Win 7 BIOS settings for WD Blue SN550 NVMe

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1

Hello:
I have a nice Optiplex 5040, i3-6100 64 bit Windows 7. My bios is current at Ver 1.14.5 and I think other drivers are up to date. The OS is on a Samsung 1TB SSD.

Last week I decided to upgrade(?) and add a WD Blue SN550 NVMe (WDS100T2B0C) SSD to use for the OS so I can backup everything internally on the old Samsung SSD with Acronis that will backup the entire computer. The only thing I’ve done with the drive so far is format and copy some music files on it to make sure it worked.

I realize to fully utilize the new SSD I need to make some bios changes with strange words like AHCI, UEFI, SATA and that makes me nervous. Tried searching Dell for info on changing the bios but found nothing. I guess the best way would be to change only one item at a time and reboot but how do I tell if it really made things better?

I did take some pictures of several bios screens that I could upload but basically I’ll list what is current. These were set with Dell support when I had support.

Boot List Option = Legacy
Advance Boot Options = Enable Legacy Option ROMs
UEFI Boot Path Security = Always except internal HDD
SATA Operation = RAID On
Under Drives I have SATA 0-4 listed then M.2 PCIe SSD-0 showing the new WDC disk

Thanks for any info on how to proceed.

2

In short Win 7 needs 2 additional hotfixes to get the necessary NVMe driver.
One could download them here:
add-native-driver-support-in-nvm-express-in-windows-7
stop-error-after-you-install-hotfix-2990941-in-windows-7

But Microsoft decided: This hotfix has been discontinued. Instead, you can upgrade to Windows 10.

So now you have to upgrade to Win 10 in order to use your NVMe SSD.

3

No problem, because W10 is much better (stable) then W7, with W7-look and still free. Works very good with Dell Optiplex computers.

4

wow, thanks for the interesting followup reply.

So to use the drive you’d need to first install a hotfix and hope it doesn’t give a stop error. If it does,

then there’s another hotfix. But good luck finding them. Maybe because of this WD might let me return the drive.

I did find something from Dell that you may have seen about having trouble installing Windows 7 which I might try later but it could lead to trouble. For some reason I can’t do a system restore after creating a restore point. I think it has something to do with ESET Internet Security.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln300820/what-are-pcie-ssds-and-how-to-use-them-as-a-boot-drive-for-a-dell-pc?lang=en

5

Short of having to remove my WD Blue SN550, anyone know if the WDS100T2B0C is considered a M-key connector? It’s really a pain to install again if needed.

Reason to ask is Amazon has a external enclosure for a M-Key connector M.2 NVMe SSD drive which would at least salvage the drive.

Here’s the drive:

And to get it down to $24, use KO9Z5Q45 at checkout. Don’t know how long that coupon code is good for.

Thanks

6

M.2 2280 PCIe® Gen3 x4 NVMe™ SSD.