Samsung has released a major overhaul of their Magician SSD software, bringing the software to version 4.0. One of the biggest boons to owning a Samsung SSD is Samsung’s attention to detail, as evidenced by this extremely useful SSD optimization/tuning and management tool. The last version of the Magician software was 3.2 and supported up to Windows 7. When attempting to install the prior version of Magician software Windows 8 users were presented with a “This is a known incompatible program” message. Besides Windows 8 compatibility, other major changes include three pre-sets under OS Optimization, a Samsung Authentication screen, and a completely revised (and far more attractive) user interface. This is the launch screen.

The “eye candy” has been turned up and all critical information is in one spot. This is the OS Optimization screen, and is one of the biggest changes besides the UI. There are now three pre-sets to choose from, eliminating the guess work of OS optimization for Samsung SSDs. If you don’t want to use a pre-set, there is the Advanced tab where you can tweak OS settings manually. Another addition, although less helpful, is the SSD Authentication screen.

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This only works for the 840 Series SSDs, however. The summary of changes in Samsung Magician ver 4.0 directly from Samsung’s website: • Improvements & Modifications – Completely redesigned User Interface and User Experience. – Simple, graphical indication of drive health status and Total Bytes Written. – At-a-glance system configuration information, including SATA interface and AHCI support.

– Re-designed OS Optimization featuring three common user profiles and detailed explanations of each configuration option. – SSD Authentication feature to verify your SSD is a genuine Samsung product.(From 840 and 840 PRO Series) • Operating System – Windows XP SP2(32bit) / Vista(32/64bit) / 7(32/64bit) / 8(32/64bit) • Note – SSD will not be recognized if it is part of a RAID array – Magician does not work with SSDs connected via the SCSI controller interface. – Only MBR and GPT partition types are supported.

Magician may not work with other partition types. – Secure Erase is not supported for Windows 8 systems. Samsung Magician ver 4.0 is found.

After installing the Samsung 840 EVO SSD exactly as per the instructions, I booted up the MAC MINI and the drive was visible, but needed formatting to OSX extended (journaled) in order for me to then install OSX on it and then migrate the old HD system and apps to it. However, when I try formatting the 840, I keep getting a formatting error: Disk Erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed. I can see the EVO drive in the MAC's Disk utility app with a sub partition named disk1s2 greyed out. I click on the main drive image - 500.11GB Samsung SSD EVO 500GB Media, I have the option to erase or partition. I try partitioning it into a single partition with the options set to GUID partition table format, I get the above error.

The option of re-partitioning the disk1s2 partition is greyed out and not available, only erase for which I get the same error above. The Samsung MAGICIAN utility is' Windows only 'bold text (How dumb!) 6. I do have a PC/windows laptop available, so do I need to go through all the hassle of pulling out the SSD from the MAC MINI and using the Windows only MAGICIAN utility to reformat the drive or is there an easier way? And even if I do, won't I be just back where I started? While I haven't tried this it should work: Setup your system in Target Mode and then connect it to your Windows PC system running Samsung's Magician software.

Or down load their image file for Mac onto a USB drive (Linux) and run it that way. I suspect you got a returned drive. Where did you get it? Did you know it was an open box unit?

We have quite a few 840 EVO drives and have not needed to do this (we just upgraded 20 systems). Don't forget to enable TRIM under the latest version of Yosemite, it makes a big difference! So do I connect the Mac Mini to the PC via ethernet / wifi? Should the Magician software already be running before trying to network / connect them?

Forgive me, but I always thought that networking macs and PC's together is a bit of a mind bender.or is that now a thing of the past? We always used the boot image method by burning a CD. Samsung image file uses Linux to boot up and then runs off of it. Which is how we first installed the drives a year ago. And Yes, it's a pain! As you don't have a CD drive internally in your Mac Mini I figured you could try the PC method.