Windows 10: Drivers needed for a Samsung mSATA 512GB SSD (PM841 ??)

ship69 said:

Yes I tried that.

OK I've put the 128GB SSD in.

The bad news is that F4 failed to offer any sort of Recovery. But the good news is that Windows 10 x64 *can* see my 128GB SSD, so I guess that means that my computer isn't broken. The problem is that 128GB is hopelessly small, (in fact I don't know why Samsung only offered such a small device at the time of purchase!). I am now letting Windows 10 install itself onto the 128GB SSD from my external (USB) DVD drive.

So it now looks increasingly like the 512GB drive is actually broken. However the reason I am still questioning this is simply because it was still working until I tried to re-install Windows!

Do you think I might find the driver(s) that I need for the 512GB SSD on the 128GB drive after Windows has finished installing?

Drives can fail at any time. It may have just been a coincidence, very hard to tell. As for the drivers, no idea. Someone here with more knowledge of what to look for after you're back up needs to answer.

If Windows Setup can see and install to this drive, its not a driver issue. The same drivers are used for both drives. I'll say this one last time. The driver is for the mSATA interface on the motherboard, its not for the hard drive itself. The fact that your not getting the "no signed drivers found" message when booting from the thumb drive, tells me it was looking for a driver for the USB external optical drive. Windows is installing just fine now on the 128 gig drive so obviously it has all the drivers it needs for the install. Once you boot into Windows for the last time. Just take a break and leave it on and connected to the internat. After about 5 minutes or so Windows update should start installing drivers for video, sound, and what ever else it needs. If prompted to reboot, reboot. Then just wait another 5 minutes or so and run Windows update manually. When it says fully up to date, check device manager for any yellow ! or red X's. If you don't see any all your hardware should be working. If you find something that's not working or not fully functional, then go looking for a driver. You don't have to get them from Samsung either. Depending on what the hardware is you can go to AMD, NVidia, Synaptics, etc.

128 is more than enough to run Windows 10 from. I have a 128 GB SSD in my laptop that I run Windows and Office from with no issues. Space will become limited if you have a lot of media files though. I keep my user folders, Documents, Pictures, Music, etc on a second 256 GB SSD. My laptop has dual drive bays.

ship69 said:

Thanks for bearing with me - I am only semi-technical(!)

To get clear, when I was on the 512GB SSD although I am able to boot from the thumb drive, when I try to install Windows
where it asked "Where do you want to install Windows?" I think when I clicked on "Windows can't be installed on this drive (show details)", I think the details did say something about not finding signed drivers.
I do still find this confusing because you say:
"If Windows Setup can see and install to this drive, its not a driver issue."
and then
"The fact that your not getting the "no signed drivers found" message when booting from the thumb drive, tells me it was looking for a driver for the USB external optical drive"

So althought it's not a driver issue, Windows was looking for a driver.
But why would it be looking for a driver for the USB external optical drive when clearly it can read the DVD perfectly well?

Either way I have already triggered a manual update (from the Control Panel) before reading the above and it is busy downloading a "Cumulative Update for Windows 10 version 1067 for x64 based systems KB4015438".

As far as I knew, you never mentioned getting the no driver found message when booting from the thumb drive. That's why I assumed it was looking for a driver for the optical drive. It may have just been looking for a USB 3 driver? Windows does some strange things that will baffle even the more experienced. Booting from the DVD I don't think you ever got as far a detecting the hard drive? I'd have to go read it all over again.
Running Windows update manually won't hurt anything. Once its all done and says you are up to date then go have a look in Device Manager for any hardware issues.

If you wanted to, you could boot from the DVD in that same optical drive and see if you get the no driver found message. It won't hurt your current install, you just quit before it does anything. If you still get that message then we know for sure its looking for a driver for the optical drive or USB 3, not for the hard drive interface. If you don't get that message then it was due to what ever s going on with the other hard drive.