Series 9 Owners: Third party mSATA upgrades

I had no problem directly installing the W8 pro upgrade on a clean disk. Now going to 8.1 from scratch may be trickier as 8.1 stupidly does not see 8 keys as valid in the installation. I think if you create a W8.1 iso without the activation in the setup you could install and once in windows pop in your key to activate. MS is trying to make it more and more difficult for end users to reinstall the OS. If you ask me, it's all a ploy so people will have to buy new computers when their system gets hosed.

 

Updated BIOS and now it shows Purchase Date.

 

Hi,

I just bought a Samsung Series 9 laptop (np900x3g to be precise) and I wanted to upgrade it's SSD. I bought an msata ssd and installed it alright. It is also recognized in Bios but I can't get it to work in Windows setup. I have tried the following:

• I have cloned the old 128gb ssd onto the new one using macrium reflect. No boot in either UEFI or CSM mode. I have also disabled the secureboot option. No luck.
• I have booted the windows install (from USB key) in CSM and UEFI mode but neither will the windows installer recognize the disk nor can I see it in diskpart in the installer.
• I have converted the disk from GPT to MBR to make sure I can see it when booting the installer in CSM mode. Also no luck.
• I have downloaded the ahci and USB3 drivers from the Samsung website and have installed them during the installation. No luck here either.

The drive works perfectly fine when I use a USB - mSata adapter on my PC but won't be recognized when installed into the mSata slot on the laptop.
Anyone have any ideas for me?

 

Try cloning using the Copy disk option in Samsung Recovery Solution (tap the F4 key a few times on starting the computer to get into SRS).

John

 

@Thanatopsis_JSH:

I think you were on the right track: I am guessing that the problem is a mismatch between your SecureBoot/UEFI settings and the partition layout of the new SSD -- complicated by the fact that you wanted to boot a Windows Setup USB that was probably made with Microsoft's USB creation tool, and thus formatted as NTFS (UEFI needs FAT32 for boot). So when you switched to CSM mode in order to boot the USB, Setup couldn't see the GPT-formatted disk -- and vice versa.

John's suggestion to use Recovery's Copy Disk feature to clone is the best way to make sure it works. Make sure you set OS Mode selection=UEFI and enable SecureBoot before booting Recovery and cloning.

If you want to perform a clean install of Windows from USB in UEFI mode, you need to make sure it is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS as described in this post. Again, set OS Mode selection=UEFI; and disable Fast BIOS/Fast Boot in order to boot from USB. You may have to manually convert the SSD back to GPT -- although Windows Setup should do it for you, if you install in UEFI mode on a blank disk.

Finally, don't use any drivers downloaded from Samsung's web site, they are almost certain to be outdated, since Samsung stopped posting drivers there in 2012. Instead, use SW Update to get most drivers. This post has some general driver guidance for Win8.x on Samsung laptops.

Oh, and welcome to NBR and the Samsung forum

 

Would you please take a photo of the internals. Thanks!

 

Sorry if it was asked before. I'm really annoyed with my constantly full hard drive and would like to replace my ssd.

I have the Samsung Series 9 NP900X4D-A02. Can i use a bigger ssd than 256gb? Which 512gb or bigger would be recommendable?

I already changed the memory and just want a fresh Windows 8.1 install with more space.

Thank you already!

 

I no longer use my 9 series as my primary laptop, but when I did, what I did was had a couple of sandisk cruzer fit usb drives and used these to expand the storage. I stuck my music collection on one, where speed of the msata is not going to be so relevant, and just general files & documents on the other.

You can pick up the 64gb version for £20 in the UK

 

The Samsung EVO mSATA is available up to 1TB size and Crucial M500/M550 to 500GB.

For more details read my review.

John

 

That's an ok solution if you're on a budget and still using the 128GB SSD. But I think the OP is looking for considerably more space, so a new drive is the best option. EVO would be better as the crucial seem to be power-hungry and run hot.

 

Well, I tried that driver and still no luck in lowering the power draw. Fortunately, amazon had the 250GB EVO down to $140 so I picked it up. Hopefully that will improve the situation.

