Samsung 980 Pro M.2 - Can't enable encrypted drive

Question

I've just installed a new 980 Pro M.2 SSD in my Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming.

After re-installing windows 10, I installed Samsung Magician in order to enable Encrypted Drive.

In Samsung Magician it tells me there's a compatibility issue with my drive.

Driver | "Intel Corporation 15.44.0.1015" The device is connected to the driver that Magician does not support. Recommendation: Use Microsoft or Samsung NVMe driver.

However in device manager, when I check the driver for this drive, it lists the driver provider as "Microsoft".

If I try to "update driver" it insists that the best driver is already installed.

I checked the Samsung site for drivers, but it does not appear to have a driver available for the 980 Pro. It has one for the 970 Pro, but that won't install.

Can anyone suggest what I should do, to install a driver that will be compatible with Magician, and will allow me to use the Encrypted Drive feature?

Answer 1

I was able to eventually get it working. These are the steps, in case it's helpful for others. The usual disclaimers apply. Make sure you have everything backed up. I assume there's always a possibility it could brick your laptop.

1. In the bios, I changed the sata mode from "Raid on" to "AHCI". After doing this, windows wouldn't boot, so I needed to boot from the Windows install usb, and re-install Windows.

2. Installed Samsung Magician. It now showed the option to enable "encrypted drive".

3. I followed the directions from Magician, and setup a "secure erase" usb.

4. The newly created usb wouldn't boot initially. To get it to boot, from the F12 boot menu I changed the boot mode from "UEFI Secure" to "Legacy, not secure".

5. Followed the prompts to perform the secure erase.

6. Changed the boot mode back to "UEFI Secure", and then booted again from the Windows 10 USB.

7. Installed Windows 10 as normal.

8. Installed Samsung Magician. Now "encrypted drive" showed as "Enabled".

9. Turned on BitLocker for C: drive.