Windows 10 Need to migrate MBR Win10Pro C drive HDD contents or my Macrium Reflect backups of it to new on-the-motherboard NVMe SSD device set to UEFI GPT

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

when I invoke:
cd ~/ _combined.bin.extracted

...I get:
bash: cd: too many arguments

Incidentally, is there a way to simply drill down into one of the subdirectories on the bootloader partition and simply copy out the folder containing the drivers from there?

 

[ChatGPT]

You're almost there — the cd error was just because you put a space between the two path parts. Use a slash or change into your home first.
Do this (paste & run each line one at a time in the Ubuntu WSL shell). I made these commands simpler and robust so you don't need to craft heredocs or a separate script.
1) Change to your home and into the extracted folder
cd ~
cd _combined.bin.extracted
pwd
ls -la
(If the last two lines show the files you posted earlier, continue. If you get “no such file or directory”, run ls ~ to confirm where binwalk created the folder.)
2) Decompress every .zlib → .raw (one small inline Python call per file)
This will try to decompress each .zlib and create a corresponding .raw file. It prints OK or failure.
for f in *.zlib 2>/dev/null; do
echo "Processing $f"
python3 - <<PY
import zlib,sys,os
p = "$f"
try:
data = open(p,'rb').read()
out = zlib.decompress(data)
open(p + '.raw','wb').write(out)
print('wrote', p + '.raw', len(out))
except Exception as e:
print('failed', p, e)
PY
done
3) Inspect all files (header + a few printable strings) so we can spot PEs (MZ), ZIP/MSI (PK), .inf/.sys text
for f in *; do
echo
echo "---- $f ----"
file "$f"
hexdump -C "$f" | sed -n '1,6p'
strings -n 8 "$f" | sed -n '1,30p'
done
Paste here the parts that look interesting — specifically:

• any file where hexdump first bytes show "4d 5a" (ASCII "MZ") or "50 4b 03 04" (PK..), or
• the strings output lines that show ".inf" or "iaStor" or "nvme" or "Samsung" or driver filenames.

4) If you find a file that looks like an MSI/CAB/PE, extract it with 7z (example)

list inside a candidate file​

"/usr/bin/7z" l filename

extract it​

"/usr/bin/7z" x filename -o./extracted_filename
(If your 7z is in /usr/bin the above works; otherwise use 7z directly.)
5) Copy an extracted driver folder back to Windows for DISM injection
If you get a folder containing .inf/.sys you can copy it to a Windows path (USB or Temp) like this (example copies to C:\Temp\SamsungDriver):
cp -r extracted_folder /mnt/c/Temp/SamsungDriver
Then from Windows/Hiren’s we can run:
dism /Image:E:\ /Add-Driver /Driver:X:\SamsungNVMeDriver\ /Recurse
(reg edits + bcdboot — I will give exact commands once you confirm the folder and letters)
Extra convenience: open the Windows Explorer on the current WSL directory
explorer.exe .
That will open the WSL folder (mounted under \wsl$) in Windows Explorer so you can visually inspect the extracted files and copy them with the GUI.
If any command fails or prints an error, paste the exact output here. If the decompress step created *.raw files, paste the file / hexdump / strings lines for those files (or the chunk of output you think looks promising) and I’ll pick the correct file and give the exact 7z/lessmsi command to extract drivers from it.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

When I typed in: for f in *.zlib 2>/dev/null; do
it said: -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `2'

 

[ChatGPT]

Hi Nomad — the syntax error is caused by putting the redirection in the for-loop header where the shell doesn't expect it. Bash expects the in word-list to end with a ; (or newline) before do; an embedded 2>/dev/null is parsed as if it were another word/token and that yields the "unexpected token 2" error.
Fixes / alternatives:
1) Normal loop (no redirection in the header)

for f in *.zlib; do
  echo "$f"
done

2) If you wanted to redirect stderr for the commands run inside the loop, put the redirect after done (redirects the whole loop) or inside the loop (redirects that command):

