Messed up my ultrabook

[Chris LeBaron]

I have a Samsung NP530U4BL, and I was installing windows on an SSD I put in it, and at the menu where you select your hard drive, I noticed there were more partitions than one, so I deleted them. After deleting them they didn't all merge together like I expected.

Come to find out those partitions weren't on the SSD at all, but apparently something else internal on the Motherboard or something. Anyway, now when I put in the Windows disc in it freezes as soon as it starts to load the Windows Logo.

It also will not boot an Ubuntu Live CD. I got a gparted disc to boot up and tried to recover the partition with Test Disk from terminal but had no luck.

Also may be good to note the partition i deleted is definitely not on the SSD I installed as it showed up in gparted when i had the SSD disconnected.

Anyone seen something like this before?

 

[Prostar Computer]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what you deleted and from where, but there is no such thing as a partition on the motherboard (just FYI for the future). You may need to wipe/nuke the drive.

Also:
1. Make sure your settings in BIOS for the drive are set to AHCI mode, and NOT to RAID or IDE (unless you need one or the other).
2. Make sure the drive is detected within BIOS (under boot options).
3. If 1 and 2 both √, then use gparted or any other utility of your choice to format the entire drive. If you're installing Windows 7, make sure the drive is set up as a MBR disk; if it's for Windows 8, it needs to be GPT (you can use diskpart to change it either way).

 

[Chris LeBaron]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what you deleted and from where, but there is no such thing as a partition on the motherboard (just FYI for the future). You may need to wipe/nuke the drive.

Also:
1. Make sure your settings in BIOS for the drive are set to AHCI mode, and NOT to RAID or IDE (unless you need one or the other).
2. Make sure the drive is detected within BIOS (under boot options).
3. If 1 and 2 both √, then use gparted or any other utility of your choice to format the entire drive. If you're installing Windows 7, make sure the drive is set up as a MBR disk; if it's for Windows 8, it needs to be GPT (you can use diskpart to change it either way).

I didn't think it was possible to have a partition/drive on the motherboard either, but this 15GB "mystery drive" is causing issues. It doesn't show up in the bios, but my SSD does. The only place I've seen it is within the windows install before i aborted and messed it up, and within gparted. I'm totally throwing this out there, because I have no idea, but I'm think thinking it must have had data on it that was vital to starting up the computer...

 

[Prostar Computer]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what you deleted and from where, but there is no such thing as a partition on the motherboard (just FYI for the future). You may need to wipe/nuke the drive.

Also:
1. Make sure your settings in BIOS for the drive are set to AHCI mode, and NOT to RAID or IDE (unless you need one or the other).
2. Make sure the drive is detected within BIOS (under boot options).
3. If 1 and 2 both √, then use gparted or any other utility of your choice to format the entire drive. If you're installing Windows 7, make sure the drive is set up as a MBR disk; if it's for Windows 8, it needs to be GPT (you can use diskpart to change it either way).

I didn't think it was possible to have a partition/drive on the motherboard either, but this 15GB "mystery drive" is causing issues. It doesn't show up in the bios, but my SSD does. The only place I've seen it is within the windows install before i aborted and messed it up, and within gparted. I'm totally throwing this out there, because I have no idea, but I'm think thinking it must have had data on it that was vital to starting up the computer...

Hey Chris,

I apologize, as I didn't elucidate things better for you! Okay: partitions are sections on the drive with a specified amount of data allocated to them. They are not on the board, and therefore, you are correct: no partitions show up in BIOS. The SSD does though, and that's good!

From what you've described, I don't think you destroyed the drive, but the situation does seem a little odd. There's nothing on the SSD that prevents you from installing Windows if you delete it. A blank drive is ideal, actually, when doing a fresh install.

So, let me ask you: was this a Windows 8 machine from factory? Windows 8 computers need 'CSM/Legacy Mode' enabled, and 'Secure Boot' disabled, IF you are installing Windows 7 (you do this from the BIOS/UEFI menu). If this was a Windows 7 computer from Samsung, then you shouldn't need to worry about that.

Keep that in mind, as well as the aforementioned in my previous post, and you should be able to get Windows on there with some trial and error. It's unlikely the SSD is unusable.

Best of luck!

 

[Chris LeBaron]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what you deleted and from where, but there is no such thing as a partition on the motherboard (just FYI for the future). You may need to wipe/nuke the drive.

