Clean Install on Samsung NP530U4E (ATIV Book 5)?

Hi everyone,

I'm in a bit of a confusing situation and I'm hoping that someone more knowledgeable can give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it.

I have a Samsung NP530U4E, which is a pretty good laptop aside from having the most horrible display known to man. That's not why I'm here, but I thought I'd use the opportunity to complain a little

Basically, what I want is to format this laptop in the true sense of the word. No restoring to default settings, with all the bloatware and factory "perks". I'm a bit OCD like that and things never really feel clean to me if I have to uninstall a bunch of stuff in order to have a pristine system. And this is where things get confusing and the following questions arise:

1. Can I recreate the recovery partition and, thus, restore the option to go into recovery mode by clicking F2 (I think) if I do a clean install?

2. How do I recreate the express cache after a clean install?

In researching this I've discovered that the partitioning system on this laptop is extremely weird. Why do there have to be so many partitions? I'm attaching a screenshot so you can see what I mean.



If it turns out that it can't be done I'd be willing to give up on the idea of the recovery partition, but the express cache I really wouldn't want to lose. Can someone help?

Thanks a bunch!

Alina

 

Hi alinutza20,

That partition layout is completely normal for Win8.x computers which use GPT partition layout (as opposed to the old MBR layout) and UEFI mode (as opposed to good old BIOS mode). Samsung laptops use the last two partitions for Samsung Recovery Solution (F4). See this post for list of standard partitions AND some background on UEFI and GPT.

You can definitely clean install Windows, but you want to format just the Windows partition. On UEFI installations, Windows Setup will just re-create those other partitions anyway. In any case, leave the two Samsung Recovery partitions alone since re-creating SRS is very difficult (often impossible) once they're gone. You can follow @Obyboby's clean install guide.

Note that you want to install from DVD on your model, NOT from a USB stick, in order to avoid a boot issue with the small ExpressCache SSD (so-called iSSD).

With Samsung computers, you use SW Update (not their website) to get the latest drivers. Unfortunately they don't always push the latest versions of drivers to older models, so you may have to use the Find Model feature in SW Update to locate drivers from newer models. Make sure you install Samsung Settings, which contains drivers for Power Management, Fn-keys and many other hardware features. The thread linked below describes where to find the latest versions of Settings.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/settings-easy-settings-what-you-need-to-know.729139/

Once Windows is up and running with all drivers, you can install the ExpressCache software. If SW Update doesn't automatically offer the latest version 1.0.98, you should be able to find it under model NP530U4E. It works for all Windows versions. BEFORE installing EC, you can delete all partitions on the small iSSD. The ExpressCache installer will create the necessary partitions anew. Use ECCmd to verify that EC is working, as described in this post. That thread has much more EC discussion, but disregard the steps in the opening post to manually create EC partitions, they are not necessary with newer versions.

Before you start, I recommend you make a so-called Bootable Factory Backup of your Recovery, as described in steps 1-2 of this post. That creates a self-contained SRS with factory image on a 32GB USB stick, which can be used to restore the laptop to complete factory state, no matter how messed up it becomes. This can be convenient if you want to sell it someday, or if you need to convince Samsung Service of a problem when they think you just messed it up.

Please keep us posted on your progress

 

Hi Dannemand,

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a detailed response. I feel a bit dumb now that I didn't figure out the partitioning was a Windows thing, not a Samsung thing Oh well...

You've really answered all my questions (and then some), the only issue I've got now is that my laptop doesn't have a DVD drive, so even with an external drive it would still work as USB... right? What are my options in this case?

Thanks again!

Alina

 

No problem

Actually a USB connected optical drive should work just fine, it's only installing from a USB stick (which is seen as hard drive) that triggers this issue on ExpressCache models.

Note that not all Windows installation discs are UEFI boot compatible, although newer "official" discs should be fine.

For those who MUST install Windows from a USB stick on ExpressCache models, there is a workaround. But it is only for legacy BIOS installations, not UEFI ones. So if you have to take that route, your disk will be completely wiped when converted to MBR.

If I remember later, when I get to a pc, I'll post a link to the thread with that workaround.

 

In this case I'm all set! I have an external optical drive (and it's even a Samsung one) I definitely won't be trying the workaround if it's that risky, I'll leave that to the pros.

Thanks again for all your help!