Installation Guide SAMSUNG PROPRIETARY

Samsung Magician 8

Installation Guide
Revision 1.6

DISCLAIMER
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. (hereinafter “Samsung”) RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE PRODUCTS,
INFORMATION AND SPECIFICATIONS WITHOUT NOTICE.
Products and specifications discussed herein are for reference purposes only. All information discussed herein may
change without notice and is provided on an “AS IS” basis, without warranties of any kind. This document and all
information discussed herein remain the sole and exclusive property of Samsung. No license of any patent, copyright,
mask work, trademark or any other intellectual property right is granted by one party to the other party under this
document, by implication, estoppels or otherwise. Samsung products are not intended for use in life support, critical
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or physical harm, or any military or defense application, or any governmental procurement to which special terms
or provisions may apply. For updates or additional information about Samsung products, contact your nearest
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COPYRIGHT © 2024
This material is copyrighted by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Any unauthorized reproductions, use or disclosure of
this material, or any part thereof, is strictly prohibited and is a violation under copyright law.

TRADEMARKS & SERVICE MARKS

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the respective companies with which they are associated.

For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/magician

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Revision History
Revision
Description Revision Date
Number
1.0 Initial Release Sep 2021
1.1 Bug fix, Security improvement Dec 2021
1.2 New features included, User Instructions Improved Mar 2022
New features included
1.3 Sep 2022
(LED Setting, Data Migration)
1.4 Data Migration feature improved Mar 2023
1.5 New features included, User Instructions Improved Sep 2023
1.6 User Instructions Improved Mar 2024

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1. Introduction
New Samsung Magician 8

Experience the new user-friendly GUI of Samsung Magician. Try our new features and enhanced
functions for better user experience. Samsung Magician provides an integrated convenient solution for
SSD with advanced capabilities.

Samsung Magician software is developed and distributed exclusively for users of Samsung Solid Sate
Drives (SSDs).

New Features

New Samsung Magician features a number of improvements over the previous versions.

- New features include:

 Newsroom - You can view all the YouTube and Instagram contents related to Samsung memory
products.
 System Details - You can view all the details of BIOS, Motherboard, Operating System and Drive
related information.
 Notice - You can view all the Software and Firmware update-related notices.

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2. Requirements and Support

System Requirements
Component Requirements
Windows 10 or higher
Operating System
macOS High Sierra 10.13 or higher

Disk Capacity Minimum 600MB available for installation

Supported Partition Types MBR, GPT

English, Korean, Spanish, German, Japanese,

Supported Languages Chinese (Simplified), French, Italian,

Portuguese, Russian
The following Samsung SSDs are supported:
Samsung SSD 990 EVO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink(M.2)
Samsung SSD 990 PRO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 980 PRO with Heatsink(M.2)
Samsung SSD 980 (M.2)
Samsung SSD 980 PRO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 970 PRO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 970 EVO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus (M.2)
Samsung SSD 960 PRO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 960 EVO (M.2)
Samsung SSD 950 PRO (M.2)
SSD Samsung SSD 870 QVO
Samsung SSD 870 EVO
Samsung SSD 860 PRO
Samsung SSD 860 EVO (2.5”, mSATA, M.2)
Samsung SSD 860 QVO
Samsung SSD 850 PRO
Samsung SSD 850
Samsung SSD 850 EVO (2.5”, mSATA, M.2)
Samsung SSD 840 PRO
Samsung SSD 840 EVO (2.5”, mSATA)
Samsung SSD 840 Series
Samsung SSD 830 Series
Samsung SSD 750 EVO
Samsung Portable SSD Series

Supported Features by model

There are some limitations that exist depending on the type of storage and model.
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Features

Perfor Perform
Model ance Diagno Encryp Over Data
Drive mance PSID LED Secure Security
SMART RAPID Optimiz stic ted provisi Migrati
Info. Bench ation Revert Setting Erase Setting
Scan Drive oning on
mark (TRIM)
840
√ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
840 √ √ √ √ √ √ √
840
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
750
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
850
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
850
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
950
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
960
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
960
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
850 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
860
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
860
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
970
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
970
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
860
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
QVO
970
EVO √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Plus
870
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
870
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
QVO
980 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
980
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
980 PRO
with √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Heatsink
990
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
PRO
990 PRO
with √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Heatsink
990
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
Samsung
PSSD T1 √ √ √ √

