free copy of win 10 pro for some reason. It never asked me for a product key and when it finished it was already activated. Anyone got a clue why? I intend to make a review on amazon when I get a chance.

But this machine is for developing. And I expressly don't want to code in win 10. My compilers are all C Builder versions [Builder 6 and Embarcadero Tokyo Enterprise], and I prefer 7 to work in.

The Samsung EVO 960 m.2 ssd 500gb is directly on the mobo. Not vertical. And I also have a sata seagate 4tb installed. My media is win 7 ultimate 64 on disc in a sata asus dvd drive. Of course, booting on the media wouldn't let me see the m.2 - kinda thought that would happen. But it would see the seagate. And after turning uefi off and going legacy I was able to install to it to the 4tb. But I had no idea that experimenting with going back to uefi and then legacy would kill the install. Even the recovery mode in win 7 would no longer see something for it to fix.

On top of all that, the freggin samsung m.2 drive disappeared from by boot order listing in the bios. What's up with that? I had to unplug the seagate, flip flop back and forth with the csm and uefi settings to get it to show back up, and then the seagate disappeared!

Right now I have the ssd booting win 10 again.

I'm about to attempt a win 7 usb boot with the m.2 drivers from samsung on it so I can select add device driver from the installation. But man let me tell you what... you can't just get the dang drivers anyway straight forward.

Samsung provides the NVMe drivers as an self installing .exe - so I had to extract the msi files from that exe file first. And then I had to use msiexe to further take apart the msi files and break them down into the appropriate .inf .sys and .cat files.

I've made a backup of the win 10 installation so I can go back to it later if I want. Of course the win 7 installation may likely wipe it out in the process. But I think there is a chance it will install along side it. In a previous attempt when I had 7 on the seagate I attempted an install to the m.2 and it nearly completed. But when it rebooted it blue screened. At that time when it would boot it would stop and give the option to complete the install or boot to 10.

Anyone installed win 7 to an m.2 ssd on the max ix code mobo had any better luck?

If so, I would sure love to hear what you have done to get success.

Thanks to the community and this board for any help or advice I get...

Atomkey.

[Korth]

I also tried a Win7x64 Ultimate install on a M9C mobo.

I couldn't get a Plextor M8Pe 256GB M.2 SSD to work as Win7 boot/system drive. Then I couldn't get a WD Black 256GB M.2 SSD to work as Win7 boot/system drive. I ended up installing Win10x64 instead of returning the second M.2 drive. Computer store geek authoritatively asserted that it's all caused by Win7 driver issues, although I didn't really research the details to confirm/deny this, I just wanted to get the Code built and running and delivered to new owner same afternoon.

Have you tried installing bootable Win7 on your Samsung M.2 in another computer then moving it to your M9C computer?

[Chino]

Follow this guide to instal Windows on Z270: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/PRIME_B250M-C/DE170_Windows_7_Setup_Guide_web.pdf?_ga=2..... It'll probably lead to you download the EZ Installer to slipstream the drivers into your Windows OS.

During the install, it probably ask you for the Samsung drivers which you can get here: http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

[atomkey]

Korth / Chino -

I don't have another machine that has the m.2 interface - Wish I did. That would definitely be something to try.

Last night I decided to take my win 7 bootable usb drive and manually add the asus usb 3.0 drivers to the install.wim and boot.wim loader files. That took some serious searching a reading to even attempt. You basically create a folder for just the drivers (first you have to extract them from the self .exec installer too). Then you use windows 7 native external command 'dism' to mount and rebuild the loader files.

It worked until I go to /add:"USB" to the install.wim mount. But I think that I might have screwed that file up accidentally so I'm going to try it again. Here is the link I've followed on how to get the usb 3.0 drivers native to the win 7 usb boot installer:

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/125921-how-to-add-drivers-manually-to-a-usb-drive-to-install...

Once this works (please work) I will be able to get win 7 to at least start to install from a usb drive. Right now the default installation code in win 7 can't see any of the newer tech on the m9c. When this works, I will use the same method to add the m.2 NVMe drivers to those same files. Hopefully I will then be able to see the ssd drive show up in the drive table(s) when the win 7 installer goes to ask me for a partition to install to.

Right now win 7 just stops at the point where is says a DVD/CD driver is missing - browse, rescan, cancel. Some people have had luck removing the USB drive and plugging it back into another port, and wham it finds the driver for 2.0 (using those ports). But I've not been that lucky.

I think Microsoft has conspired with hardware manufacturers to force older operating systems out of usable service just because it is nearly impossible to make them work with new architecture (UEFI, 3.0 usb, etc) - conspiracy theory on my part alone. But I don't win 10 collecting demographic data on me and leaving back doors to my work that becomes 'their property.'