# redirect stderr for the whole loop
for f in *.zlib; do
  somecommand "$f"
done 2>/dev/null

# or redirect only the command inside the loop
for f in *.zlib; do
  somecommand "$f" 2>/dev/null
done

3) If your goal was to avoid "no matches" problems, use nullglob:

shopt -s nullglob
for f in *.zlib; do
  # skip if pattern didn't match (nullglob removes the literal)
  [ -e "$f" ] || continue
  ...
done
shopt -u nullglob

4) Safe alternative that handles weird filenames:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.zlib' -print0 |
while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
  echo "$f"
done

Short answer: move the 2>/dev/null out of the for ... in header — put it after done or apply it inside the loop.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

I was following your command instructions. When the first command line for section 2) gave that error, it brought me to a stop. What do we do next to accomplish the steps in section 2) of your plan?

Also, you did not answer my recent question: Presumably the bootblock partition has a folder in it that contains the driver for the SSD drive, and the other related files to that. Is it possible to copy-paste that folder out, avoiding the need for all these complicated hoops to extract them from the exe?

 

[ChatGPT]

Hi Nomad — thanks, and good question. Two short answers first, then the exact commands to paste/run.
1) Why you saw that error and what to do now

• The syntax error happens because the shell does not allow a redirection inside the for ... in header (the 2>/dev/null you typed). I explained that earlier.
• Fix: move the redirection out of the header or apply it to the command(s) inside the loop. Then re-run the corrected command. Below are safe, copy‑and‑pasteable variants you can use.

2) About the “bootblock partition” and the driver folder

• The EFI/System (ESP) partition contains UEFI boot files — it typically does NOT contain the full Windows INF/SYS driver package you need. You usually can’t simply copy a ready‑to‑install vendor driver folder off the ESP. The reliable methods are either (A) run the vendor EXE on a working Windows machine and copy the temporary unpacked driver folder, (B) export the installed driver from a working Windows with PowerShell, or (C) download/extract the official Samsung NVMe driver package and copy the INF/SYS files to your USB. I recommended those exact options earlier. fileciteturn0file19turn0file20

Now the exact commands and brief instructions you can run in WSL / an Ubuntu shell (pick one of these):
A — Redirect stderr for the whole loop (suppresses all loop stderr)
cd into the directory that contains the extracted files (the _combined.bin.extracted folder), then run:
for f in *.zlib; do
zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}"
done 2>/dev/null
B — Redirect only the zlib‑uncompress command’s stderr (recommended so you still see other errors)
for f in *.zlib; do
zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}" 2>/dev/null
done
C — Handle the “no matches” problem (safer if the glob might not match anything)
shopt -s nullglob
for f in *.zlib; do
[ -e "$f" ] || continue
zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}" 2>/dev/null
done
shopt -u nullglob
D — Safer for weird filenames (use find + -print0)
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.zlib' -print0 |
while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}" 2>/dev/null
done
Notes about pasting into WSL / Ubuntu shell

• If multi-line paste is being swallowed by the terminal, save the loop into a small script file and run it:
  cat > ~/zlib_uncompress.sh <<'EOF'
  

  !/bin/bash​

  for f in *.zlib; do
  zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}" 2>/dev/null
  done
  EOF
  chmod +x ~/zlib_uncompress.sh
  cd /path/to/_combined.bin.extracted
  ~/zlib_uncompress.sh

(Older WSL terminals or launching Ubuntu from Start can behave oddly when pasting; I suggested these workarounds earlier).
If you still get the same syntax error

• That means the shell is still seeing a redirection in the wrong spot. Copy one of the exact blocks above, paste it as a 3–5 line script (not a single long line), and run the script. If you paste the whole block as a single long line into PowerShell by accident, it will be interpreted differently — make sure you’re in the Bash/WSL shell.