Samsung
PSSD T3 √ √ √ √

Samsung
PSSD T5 √ √ √ √ √

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Samsung
PSSD T7 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Samsung
PSSD T7 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Touch
Samsung
PSSD T7 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Shield
Samsung
PSSD T9 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Samsung
PSSD X5 √ √ √ √ √
Samsung
PSSD T5 √ √ √ √ √ √ √
EVO
Samsung
SD Card √ √

Samsung
UFD √ √

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RAPID mode Requirements

Component Requirements
Operating System Windows 10 or higher
Samsung SSD 870 EVO
Samsung SSD 870 QVO
Samsung SSD 860 PRO
Samsung SSD 860 EVO (2.5”, mSATA, M.2)
Samsung SSD 860 QVO
SSD Samsung SSD 850 PRO
Samsung SSD 850 EVO (2.5”, mSATA, M.2),
Samsung SSD 850
Samsung SSD 840 PRO
Samsung SSD 840 EVO (2.5”, mSATA),
Samsung SSD 750 EVO
Processor 1GHz or faster

System memory(DRAM) 2GB RAM or more

Free Disk Space Minimum 50MB

File System NTFS

Driver Support
1) SATA

Chipset Driver Supported

Microsoft Yes
Intel
Intel Yes
Microsoft Yes
AMD AMD Yes (with latest driver)
NVIDIA Yes

2) NVMe

Driver Supported
Samsung Yes
Microsoft Yes

1) Samsung Magician does not require internet connection to run. However, internet connection is
required to get updates for the latest Firmware, Feature modules or application and to authenticate
the SSDs.
2) If you delete some files of New Samsung Magician without internet connection, some features such as
certification or configuration may not work properly and cause limitations in use of New Samsung
Magician.

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3) The SSD should not be disconnected from the system while FW Update, Benchmarking, Secure Erase,
Over Provisioning, Encrypted Drive, PSID Revert, Diagnostic scan, Performance Optimization, Data
Migration or RAPID features are in progress. Doing so could result in data corruption.
4) All parallel operations should be terminated before executing Diagnostic scan, Performance
Optimization, Data Migration or Benchmarking features.
5) Data corruption may result if the user terminates the Magician application abnormally while
Benchmarking, FW Update, Secure Erase, Diagnostic scan, Over Provisioning, Encrypted Drive, PSID
Revert, Data Migration or RAPID features are in progress.
6) There is always the risk of data loss when updating SSD firmware. It is imperative that the user back
up any important data before performing a firmware update.
7) If there are system issues when performing functions, System Compatibility in Drive Details tab will
provide a guide to fix the issues.
8) If Samsung Magician is under a proxy network environment, it may not provide full functionality (e.g.
firmware update).
9) In order for Samsung Magician to function properly, the time of the PC needs to be correctly set.

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3. General Limitations
Overall

