One detail missing in this discussion is that partition table must be MBR, not GPT. I got a SSD Samsung 850 EVO 1TB and it came with GPT. Naturally, deleting/creating partition in Windows 7 didn't help. I had to use gparted from Ubuntu live CD to delete GPT and create MBR (called msdos). I also used gparted to create a nfs partition for Windows XP with 20% spare capacity left at the end and 1MiB unallocated space at the beginning (for alignment). After that it installed fine.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 18:13:

One detail missing in this discussion is that partition table must be MBR, not GPT. I got a SSD Samsung 850 EVO 1TB and it came with GPT. Naturally, deleting/creating partition in Windows 7 didn't help. I had to use gparted from Ubuntu live CD to delete GPT and create MBR (called msdos). I also used gparted to create a nfs partition for Windows XP with 20% spare capacity left at the end and 1MiB unallocated space at the beginning (for alignment). After that it installed fine.

Or with DISKPART from within windows to “clean” and “convert mbr”

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 18:13:

One detail missing in this discussion is that partition table must be MBR, not GPT. I got a SSD Samsung 850 EVO 1TB and it came with GPT. Naturally, deleting/creating partition in Windows 7 didn't help. I had to use gparted from Ubuntu live CD to delete GPT and create MBR (called msdos). I also used gparted to create a nfs partition for Windows XP with 20% spare capacity left at the end and 1MiB unallocated space at the beginning (for alignment). After that it installed fine.

Get Samsung Magician 4.9.6 to TRIM that 850 EVO!

I got Samsung Magician 4.9.7, it installed in Windows XP but it cannot do optimization (TRIM). Almost everything is greyed out. It seems this version is designed for Windows 7 only. I tested it in Windows 7 and 850 EVO and it could do TRIM. SATA controller is of course in AHCI mode and AMD chipset driver is installed (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA770 … v-20/support#dl ). I will try also AMD SATA driver from Gigabyte.

I got the 850 EVO specifically for Windows XP.

I installed AMD SATA RAID/AHCI Driver 3.3.1540.33 from https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA770 … v-20/support#dl but Samsung Magician is still in restricted mode. Under SCSI and Raid controllers I can see "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller" from 2012 which I installed.

The only thing that could be updated is
- AMD AHCI BIOS, but this is probably included in the main BIOS
- "Disk drive" driver, current one seems to be a generic Microsoft one from 2001, the disk drive has name "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device". This is probably what is confusing Samsung Magician. Not sure where to get this from. It doesn't seem to be included in AMD drivers.

In Windows 7, Intel SSD is a registered "Disk drive" called "Intel SS XYZ SATA Disk Device"

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 21:57:

I installed AMD SATA RAID/AHCI Driver 3.3.1540.33 from https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-870A- … v-21/support#dl but Samsu […]
Show full quote

I installed AMD SATA RAID/AHCI Driver 3.3.1540.33 from https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-870A- … v-21/support#dl but Samsung Magician is still in restricted mode. Under SCSI and Raid controllers I can see "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller" from 2012 which I installed.

The only thing that could be updated is
- AMD AHCI BIOS, but this is probably included in the main BIOS
- "Disk drive" driver, current one seems to be a generic Microsoft one from 2001, the disk drive has name "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device". This is probably what is confusing Samsung Magician. Not sure where to get this from. It doesn't seem to be included in AMD drivers.

In Windows 7, Intel SSD is a registered "Disk drive" called "Intel SS XYZ SATA Disk Device"

Maybe this could be an alternative. Re: Software that actually works enabling Trim on Windows XP

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-30, 15:02:

It is possible, with some controllers at least. […]
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It is possible, with some controllers at least.

SATA on socketA, from what i've personally seen - VIA does not work (sata1 devices only), nvidia works with no issues, sil controllers may work or may break spectacularly - data corruption and everything.

SATA1 with no AHCI is only marginally better than ATA133 with adapter in terms of performance. Results on nvidia sata are close to what's possible to get with good PCI sata controller (another option).

OS performance is still spectacularly better, even on ATA133. Stuff takes seconds to install etc. And there is no noise.

I did not have any issues with ide-sata adapters, apart from having to overcome 80pin cable detection on one board. But i only tried limited number of SSDs...

Neither Samsung Magician 4.9.7 nor ADATA SSD ToolBox (ver 2, 3, 4) can do TRIM in Windows XP with AMD socket AM2. The problem seems to be unrecognized driver, even though I use "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller" driver from 2012 with Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 v2.0.

ADATA SSD ToolBox says try installing Microsoft AHCI driver.

