GT60 w/ 680M MSI Recovery network fix (files included)

Well my original SSD was DOA, so I just received my new one. So I've gone through this 3 times now.

Just like last time, everything works from the MSI Recovery on the new SSD, except networking. There are no network drivers anywhere on the computer. So I compared installations / files. It turns out program files\qualcomm atheros\ is missing a folder. The stock installation on the laptop has a folder named "netak27" while the recovered image lacks this folder. So once I had everything installed / running, I installed the factory drive again, and pulled the folder out.

I put it in the same place on the SSD install of windows, pointed the device manager to the folder and it installed all the bluetooth / networking drivers. I have no idea why this folder was left out of the recovery image..

So, to help you guys out I rar'd it. All you need to do is put this (extracted) folder into your C:\program files\Qualcomm Atheros\Killer Network Manager\ folder. Make sure it's named netak27. That's all you have to do.

Open up device manager, click the Unknown Network Device, have driver, and point it to that folder, and bingo, everything works!

The link is https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21296790/netak27.rar for the files, it's around 3.27mb uncompressed, and 770kb compressed. Kind of sad if you think about it, less than 1mb of data, but needing to update 16gb recovery to fix it.

Hope this helps someone!

 

Just realized I probably posted this a bit to quickly, so I'll rephrase it.

After using MSI recovery to install Windows 8 on a NEW ssd using a 32gb flash drive I made from the original HDD Recovery, I installed it onto the new SSD. Everything functions as it should, however no networking adaptors work. I was unable to find the device driver hidden anywhere, so I reinstalled the stock harddrive, but booted off the SSD. I compared the C:\Program Files\Qualcomm Atheros\Killer Network Manager\ folder and was shocked to find a missing folder. The SSD was missing the NetAK27 folder. When I had originally done this process on the first (dead) SSD, I had uninstalled the Killer Network Manager, rebooted, reinstalled it, rebooted, and was able to get networking functioning. However it was a pain.

This time around, I simply copied the aforementioned folder to the SSD, and using Device Manager, pointed it to search for drivers in that folder. Took all of 2 seconds before I was connected to my Wifi. Hopefully this saves someone some frustration and hair pulling. I uploaded the folder to my Dropbox, it's less than 1mb.

Have fun guys!

 

Good info here! You can always back up your drivers too; either using a utility like Smart Driver Backup or DriverGrabber (or just navigate to the directory with the driver/cab file(s)).

Thanks for the tips.

 

Using a restore partition or image created from an installation on a hard disk drive for transfer onto an SSD is never a good idea.

The hard drive doesn't use trim and a clone of it may not have trim working correctly when transfered to an SSD.

A clean Windows installation is always best together with the newest drivers,software and utilities.

After you've installed Windows on an SSD run the WEI to optimize for an SSD.

Then turn off hibernation to gain back 12GB of space on the SSD

Run as Admin powercfg -h off

Here's some good reading
Optimization Guides - The SSD Review The SSD Review

 

You misunderstood. It's MSI's recovery program. I didn't clone an existing installation. MSI recovery installs windows then installs drivers. Trim is fully functional without me touching anything. The recovery program (and laptop) has ALL current programs and drivers. Nothing needs to be updated, they are the current drivers/program versions.

Trim is fully functional. I did make a ramdisk for temp files / internet files to save wear on the ssd. I've already optimized windows for using a SSD.

Samsung's SSD software isn't available for Windows 8. It won't install. But trim is functioning.

I also used Sean's setup guide. Sean's Windows 8 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

I'm running 32gb of Ram, samsung 840-pro 256gb ssd, stock drive reformatted for data storage, a 4gb ramdisk (going to go to 8gb after I buy the program). I'm going to ditch the blueray writer and probably re-setup the hdd's and run 2 in raid 0, with 1tb drives each.

 

Samsung SSD Magician will run on Windows 8 if you right click on the installer and choose Windows 7 compatibility mode.

 

I didn't want to do that since I wasn't sure if the drivers etc wouldn't function properly on windows 8, and didn't want to risk damage to the SSD, or have to redo the install yet again.