1) Magician does not work with SSDs connected via the SCSI controller interface.
2) Only MBR and GPT partition types are supported. Magician may not work with other partition types.
3) Magician shows only volumes mounted with letter.
4) Magician will not work on SSDs that are locked with a user password.
5) The user may need to manually refresh for Magician to accurately reflect all connected/removed
disks.
6) RAID on mode in SATA configuration is not supported by Samsung Magician and USB bootable
solution.
7) If you are using any custom storage driver, then Magician may not work properly. Please always use
the latest storage driver or Microsoft driver.
8) In the case of the function where the progress time is displayed – Performance benchmark,
Diagnostic scan, Data Migration and Performance optimization, changing the system time during the
function execution may cause the elapsed time to not appear normally.
9) Depending on the resolution or ratio setting of your display, the bottom and right side of Samsung
Magician may be out of screen.
10) For the performance benchmark record that was performed in the previous version of Magician 7.0,
some values may be marked as Unknown.
11) Magician might have compatibility issues with certain IRST Drivers.
12) When RAPID is activated, Restore point warning message is only available in English.
13) If Magician gets connected to or disconnected from the PSSD while performing some feature,
Magician may not work properly.
14) If you try changing the name of security-enabled PSSD T1 / T3, the name won’t be changed without
additional guidance when the wrong password is entered.
15) Magician icon may appear unchanged until the icon is updated by the system.
16) It may take up to a few seconds for to installer to start.
17) It may take time to move from one screen to the next screen in installer.
18) Connecting through remote connection will forcefully dismiss the magician notification window in
windows 11.
19) Upon abnormal termination of data migration, it may take time to restore the migration function.
20) In the case of failure to install Magician, MacOS only provides notification that the installation failed,
even if the failure is due to insufficient disk space.
21) In MacOS Mojave(10.14) and High Sierra(10.13), the desktop shortcut icon for Samsung Magician is
not rendered properly sometimes.
22) In MacOS Mojave(10.14) and High Sierra(10.13), installation takes more time than usual because of
compatibility issue.
23) Installer will not prompt for system extension approval once installation is complete when Magician
is installed on OS booted from external disks for OS versions >= 11 (From Bigsur onwards) in M1. As
a result, third-party kernel extensions will not be loaded and PSSD will not be detected in the
application.
24) Installer will prompt for system extension approval and once the approval is complete, the system
will restart when Samsung Magician is installed on OS booted from external disks. However, there
will be a kernel panic and system does not boot for OS versions >= 11 (from Bigsur onwards). PSSD
related kernel extensions will be loaded and application will detect PSSD(s) successfully in case of
these OS versions - 10.13 (High Sierra), 10.14 (Mojave), 10.15 (Catalina).
25) Under certain High DPI configurations the text may not appear correctly in Magician Installer. In
order to fix this please change High DPI settings to Override High DPI Scaling behavior by right
clicking Magician installer, select Properties, Compatibility then Change High DPI Settings.

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26) During firmware update, please do not hibernate/sleep/power-off host. It may lead to system error
or firmware update failure.
27) In MacOS, if you perform Classify Scan on NTFS file, system drives will take longer than expected due
to OS limitation.
28) In MacOS, Magician might get an error if Samsung Magician is added to login item.
29) In Windows OS, Diagnostic Scan – Full scan feature would be very slow when Microsoft Defender
Antivirus real-time protection turns on. By turning off real-time protection or excluding Magician
from real-time protection list (refer below image and command), you can perform Diagnostic Scan –
Full scan feature normally.
Command : Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess %programfiles(x86)%\Samsung\Samsung
Magician\SamsungMagicianSVC.exe

Performance Benchmark

1) Benchmarking may not work with some removable storage devices.

2) Performance Benchmark may get timed-out on ASMedia controllers if the driver does not handle
multi thread operations (IOs)

Performance Optimization

1) Performance Optimization supports only the NTFS file system.

2) Magician does not support TRIM operation for Standard Performance Optimization on
Windows 10 and above, as they support native TRIM.

Diagnostic Scan

1) Short scan supports only the NTFS file system.

2) If the device is locked, both short scan and full scan are not supported.
3) When performing Short scan, secure sufficient space of 5GB or more.
4) Samsung NVMe driver v3.3 is required to use SMART Self-test in 970 EVO Plus.
NVMe Driver is not required from later released models. (980, 980 PRO Series, 990 Series, etc)

PSID Revert

1) SSD supporting PSID Revert is 860 EVO 860 EVO M.2, 860 EVO MSATA, 860 PRO, 860 QVO, 970 EVO
Plus, 870 QVO, 870 EVO, 980, 980 PRO, 980 PRO with Heatsink, PSSD T7, PSSD T7 Touch, PSSD T7
Shield, PSSD T9.
2) The PSID Revert function can release the encrypted drive using the PSID of the label. After
performing PSID Revert, all data on the drive is deleted.

