Installing Windows 7 on M2 SSD

[uerdoe]

Not sure this will be of interest for many since I'm part of few people who want to stick with Windows 7 (yea I'm stubborn :3 ), but here is some feedback about my endeavor about it. For the sake of being specific, my config is as follows:
- Asus Prime B450M-A
- Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB
With the help of NTLite, I updated my Windows Installation Image with the 2 NVMe hotfixes from Microsoft for Windows 7, and also added the M2 driver from Samsung too.
Now first weird experience: the M2 SSD isn't listed during the installation when everything expected has been done (hotfixes + M2 driver, did I miss something??).

However, if I use Asus's utility "EZ installer" to add the USB drivers to the image, there's an option to "install NVMe hotfix" (the same 2 hotfixes I mentioned earlier are there in a sub-folder of Asus's utility).
So if I opt out, the USB drivers are added and that's it, nothing changes and my M2 is still not listed, but if I opt in, I get an error message at 35% saying the driver package could not be installed, which doesn't really surprise me since I already updated the image with the hotfixes. Then the utility gets stuck at 35% and there's nothing else to do than just exiting the utility. But lo and behold, I boot the installation and voila, the M2 is now listed. That lets me guess there's something wrong when updating the ISO with the hotfixes using NTLite. Comments anyone?

 

[dennisfong86]

Can I know, how you integrate the drivers with NTLITE? Did you integrate to install.wim & boot.wim(winre/setup recovery images)?

Maybe you can also share you preset here?

 

[uerdoe]

there's an "integrate" tab in NTLite with 3 sub-tabs for "Updates" (e.g. microsoft's KB patches), and "Drivers" where you can add anything from the chipset, USB drivers...
For the preset, what do you mean?

 

[Clanger]

dennisfong86 you have to put the drivers(and any additional usb ones) into boot.wim - Setup and PE(if you want to use that) and install.wim. use the options on the Apply page to add them to bootwim.

 

[dennisfong86]

there's an "integrate" tab in NTLite with 3 sub-tabs for "Updates" (e.g. microsoft's KB patches), and "Drivers" where you can add anything from the chipset, USB drivers...
For the preset, what do you mean?

Clanger I think you attention to the wrong person. I am also trying to help uerdoe

I am thinking that he did not integrate the drivers at the right images hence during setup, he couldn't detect his M2 SSD

 

[dennisfong86]

@uerdoe, as mentioned, you need to apply these drivers to boot.wim (Microsoft Windows Recovery Environment & Windows Setup). and also install.wim, which I believe the default install.wim is already ticked.

Where exactly in NTLITE? Finish/Apply/Image process queue --> Integrate - Drivers -->see there is tick box for boot.wim, tick both if exist.

And Preset is the setting/adjustment file that you have selected. When you build an image, it will also generate an Auto-saved session. It is in XML format, share with us if you need any help, so the community will know what exactly you did or what you set.

 

[uerdoe]

ok, I have attached the xml if you 'd like to check it out.
So, I must tick both boot.wim and install.wim? that may be the problem. "install.wim 4" is greyed and ticked, so I guess this is fine, but should I also tick "boot.wim 2"?
That said, that still sounds weird to me, because the Samsung driver is not added to the ISO by Asus "EZ Installer", it's only messing with the Microsoft's hotfixes (after installing Windows, I do have all the updates installed when I check in "Installed Updates" from the control panel.
Thanks a bunch anyway for your input

 

[uerdoe]

follow-up: I ticked boot.wim 2 (Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)), the image boots and there's the Windows logo as expected, but then all I get is a BSOD. I guess my tries stop here. Thanks anyway for your comments

 

[Clanger]

you need to install(i think?) w7 in uefi mode(m2 will only run uefi, not mbr(i think) ), reboot and go into your boot menu, look for the drive you are using with a uefi option, select that and try again. you might have to set the bios to uefi mode, not in boot legacy as legacy is mbr. maybe, i dont know, i dont use am4 and getting 7 to run on newer stuff is getting hit and miss.