[PROBLEM/SOLUTION]Samsung np530u3b (series 5/7)‏ SSD Upgrade

[overburnz]

So, recently i had this client with a Samsung NP530U3B with a HDD with 40+ bad sectors (with only 10% of the HDD test!) and i suggested an upgrade to a SSD 240GB, told the client the pros of that kind of upgrade, and he accepted. Little did i know the problem i was about to have... In my company, we use USB stick with windows ISO's to install on the clients computers, and sometimes we use DVD's, but in this particular situation, because it doesn't have a DVD drive i used our USB to install W7 in this machine and everything was going fine, i selected the SSD as the destination for the Windows installation, and i installed W7 but when i rebboted for the first time to continue the instalation and configuration, it didn't boot! I saw de Samsung logo and the nothing.... i entered in the BIOS and everything semmed to be alright, but still, i tried a lot of different configurations just to be confronted with the same problem... changed the SSD and nothing, i even tried with an HDD and still nothing, so after spending some time googling i found the answer... i just needed to install windows using an external DVD drive and a copy of windows 7 and it worked just fine, after that i upgraded to Windows 10 and it works just fine

Of course i tried other solutions, found them in another foruns, if it's ok i'll post them here

 

[Markverhyden]

Is UEFI turned on? If so try switching it off.

 

[overburnz]

Is UEFI turned on? If so try switching it off.

The problem wasn't on the uefi settings, i tried on and off, the problem was on the USB stick used for installing windows, it looks like if you use an USB, rather than a DVD, to install windows on this series on samsung computers, it will think that the main partition is swap and not a windows partition..

 

[Markverhyden]

Interesting. Never heard of that "feature" before.

 

[FremontPC]

I wonder how Samsung gets around that if you build a factory restore USB stick?

Saw one discussion on this that said turning off Fast Boot did the trick...

 

[overburnz]

yeah i saw that too, i saw one that said that entering "cmd" when installing windows (shift + F10 just before chosing the SSD to install) and then copying the files from the 100mb partition to the windows partition would also do the trick, but in my case just by installing with a DVD did the trick

 

[Kitten Kong]

I've had a few recently, whereby I have attempted to install 10 from 7/8 via usb (after a ssd upgrade), and it does not allow me to install on the ssd. Irrespective of uefi being on or off.

Only way round it for me, was to use an original windows 10 dvd.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I primarily use my zalman ve-200 but from time to time when problems occur I do resort to a portable usb dvd drive I have. Its always a good idea to have one as they are very cheap. I also keep a usb nic and usb wireless adapter as they are also very cheap and can be handy at times.

 

[cypress]

I've had a few recently, whereby I have attempted to install 10 from 7/8 via usb (after a ssd upgrade), and it does not allow me to install on the ssd. Irrespective of uefi being on or off.

Only way round it for me, was to use an original windows 10 dvd.

Filing this one away for future reference.