About extracting / getting the Samsung NVMe driver (practical recommendation)

• Easiest, most reliable: run the Samsung EXE on a working Win10 machine (Run as Administrator). Even if the installer then says “device not connected,” it usually unpacks into %TEMP% first — then copy that folder to your USB. Or run PowerShell on the working machine:
  Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination X:\ExportedDrivers
  and copy the Samsung/NVMe folder from X:\ExportedDrivers to your USB. I recommended exactly those options before. fileciteturn0file19turn0file20
• If you prefer to avoid running the installer, you can extract the EXE/MSI with 7‑Zip / lessmsi / Universal Extractor on a working Windows and copy the resulting INF/SYS files — but some Samsung builds split payloads into u0…uNN fragments and require the installer to run to assemble them. fileciteturn0file8turn0file19

What I suggest you do next (concrete)

1. In WSL/Ubuntu, cd to the directory where binwalk wrote the extracted files (e.g. _combined.bin.extracted).
2. Run the simple loop from B above (redirecting only command stderr). That will create decompressed files named like the originals without the .zlib suffix.
3. After it finishes, list the decompressed files with ls -l and paste the top lines here if you want me to inspect which ones look like PE/EFI/etc.
4. For the driver issue: if you have a second working Windows PC available, run the Samsung EXE there and either (A) copy the temp unpack folder or (B) run Export-WindowsDriver to make an ExportedDrivers folder, then put the resulting INF/SYS(s) on your USB. I can then give the exact DISM/pnputil commands to inject the driver into your offline image. fileciteturn0file20turn0file18

If you’d like, paste the exact command you ran that produced the “syntax error” and the shell prompt line — I’ll point out exactly where it went wrong. If you want I can also give the single-line variant you can paste into PowerShell that calls WSL to run the loop (if that helps with your paste issues).

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

Okay, I did choice A — Redirect stderr for the whole loop (suppresses all loop stderr), what do I do now to determine what results those three lines of command did? Do I look in a particular folder now to see if the driver files got collected, or what? I don't see any obvious result of those three commands.

 

[ChatGPT]

Good — you’re almost there. Short answer first, then quick commands to run and what each one tells you.
Where the decompressed files would be

• Binwalk writes its extracted pieces into a folder named something like _combined.bin.extracted (usually in the directory where you ran binwalk). The zlib loop you ran should create files next to those .zlib blobs with the same name but without the .zlib suffix. (I suggested those exact checks earlier.)

If you don’t see anything obvious, run these checks (paste each line, press Enter) from the Ubuntu/WSL shell in the directory where you ran binwalk (or from your WSL home if you copied combined.bin there).
1) Confirm where you are and that the extracted folder exists
pwd
ls -ld _combined.bin.extracted
ls -la _combined.bin.extracted
What it tells you: the current directory and whether binwalk created the extraction folder and what’s inside.
2) Show only the .zlib files (to check whether any matched the glob)
printf '%s\n' *.zlib
If this prints the literal "*.zlib" then the glob didn’t match — no .zlib files were present in that directory. If it prints names, those are the files your loop should have processed.
3) Show recently created/modified files (helpful after you ran the loop)
ls -lt --time-style=long-iso _combined.bin.extracted | sed -n '1,40p'
What it tells you: the newest files first so you can see if decompressed files were written and when.
4) Show file types for everything under the extracted folder
find _combined.bin.extracted -type f -print0 | xargs -0 file | sed -n '1,80p'
What it tells you: whether the decompressed outputs look like PE/EXE (MZ), ZIP/MSI (PK), plain text, or other. This is the quickest way to spot driver packages (.msi/.cab) or .inf/.sys content. (I recommended inspecting headers/strings earlier.) fileciteturn1file4turn1file8
5) Look specifically for .inf / .sys files
find _combined.bin.extracted -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -print
If that finds files, you’ve got drivers — copy that folder to your USB and we’ll use DISM/pnputil steps next. (This is the exact goal we were hunting for when extracting the installer payload.)
6) If you want per-file headers / quick hex + strings inspection
for f in _combined.bin.extracted/*; do
echo "=== $f ==="
head -c 32 "$f" | hexdump -C
strings -a -n 10 "$f" | sed -n '1,6p'
done
What it tells you: the first bytes (so you can see MZ / PK / etc.) and a few strings to spot words like "Samsung", ".inf", "nvme", "stornvme". This is what I suggested to look for after decompressing the .zlib blobs.
7) If you redirected stderr for the whole loop (so you saw no errors) and you still see no outputs