Chino -

Thanks for that link. I've tried it. But I didn't have your link to the AS drivers. I might try those out next if this next attempt doesn't work.

Thanks to both of you for the reply.

If I find a solution I'm going to come back here and make a detailed post. I'm also going to put it up on my website under the code section so that it will have a permanent and public space for general consumption/help.

Anyone else go a bone to throw in on this issue? Please post it here so I can accumulate at least a list of what NOT TO DO. I'm doing great on that so far! Haha!

Atomkey.

[Chino]

atomkey wrote:

Last night I decided to take my win 7 bootable usb drive and manually add the asus usb 3.0 drivers to the install.wim and boot.wim loader files. That took some serious searching a reading to even attempt. You basically create a folder for just the drivers (first you have to extract them from the self .exec installer too). Then you use windows 7 native external command 'dism' to mount and rebuild the loader files.

It worked until I go to /add:"USB" to the install.wim mount. But I think that I might have screwed that file up accidentally so I'm going to try it again. Here is the link I've followed on how to get the usb 3.0 drivers native to the win 7 usb boot installer:

The ASUS EZ Installer automatizes this whole process.

[atomkey]

Chino -

Yup the EZ Installer does automate that whole process.
And it nearly gets the exact results. But it has better luck
with the drivers. In one instance I can boot with USB 3.0
without the ssd visible - the other way I can see the ssd
but not mount the usb drive. The difference between booting
legacy or UEFI - got me dude. I'm going to make a yt video
on it.

However I did finally figure out how to get windows on the system. I'm going to post the entire process here and also publish on my website so there will be a link to it. I learned quite a bit about the os external commands messing around with this problem - and with all that reading and searching I think I will compile the best of it all in one place.

Thanks to everyone that took a moment to come make a suggestion.

Atomkey.

[JustinThyme]

Even the old timers who refuse to get off of an antiquated OS eventually wake up and move on. Problem is the hardware and drivers coming out now revolve around current operating systems, not those that launched 8 years ago. Just let go and move on. This has been and will continue to be a problem with folks not liking evolution. Happens with every single step forward and some wont let go until they have no other choice, like when they get hardware and there are no drivers for the antiquated OS. You are then faced with a choice, stay in the past with antiquated hardware and software or let go and join the next wave.

Chino offers the best solution for the really die hards but it wont work with XP or win 2000 or 98.

[Menthol]

The ASUS Ez Installer for the Z270 will install the needed USB 3.0 drivers needed and also give an option to install Microsoft's NVME driver into your Win 7 media so you don't have to have them on a separate drive during installation, your M.2 NVME drive will be recognized in the bios and by your modified Win 7 media
You need your Win 7 on a disk a USB drive and a working PC to use the ASUS EzInstaller APP

Windows 7 is no longer supported on Kaby Lake or newer CPU's, you can still update Windows until the latest updates are installed, then you will get a warning window stating your OS is no longer supported but you can disable the warning or it will keep popping up, I am not sure if any future updates will be install able

[atomkey]

JustInThyme -

Yeah - I might be die hard about it. But as long as I can still code under the 7 environment I'm going to. What I really need to do is just move on from windows altogether is just start working in the linux environment. It's not like it's a huge difference - there just isn't the same target audience. But either way, I personally have a beef with microsoft - and solving this installation issue brought up yet another issue.

And that other issue is what Menthol brings up.

Yessir - I eventually did discover the Ez Installer. And it does let you build a boot USB drive using my win 7 install disc and the dism manager to add the 3.0 USB driver and NVMe driver as well. But go figure, if I boot under legacy settings it will see the sdd and not mount the usb drive, and if I booted UEFI it would load the usb drivers and then not see the stupid ssd. So I copied the ssd files directly to the root of the USB drive, and installed them under uefi using load driver.

And it worked. Windows 7 installed in no time.

Until I performed SP 1 and installed all the updates and you are right - It popped up a message saying my hardware wasn't supported, and locked out the possibility
to perform updates - forever. Isolating the KB?????? update patch didn't solve that either. It is more intrusive. And I take offense at microsoft for disabling my operating system. I paid for it. Just because they want me to use 10 doesn't give them the right to make my os inoperable. All because I have a Kaby Lake 7700k? That's just flat out a lie. Windows 7 works fine all day long on that CPU. Argh!

Anyway - I found a work around and completely removed all that garbage and now I finally have a win 7 64bit ultimate install and it hauls just like I wanted.

I'm going to make a YouTube video on the whole mess in case someone else out there wants to get 7 running on a IX Code mother board, or anything else for that matter.

Thanks again for all the replies. When I complete the video and the textual procedures I will place links to them here for public consumption off my website.

Atomkey...