 

Hello everyone,
I need some help/advice how to proceed. I bought the 1TB Samsung 480 EVO SSD mentioned in this review ( mSATA SSD Review: Crucial 480GB M500 vs Samsung 1TB 840 EVO) to upgrade my Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C. I used Macrium Reflect Free Edition to clone the 265 GB LITONIT LTM-256M3M to the larger 1TB EVO SDD.
Previously I had already deleted the recovery partition on the LITONIT and changed the SDD partition so that I had a system partition, hibernation partition plus a separate data partition. so my current 265GB LITONIT SDD layout looks like this:
SYSTEM 100MB NTFS (System, Active, Primary Partition); System (C :) 78GB NTFS (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition); 8.29GB (Hibernation Partition); Data (D :) 151.95GB NTFS (Primary Partition); Unallocated 133MB
I connected the EVO via an external mSata USB-3 enclosure and used Windows7 Professional on my Series 9 laptop to initialize the disk as MBR (Previously I had disabled FastBoot and RapidStart).
With Macrium Reflect I used forensic bit-for-bit cloning with the option to clone and resize this to the 1TB EVO:
SYSTEM 100MB NTFS (System, Active, Primary Partition) = NO CHANGE!; System (C :) 120GB NTFS (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) = LARGER; 8.29GB (Hibernation Partition) = NO CHANGE!; Data (D :) 803 GB NTFS (Primary Partition); Unallocated the rest., ca. 40MB
That seemed worke fine. After the successful clone the partitions "System" and "Data" got mounted and the data is there.
I shut down the laptop, opened it up without problems, removed the LITONIT SDD and replace it with the EVO just fine, fits well slips in even a slight bit easier than the original SSD, then I closed the laptop back up and turned it on. Now it does not boot. After some waiting a boot screen shows up that is completely empty, no device can be selected. If I enter the BIOS via F2 the EVO is not recognized at all !!! It simply does not show up, the SATA port in the BIOS is blank, nothing!
When I put back the old LITONIT SDD the laptop boots as if nothing ever happened and plugging in the external USB enclosure with the EVO now three partitions get mounted, i.e., the 100MB SYSTEM gets mounted, but nothing shows up on that partition. I am actually not quite sure what that very small first partition is for? Should I have cloned it? Does it matter? How can it be that the SSD is not even recognized by the laptop at all?
I'd much appreciate some advice!!!
Thanks!

 

My EVO suffers the same neglect from time to time. A workaround to get it recognized again is switching the AHCI mode in the BIOS from auto to manual (and vice versa if it is in manual).

 

Windows 7 or 8? Which BIOS (P**AAC or P**ABK)? Windows 8 uses SecureBoot which you probably need to disable.

There is some useful discussion of cloning issues in this post.

John

 

Hi John,
it is windows 7, where do I look which BIOS I have?
Thanks!

 

Found it. Bios is P04AAC...

 

What I do not understand: Why do I need to change BIOS settings for a cloned drive? I thought it was the point of cloning to have the same settings and no worries...
Also: I just downloaded and installed Samsung Magician. When connected as USB through the USB3 enclosure Magician does not recognize the drive as an EVO, but tells me it is a JMicron USB Device??? I guess that means I also most likely cannot use the Samsung Migrate tool. Why is the drive mot correctly recognized?

 

OK. That's several version out of date. See this thread about BIOS updating, but it's not the cause of your SSD recognition problem. Windows 7 + the AAC BIOS means that SecureBoot is unlikely to be the cause of the problem.

I suspect that Macrium Reflect hasn't done a perfect job of cloning and some of the boot files didn't get copied over properly. I've read some comments about this program causing some headaches.

You may be able to get the new SSD bootable by using the repair facilities on a Windows 7 disc. There is some discussion here but it might be most expedient to go to Samsung and get their disk cloning software (they call it data migration but it also copies the rest). It looks like a version of Acronis TrueImage (which I use) that will have been tweaked to copy only to Samsung SSDs.

John

 

JMicron is the USB controller of the enclosure. When you connect the SSD through USB not all its features are exposed. That's why Magician does not work.

@John
I think you are one step ahead. Of course you can't boot off the drive if it isn't recognized.

@Liken
Have you tried my suggestion in post #613 to recognize the drive?
It'll be nice if you could give some feedback!