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Secure Erase & Linux Bootable Solution

1) While making a bootable solution for Secure Erase, please make sure the Device Manager window is
closed.
2) In some of the PCs, Bootable Solution may not work properly as expected because of compatibility
issues.
3) The Bootable solution is not compatible with pure SCSI or SATA NVIDIA/LSI/AMD chipset drivers.
4) AHCI or ATA mode must be enabled in the BIOS during PC boot up.
5) The Bootable solution may hang if the SSD is removed on PCs that do not support the hot plug feature
(e.g. ICH5/6 chipsets).
6) The Bootable solution will not work with devices attached via SATA 6Gbps (SATA III) operating in
IDE mode.
7) Secure Erase may not work on systems where SECURITY FREEZE LOCK is issued by the BIOS.

Encrypted Drive

1) Class 0, TCG Opal and Encrypted Drive cannot be enabled simultaneously. Only one mode can be
enabled at a time and all other modes must be disabled.
2) Security mode (Class 0, TCG/Opal or Encrypted Drive) must be disabled (unlocked) before removing
and installing onto another PC.

Over Provisioning

1) Over Provisioning only supports NTFS and raw (Unformatted) partitions.

2) Over Provisioning does not support dynamic disks or disks that require ‘Chkdsk’ operation.
3) Magician cannot guarantee that Over Provisioning scans disk’s partition layout properly, if partition
information had been changed during scanning.
4) Over Provisioning may fail, even though enough free space is available, if your system suffers from
cluster misalignment.
5) If user cannot span or shrink volume size through disk management of OS administration tool, it is
possible not to work dynamic over-provisioning properly.
6) Windows ‘Disk Partition Service’ and ‘Virtual disk Service’ should not be disabled in order to perform
Over Provisioning.
7) Over Provisioning can only be performed on the last accessible partition (NTFS or raw).
8) If a device with more than 4TB applied to the MBR partition is used, the function may not operate
normally.

LED Setting

1) Depending on the status of the SSD, LED setting may not be possible.

Security Setting

1) Finding my password is unavailable on Samsung Magician.

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2) Up to four fingerprints can be registered on Samsung Magician.

Data Migration

1) Data Migration supports the Windows operating systems listed in the System Requirement only.
2) Data Migration supports the Samsung SSDs listed in the System Requirement only. OEM storage
devices provided through a computer manufacturer or supplied through another channel are not
supported.
3) Data Migration can only clone a Source Drive on which an operating system has been installed. It
cannot clone a drive without an operating system installed on it.
4) When the Source Drive has two or more volumes (e.g. volumes to which drive letters, such as C:, D:, or
E:, are assigned), Data Migration can clone the C: volume on which an operating system is installed
and two more volumes. The System Reserved Partition, which is created automatically during
Windows installation, is cloned automatically.
5) The OEM Partition, which is created by the computer manufacturer when shipped from the factory, is
not cloned. However, it will be automatically cloned if the computer manufacturer is Samsung and
SRS (Samsung Recovery Solution) 5, SRS 6, or SRS 7 has been installed. (Versions lower than SRS 5
are not supported.)
6) After cloning the Source Drive to the Target Drive, their data sizes may differ by a few gigabytes. This
is normal. During cloning, Data Migration does not copy virtual memory (page files, hibernation files,
etc.) automatically created and managed by the operating system.
7) Data Migration cannot clone encrypted drives. In order to clone an encrypted drive, you must remove
its password first.
8) If the motherboard chipset drivers are not up to date when cloning, Data Migration may not function
properly.
9) If you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer (e.g. Windows 7 installed on the C:
volume and Windows 8 installed on the D: volume), then the cloned drive may not function properly
in some cases.
10) If the Source Drive is damaged (e.g. it has bad sectors), then the cloned drive may not function
properly.
11) Before attempting to clone a drive using Data Migration, it is recommended that you close all open
programs and allocate sufficient memory first.
12) If you have instant recovery software installed on your computer, then Data Migration may not
function properly.
13) If the Source Drive has been converted to a dynamic disk, then Data Migration may not function
properly.
14) If a portable device (e.g. an external USB device) is connected to the Target Drive for cloning,
then Data Migration may not function properly because of the USB adapter.
15) If the OS version installed in the original drive does not support the GPT partition and when it is
duplicated in a drive exceeding 2TB, the MBR partition type will be applied to the duplicated drive. As
MBR does not support large drives, the space exceeding 2TB will remain unallocated.
16) In order to use Data Migration in Samsung Portable SSD, Security Mode should be disabled.
17) Portable SSDs support Data Migration only on systems with Windows 10 or higher version.
18) Data Migration supports NTFS and FAT filesystem only.