When I put Samsung 850 EVO in my Phenom II build, I see a new drive under "Disk drives" called "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SATA Disk Device", whereas in AM2 and Windows XP I see "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device"

I'm affraid these tools were designed to work with Windows Vista and later only.

I wonder what SSD disk drive you see in Windows XP & Athlon XP.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 20:50:

I got Samsung Magician 4.9.7, it installed in Windows XP but it cannot do optimization (TRIM). Almost everything is greyed out. It seems this version is designed for Windows 7 only. I tested it in Windows 7 and 850 EVO and it could do TRIM. SATA controller is of course in AHCI mode and AMD chipset driver is installed (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA770 … v-20/support#dl ). I will try also AMD SATA driver from Gigabyte.

I got the 850 EVO specifically for Windows XP.

Samsung Magician 4.9.6 is the last version that works in Windows XP, and only up to EVO 850.

I am running an EVO 850 Pro and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 on my Windows XP box and TRIM is functional.

Barley wrote on 2025-07-03, 17:56:

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-02, 20:50:

I got Samsung Magician 4.9.7, it installed in Windows XP but it cannot do optimization (TRIM). Almost everything is greyed out. It seems this version is designed for Windows 7 only. I tested it in Windows 7 and 850 EVO and it could do TRIM. SATA controller is of course in AHCI mode and AMD chipset driver is installed (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA770 … v-20/support#dl ). I will try also AMD SATA driver from Gigabyte.

I got the 850 EVO specifically for Windows XP.

Samsung Magician 4.9.6 is the last version that works in Windows XP, and only up to EVO 850.

I am running an EVO 850 Pro and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 on my Windows XP box and TRIM is functional.

I meant 850 Pro. No EVO. But EVO 850 is supported.

Barley wrote on 2025-07-03, 17:56:

Samsung Magician 4.9.6 is the last version that works in Windows XP, and only up to EVO 850.

I am running an EVO 850 Pro and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 on my Windows XP box and TRIM is functional.

Could you be more specific about your hardware and drivers installed? Your blanket statement is incorrect. I installed also Samsung Magician 4.9.6 with the same result as Samsung Magician 4.9.7.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-03, 18:41:

Barley wrote on 2025-07-03, 17:56:

Samsung Magician 4.9.6 is the last version that works in Windows XP, and only up to EVO 850.

I am running an EVO 850 Pro and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 on my Windows XP box and TRIM is functional.

Could you be more specific about your hardware and drivers installed? Your blanket statement is incorrect. I installed also Samsung Magician 4.9.6 with the same result as Samsung Magician 4.9.7.

I am using an ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard. The Device Manager says "Intel 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller" and "Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256G ."

My statement is not a blanket statement and is not incorrect. You have something else going on that is preventing you from using TRIM in Samsung Magician 4.9.6 in Windows XP.

Barley wrote on 2025-07-03, 19:38:

I am using an ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard. The Device Manager says "Intel 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller" and "Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256G ."

My statement is not a blanket statement and is not incorrect. You have something else going on that is preventing you from using TRIM in Samsung Magician 4.9.6 in Windows XP.

You are making an induction without seeing all the swans and a black swan appears. There are more variables at play than just Windows XP, Samsung SSD 850 and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 (7). Your statement is thus incorrect.

I already stated I have the latest AMD AHCI controller driver installed from 2012. Your drive name doesn't have SCSI in it unlike mine.

I connected my 860 EVO (2nd SSD) to the system and new disk drive named "Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device" appeared next to "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device" as if the AMD driver acted as a SCSI driver instead of SATA AHCI driver.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-03, 12:25:

Neither Samsung Magician 4.9.7 nor ADATA SSD ToolBox (ver 2, 3, 4) can do TRIM in Windows XP with AMD socket AM2. The problem se […]
Show full quote

Neither Samsung Magician 4.9.7 nor ADATA SSD ToolBox (ver 2, 3, 4) can do TRIM in Windows XP with AMD socket AM2. The problem seems to be unrecognized driver, even though I use "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller" driver from 2012 with Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 v2.0.

ADATA SSD ToolBox says try installing Microsoft AHCI driver.

When I put Samsung 850 EVO in my Phenom II build, I see a new drive under "Disk drives" called "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SATA Disk Device", whereas in AM2 and Windows XP I see "Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device"

I'm affraid these tools were designed to work with Windows Vista and later only.

I wonder what SSD disk drive you see in Windows XP & Athlon XP.

I am not really sure what those tools are doing and if i'd trust them.