 

Hi all,
I have go it up and running! I used the Samsung Migration tool to clone the drive again. Then the BIOS recognized the drive, but I still had to set AHCI to manual. Now the only thing that oddly is not working is Intel Rapid start Technology Manager. Rapid start works, Fast Boot too, Magician too, but I cannot get into Rapid Start Manager to configure when the system goes from sleep to hibernation.
Thanks for all the advice!!!

 

Congrats! And thanks for the feedback.

You mean w/o playing with the AHCI BIOS setting the SSD wasn't recognized?
If so, it is most likely unrelated to any disk image setup, but just another Samsung BIOS bug. Next time the drive disappears just set AHCI back to auto and it'll re-appear.

 

It recognized that there was a disk, but said "disk not installed" and would not boot. When I set it to manual it booted up without a glitch. What's odd though is that I had disabled Rapid Start and Fat Boot, re-enabled it, that created the hibernation partition just fine, but I cannot get into Rapid Start Manager to configure the time it takes to hibernate from sleep. Odd...

 

Well done. I don't recall having any need to change the AHCI setting after putting in a cloned SSD.

The Intel Rapid Start configuration probably needs to be rebuilt because the hardware address of the hibernation partition will have changed. Our accrued wisdom about IRST is in this thread. I think I posted some updated experiences about 6 months ago when I had to get it working on my 1TB EVO.

John

 

Is there a set of basic instructions that are available when upgrading the SSD? I have the NPx3C and have ordered the SSD and have searched several threads that discuss both the cloning required and also how to replace the SSD but I haven't found a reply that lays out the steps in order. If anyone has guidance as to a best how to guide that includes cloning, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks.

 

Start by reading this post if you haven't done so already.

If your X3C came with Windows 8 and Samsung Recovery Solution 6 then it has a built-in cloning facility. Otherwise you'll need another cloning software. Unless you go the backup image onto external HDD then restore onto new SSD (which needs a separate bootable USB device) you will need a USB - mSATA adapter (or USB - 2.5" + 2.5" mSATA adapter) so you can have both SSDs connected at the same time. Once you have cloned onto the new SSD then it's off with the base (get a good quality Philips size 0 screwdriver), out with the old SSD (it's hiding under a ribbon cable) and in with the new one. I wouldn't bother refixing the base before checking if the new SSD is bootable.

John

 

Hi Finney,
the Evo comes with a migration tool that can be downloaded from Samsung together with the Magician that is highly recommended to configure the drive once you are up and running.
For the cloning:
Because of my experience I would probably recommend using the Samsung Migration tool. It was designed to specifically clone their SSDs. It has a rather simplistic and not very intuitive interface, put together quite sloppily, but it does the job, especially once you have figured out that you can actually several (system & data), not just one partition. That interface is really quite odd, because it only shows you partitions that are mounted. That means you cannot clone the hibernation partition and have to re-create that. Also, it does clone the Windows SYSTEM partition even though that is a hidden partition and is automatically cloned when yiu clone your partition that contains windows. All rather odd, but it works...

You might have read that I first used Macrium. That clearly did not work. I have since browsed their user forum and overall it seems their software (especially updates) are quite buggy. So, I am not sure I'd recommend it and have actually removed it from my system again. I used their free edition, so I guess I cannot complain that it does not work.
John apparently successfully used Acronis, but I am no big fan. I have tried out Acronis for backups (not cloning) before and found it incurs a huge overhead on your system.
I have previously PartedMagic to reconfigure the original SSD partitions of my Laptop, that worked VERY well. I really like it and it has CloneZilla built in. Partitioning with PartedMagic works extremely well and is really well designed, intuitive and all. CloneZilla's interface is a bit scary though, I did really not want to try it out fearing that I would accidentally select cloning the wrong drive thus overwriting my system. Since you run it from a bootable CD or USB you can actually make that mistake and loose your whole system cloning the empty drive over your system drive.