Firmware Update

1) PC will be shut down automatically after firmware update (Magician counts down 20 seconds before
shutdown).
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2) Firmware Update may fail on Samsung brand SSDs connected to AMD Controller. Please retry using
default SATA AHCI controller (Microsoft drivers).

Settings

1) When booting the PC, users can decide whether to auto run Samsung Magician. If auto run is turned
off, updates cannot be received in real time.
2) The device scan proceeds immediately after the language is changed.
3) Scaling size varies depending on the resolution.

4. RAPID mode Limitations

1) RAPID mode accelerates only one SSD even though user has several Samsung SSDs (870 QVO, 870
EVO, 860 QVO, 860 EVO, 860 PRO, 850 PRO, 850 EVO, 850, 750 EVO, 840 EVO, and 840 PRO
regardless of form factor).
2) If there are two identical SSDs connected, RAPID mode may accelerate the incorrect SSD.
3) RAID Mode sets is not supported as an accelerated drive.
4) After uninstalling RAPID mode, if the system is restored to a prior state in which RAPID mode was
installed, RAPID mode will be started in a disabled state.
5) NVIDIA Storage controller is not supported.
6) During RAPID mode Enable/Disable operation: do not disconnect the target SSD, do not kill the
application.
7) If fast startup is enabled on windows 10 or higher machines, RAPID mode enable/disable requires
system restart. Shutdown followed by turning-on the power will not activate RAPID mode
enable/disable. By default fast startup is enabled.
8) Flush command of operating system and/or application may cause variation in performance when
RAPID mode is enabled.
9) Sometimes on AMD PC with AMD and ASMedia storage controllers it was found that the IOs takes a
longer time to complete. In such cases if Rapid was enabled, it may get automatically disabled due to
such IO errors. It may display "Rapid is in inactive state". User has to reboot the PC to enable the
Rapid back.
10) If multiple iterations of Read and Write are performed, RAPID mode may become inactive due to
system internal errors on some of the AMD / ASMedia Controller or Driver.
11) RAPID mode can't be guaranteed on the target SSD with non-NTFS file system.
12) If user deletes some files on RAPID folder, RAPID may not be uninstalled properly.
13) If the msiexec.exe is either unstable or corrupted, RAPID mode enable fails with the error message
“The Windows Installer service failed to start. Start the Windows Installer service manually, upgrade
the Windows Installer service, and check if the last updated or installed program in Windows was
successful. If the problem persists, contact the A/S center.”

The issue can be fixed by:

- Unregister and reregister Windows Installer service / MSI service.
 On the Start menu, click Run.
 In the Open box, type “msiexec /unreg”. And then press ENTER.
 On the Start menu, click Run
 In the Open box, type “msiexec /regserver”. And then press ENTER.
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 Try enabling RAPID mode again.

If RAPID mode does not enable, follow the steps below.
- Updating Windows Installer
 If your Windows Installer is not the latest version, corrupted or msiexec is
missing, please install the latest version of Windows Installer, then try enabling
RAPID mode again.
- If none of the above procedures work, we recommend reinstalling Windows.

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Operational Check of RAPID mode

RAPID mode starts its operation 45 seconds after OS booting. Please make sure the increased size of non-
paged pool using “task manager → performance → memory tab” to ensure it is fully operational.

* Before RAPID mode enabling

* After RAPID mode enabling

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Mar 2024

www.samsung.com/magician

Design and contents of this manual are subject to change without notice.

© 2024 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

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