Technically all that's needed to run trim is to send ATA command specifying sectors which need to be discarded. So any tool which does this needs to be able to communicate with the drive and figure out what to discard.

This manufacturer tools, however, are probably more concerned with restricting you to specific drives from specific manufacturer than anything else and that's where the issues probably are.

Honestly if you want to run trim periodically IMO the easiest and safest solution is to do simple minimal linux install on a thumb drive, write a script that mounts, runs trim, unmounts, shuts down and make that run on boot. This way you can plug in the thumb drive, turn the system on, wait for a minute or two, remove the thumb drive and use the system normally.

In my XP SSD is shown as simply "PLEXTOR PX-256M5S", with no "SATA" or "SCSI" and it uses microsoft's disk.sys and partmgr.sys from 2001. But it is attached to IDE using IDE-SATA and microsoft drivers, as installing nvidia drivers for IDE creates issues. IIRC "SCSI" appears when the drive is attached to a controller which is not IDE or does not use microsoft drivers

On another system in which VIA PCI-SATA controller is used, it is "KINGSTON SUV300S37A120 SCSI Disk Device".

If the AMD SATA controller driver is suspected to be part of the of issue, maybe getting an Asmedia or Marvell based AHCI controller would be an option.

I will install Windows Vista on the 860 EVO to see if Samsung Magician will be able to trim the Windows XP 850 EVO. If it doesn't work then I will install Windows 7 on the 860 EVO and try again. USB stick with Linux will be a last resort solution. I also looked into the option of using a dedicated AHCI SATA controller, but the problem is Windows XP drivers or drivers in general for older controllers.

Win8 can run trim on any SSD without any 3rd party utilities, so that's an option...

I honestly do not remember if 7 can do it...

Also TRIM is not all that essential. Decent SSDs, which this samsung ones definitely are, should work just fine without. A bit of extra wear would not do much given minimal load any XP tasks will create...

The biggest issue are modern garbage-tier dramless TLC/QLC sata SSDs (and most modern sata SSDs are like this now) - on those write speeds can be as low as 20-30MB/s as soon as they are completely full (which will be the result of running with no trim).

AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-03, 19:50:

You are making an induction without seeing all the swans and a black swan appears. There are more variables at play than just Windows XP, Samsung SSD 850 and Samsung Magician 4.9.6 (7). Your statement is thus incorrect.

My statement about 4.9.6 being the last version to work in Windows XP was indeed incorrect. I was basing that comment on this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsxp/comments/1 … an_ssd_toolkit/

I acquired version 4.9.7 and it also works in Windows XP and TRIMs my 850 EVO. Thank you for the discussion. It prompted me to test my assumptions.

Did you read the FAQ in Samsung Magician Help-->Troubleshooting-->FAQ? "Q2. Why don't PC with AMD chipsets & AMD drivers support Magician features? A2. This is a limitation of the AMD driver, you can resolve this issue by installing the Microsoft driver."

That FAQ is incorrect/incomplete.

In Windows XP, there is no Microsoft AHCI SATA driver, only manufacturer specific ones and the one from AMD 7xx chipset is incompatible with Samsung Magician. Both the driver and drives seem to be reported as SCSI drives.

I tried Windows Vista 32bit, default driver installed by Windows and also the AMD AHCI driver with the same results as in Windows XP. This time at least Samsung Magician complained about being unable to retrieve information from Samsung 850 EVO. Controller and drive name in Windows Vista were the same as in Windows XP.

Then I installed Windows 7 and Samsung Magician worked with the default Microsoft SATA driver as well with the AMD AHCI driver. With the Microsoft driver all channels were reported as ATA channels and the drive was reported as ATA as well. With AMD driver the SSD drive is now reported as SATA. Manual TRIM now works on 850 EVO in Samsung Magician 4.9.7.

This issue seems to be a limitation of AMD AHCI driver on Windows XP / Vista only.

Likely the limitation of samsung tool, not drivers. And it is probably something very silly like looking for specific device name.

Though AMD AHCI drivers are definitely not amazing, on 7 they significantly degrade performance compared to microsoft "standard AHCI serial ATA" driver. And since there is no choice on XP...

I'm seeing about 280MB/s in sequential reading, 250MB in sequential writing and 130MB/s in random multithreaded reading&writing in crystal disk mark on Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 v2.0 with Samsung 850 EVO. The board supports only SATA II.

In Windows 7 I used amd-chipset-drivers_18.10_0830 directly from AMD, which is the latest one, instead of chipset driver from Gigabyte. The driver from Gigabyte would cause my magnetic drive to shut down on every reboot and display smart error in BIOS, requiring another reboot to clear it.