Hi John,
it makes perfect sense that recreating the rapid start hibernation partition changes its address when you clone it. However, I did NOT clone it but turned off Rapid Start before cloning, then re-enabled it again. You would think that re-enabling it the software should be able to understand that the address on the drive has changed.In fact, rapid start IS working. What does NOT work is the Rapid Start Manager that allows me to set the timer when the system silently goes from sleep to hibernation. I really like this laptop but the design of the Rapid Start technology is really poor. Why can Samsung not put all of it into one single packet? Why do you first enable it, have the system create a new hibernation partition and then you cannot configure it without installing a separate software, the manager (or enable it to be visible by editing the registry - by default it is hidden, how stupid is that?) - and then a lot of times trying to install the Manager does not work. Very badly programmed, I would say. Also, who needs a default for transition from sleep to hibernation of 120 minutes???

Ah well, now I have to figure out how re-installing and getting it to work....

Any idea, John, on which page of thet long IRST thread are the re-install instructions for the EVO?
Thanks!!!

 

I use the bootable flash drive option. I agree that installing Acronis within Windows creates a lot of bloat.

See this post. It's surprisingly brief and your challenge is to track down the right programs. Here's the right version of the IRST 1.0.0.1007. It's the one called "Intel Rapid Start (MS Signature)" on the Samsung drivers page here. The Intel V3 is here. Ignore the fact that it says it is for desktops.

PS: For anyone reading the above, the exercise was successfully concluded as documented here.

John

 

I just saw that amazon is now stocking 850 EVO msatas at about the same price as the old 840s. Good news, as I was afraid the stock of 840s might disappear before they reached my target pricetag. But does anyone know if these experience the slow-down bug that affected the 840?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TGIVVKU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

Forgive my ignorance, but i just want to clarify the process. I'm upgrading from the SanDisk U100 SSD 128gb to the Samsung 850 EVO SSD 250gb.

1) order mSATA to USB adapter
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...06&cm_re=msata_adapter-_-17-362-006-_-Product

2) Use Samsung Data Migration software to clone current SSD to target SSD

3) Remove SSD and pop in the new one. Use Samsung Magician software to update SSD drivers

After step 3, my computer should be working as it was. Please let me know if im missing anything.

Much appreciated.

 

There's no ignorance - you've figured things out almost correctly although I would note:

(a) An alternative to an mSATA-USB adapter is to use mSATA-2.5" in a 2.5" - USB adapter / enclosure (which you might already have);
(b) Some people don't speak well of the Samsung SSD Magician but it's caused me no headaches when I let it optimize my Windows installation
(c) You may find that the F4 for Recovery facility doesn't work on the new SSD unless the Data Migration tool has put the recovery partition in exactly the same place as on the old SSD but this, in my opinion, doesn't really matter because one can always reclone from the old SSD.

John

 

850 EVO 500GB msata $164 at amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TGIVRYU/

 

So I restored my laptop to factory settings and I'm trying to clone my SSD by using a mSATA USB 3.0 enclosure, but the Samsung Data Migration program can't recognize it. Any help is much appreciated.

 

Have you tried using theUSB 2.0 port? You don't say which model of Series 9 you have but the CPU indicates that it is an NP900X*C or D and I recall that generation of notebook didn't support USB 3.0 at the BIOS level. A good data migration program (eg a recent version of Acronis TrueImage) should include the appropriate USB 3.0 driver, but it is possible that the Samsung Data Migration program is based on an a cloning package that lacks the USB 3.0 driver. USB 2.0 will be much slower, but it should work. Or try another cloning program.

John

 

John, thanks for the heads up. I've got Data Migration to work on my NP900X3C ,but now I face a new problem... I stripped one of screws to the back cover. *Sigh* time to go to the laptop repair shop tomorrow.

I'm planning to upgrade to Windows 10, should I use Samsung Magician before or after upgrading?

 

If you are VERY careful you can use a power drill (small bit) to remove the head of the screw and pliers to get the threaded piece. Finding reasonably priced replacement screws is best done on ebay.

 

1. The proper tool to remove damaged screws is a stud extractor. However, even the smallest is big for these screws. Here is some discussion about these screws.

2. Samsung's SSD Magician survived my Windows 10 upgrade. People have mixed views about whether's Samsung's optimization options bring any benefit while Rapid Mode will swallow some of your RAM to make a cache. Since the X3C doesn't have much RAM then Rapid Mode is best avoided.

John