Also:
1. Make sure your settings in BIOS for the drive are set to AHCI mode, and NOT to RAID or IDE (unless you need one or the other).
2. Make sure the drive is detected within BIOS (under boot options).
3. If 1 and 2 both √, then use gparted or any other utility of your choice to format the entire drive. If you're installing Windows 7, make sure the drive is set up as a MBR disk; if it's for Windows 8, it needs to be GPT (you can use diskpart to change it either way).

I didn't think it was possible to have a partition/drive on the motherboard either, but this 15GB "mystery drive" is causing issues. It doesn't show up in the bios, but my SSD does. The only place I've seen it is within the windows install before i aborted and messed it up, and within gparted. I'm totally throwing this out there, because I have no idea, but I'm think thinking it must have had data on it that was vital to starting up the computer...

Hey Chris,

I apologize, as I didn't elucidate things better for you! Okay: partitions are sections on the drive with a specified amount of data allocated to them. They are not on the board, and therefore, you are correct: no partitions show up in BIOS. The SSD does though, and that's good!

From what you've described, I don't think you destroyed the drive, but the situation does seem a little odd. There's nothing on the SSD that prevents you from installing Windows if you delete it. A blank drive is ideal, actually, when doing a fresh install.

So, let me ask you: was this a Windows 8 machine from factory? Windows 8 computers need 'CSM/Legacy Mode' enabled, and 'Secure Boot' disabled, IF you are installing Windows 7 (you do this from the BIOS/UEFI menu). If this was a Windows 7 computer from Samsung, then you shouldn't need to worry about that.

Keep that in mind, as well as the aforementioned in my previous post, and you should be able to get Windows on there with some trial and error. It's unlikely the SSD is unusable.

Best of luck!

Thanks for replying again so quickly, it came with windows 7 installed.

I still don't think we're on the same page, and I totally understand if you don't get what the issue is. I've worked on computers for years and have never seen anything remotely related to this. With absolutely no hard drive or SSD installed in the laptop, I'm seeing this random 15GB partition showing up in gparted. This 15GB drive does not show up in the bios. Because I deleted the partitions ( one about 4.5GB, the other about 10GB) on this random mystery drive when running a Windows 7 installation (which i aborted at the step where you pick your partition) I can't seem to get a Windows 7 or Ubuntu Installation to start. It will only seem to boot to less complicated boot disks like gparted, seatools, and memtest86+

 

[Prostar Computer]

...I'm seeing this random 15GB partition showing up in gparted. This 15GB drive does not show up in the bios.

Ah! It sounds like you accidentally formatted the ExpressCache SSD. Base specs for that model laptop advertise a 15 GB ExpressCache drive. I don't recall those traditionally showing up in BIOS setup, though that might vary from BIOS to BIOS.

 

[Chris LeBaron]

[
Ah! It sounds like you accidentally formatted the ExpressCache SSD. Base specs for that model laptop advertise a 15 GB ExpressCache drive. I don't recall those traditionally showing up in BIOS setup, though that might vary from BIOS to BIOS.

Ahh, well that's what it is. Haha, now I feel a little sheepish for not looking at the specs! You're right about it not showing up in the BIOS, so unfortunately there is no way for me to disable it to see if the Windows 7 install would work without it. I wish it would, because I don't really care about any performance boost it would give now that I have an SSD...

I had never actually formatted the ExpressCache drive, just deleted the partitions. I just tried formatting it to NTFS, but still couldn't get into the windows installation. Maybe I'll try a few more formats, but any other suggestions are welcome!

Thanks!

 

[Prostar Computer]

I think you need to install Windows to the primary disk drive, then download and install the ExpressCache driver for the caching drive: http/www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/NP530U4B-A01US

 

[Chris LeBaron]

Thanks for trying to help, but I can't even get a Windows 7, Windows XP or Ubuntu install to start, let alone complete so I can get the expresscache driver.

 

[Prostar Computer]

Faulty optical drive or primary disk drive, perhaps? Hmm, I hope you can get it sorted soon.

 

[Andreas Kyriacou]

did u find an answer for this?

 

[Andreas Kyriacou]

Thanks for trying to help, but I can't even get a Windows 7, Windows XP or Ubuntu install to start, let alone complete so I can get the expresscache driver.

hi chris, i have the same problem with the same laptop. were you able to fix it? It's driving me crazy