DC1500M Enterprise U.2 NVMe Solid-State Drive - Support

This is common for flash storage, whether internal SSD, Flash Card, or external USB storage, and is due in part to a variance in how flash memory vs spinning platter hard drive manufacturers calculate megabyte. Hard drive manufacturers calculate a megabyte (or 1,000x1,000 bytes) as 1,000KBs, whereas the binary calculation for flash-based storage is 1,024KBs.

Example: For a 1TB flash-based storage device, Windows will calculate it as having a capacity of 931.32GB. (1,000,000,000,000÷1,024÷1,024÷1,024=931.32GB).

Furthermore, Kingston reserves some of the listed capacity for formatting (e.g., File Allocation Table) and other functions such as firmware and/or controller-specific information, and thus some of the listed capacity is not available for data storage.

FAQ: KDT-010611-GEN-06

Your system may be loading the Intel RST driver instead of the Microsoft NVMe driver. There is a known compatibility issue with the Intel RST driver that interferes with NVMe firmware update commands. Additionally, KSM is only supported on Windows based systems. Therefore, if you are attempting to run KSM on a macOS or Linux based system, unfortunately these OS are not compatible with KSM.

FAQ: KSM-001125-002-01

To determine which NVMe driver is in use, you can run the AS SSD benchmark tool and select your Kingston NVMe SSD from the drop-down menu. This will report the driver being used for that drive. If the driver is "iaStorAC" then your drive is using the Intel driver. If the driver is "stornvme" then your drive is using the Microsoft driver. Please note: Kingston's NVMe SSD drives are plug and play and therefore, we do not provide additional drivers.

FAQ: KSD-001525-001-00

Caution! The workarounds below will break RST RAID arrays and could lead to data loss. If your system has RST RAID arrays you should consider an alternate solution.

Workaround 1: Disable RST Control in BIO

This workaround requires BIOS options to enable or disable RST Control and is not available on all systems

Note: Please backup all important data before you proceed!

1. Restart and enter the system BIOS
2. Locate the RST Configuration settings in BIOS
3. Change "RST Controlled" to "Not RST Controlled"
4. Save and exit BIOS
5. Open KSM and update the drive firmware

Once these steps are completed you may optionally switch back to "RST Controlled" in BIOS.

Workaround 2: Switch from RAID to AHCI in BIOS

This workaround is to change your system storage mode from RAID to AHCI and should work on all systems.

Note: Please backup all important data before you proceed!

1. Open msconfig
2. Select the Boot tab
3. Check Safe boot (minimal)
4. Click OK and Restart
5. When the system restarts go into the system BIOS
6. Change the storage mode from RAID to AHCI
7. Save and exit BIOS
8. Wait for Windows to boot into safe mode
9. Open msconfig
10. Select the Boot tab
11. Uncheck Safe boot
12. Click OK and Restart
13. Wait for Windows to boot normally
14. Open KSM and update the drive firmware

Once these steps are completed you may optionally switch the storage mode back to RAID in BIOS.

FAQ: KSD-001525-001-01