• The glob may have had no matches (see step 2). Or the decompression may have failed silently.
• Rerun a single-file verbose test so you can see errors. Example (replace onefile.zlib with a real .zlib name from step 2):
  echo "Try verbose for one file"
  zlib-flate -uncompress < onefile.zlib > onefile.raw

If that produces an error it will print to the terminal; if it succeeds you’ll get onefile.raw.
8) A safe status loop that prints OK/FAILED per file (recommended)
cd _combined.bin.extracted
for f in *.zlib; do
echo "Processing: $f"
if zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}"; then
echo " OK -> ${f%.zlib}"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
This prints status per file so you can see which ones succeeded and which failed (no global stderr suppression). (This is the more informative variant of the loop we used earlier.)
If you find .inf/.sys files

• Copy the containing folder to your USB (or to C:\Temp\SamsungDriver). Tell me the path and I’ll give you the exact DISM / driver-inject / bcdboot commands for your offline image.

If you find only a PE or MSI inside the extracted results

• Use 7z to unpack that MSI/CAB (I gave the exact 7z extraction steps earlier) and then re-run the .inf/.sys search. fileciteturn1file8turn1file12

If nothing shows up

• Tell me the outputs of steps 1, 2 and 4 (pwd, ls -ld _combined.bin.extracted, printf for .zlib, and the find|file output). Paste them here and I’ll interpret exactly what went wrong and give the next carve/extract commands.

Summary / next immediate step

1. Run steps 1–4 above and paste the outputs. That will immediately tell us whether decompressed files exist and what they are. fileciteturn1file11turn1file4

If you paste those outputs now I’ll read them and tell you exactly which file to extract next or whether to retry the verbose loop.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

It doesn't look like anything useful happened, the last 2 of the three commands for 1) Confirm where you are and that the extracted folder exists
ls -ld _combined.bin.extracted
ls -la _combined.bin.extracted

...gave me
ls: cannot access '_combined.bin.extracted': No such file or directory

The recent output on the Ubuntu window consists of:

cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~$ cd ~/ _combined.bin.extracted
-bash: cd: too many arguments
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~$ cd ~
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~$ cd _combined.bin.extracted
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ pwd
/home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ls -la
total 12092
drwxr-xr-x 2 cosair cosair 4096 Oct 26 00:52 .
drwxr-x--- 5 cosair cosair 4096 Oct 26 00:52 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 262400 Oct 26 00:52 400E5
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 3178091 Oct 26 00:52 400E5.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 3144 Oct 26 00:52 7D68A
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2926790 Oct 26 00:52 7D68A.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 193738 Oct 26 00:52 7E0FA
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2924118 Oct 26 00:52 7E0FA.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 16448 Oct 26 00:52 8F4A8
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2853544 Oct 26 00:52 8F4A8.zlib
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ for f in *.zlib 2>/dev/null; do
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `2'
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ for f in *.zlib; do
> zlib-flate -uncompress < "$f" > "${f%.zlib}"
> done 2>/dev/null
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ pwd
/home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ls -ld _combined.bin.extracted
ls: cannot access '_combined.bin.extracted': No such file or directory
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ls -la _combined.bin.extracted
ls: cannot access '_combined.bin.extracted': No such file or directory
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$

So, why am I not seeing a folder with extracted driver files in it? This is getting tedious and frustrating. I expected the entire process of getting the drivers today to take no more than 5 minutes, and that it would consist of: A> Download a zip file containing the drivers, B> Extract it to a drive I can access it from in the Macrium rescue CD. Instead, I've been banging my head against a wall for hours and hours and getting no useful results out of it.

 

[ChatGPT]

Thanks — that output is very helpful. You’re right to be frustrated; you’ve done the hard part (binwalk created the extraction folder) but the compressed blobs still need inspecting/decompressing and we accidentally hid any errors earlier by redirecting stderr. Let’s fix that and get a clear, visible result.
Quick notes from what you posted

• You are inside /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted and that directory contains pairs like 400E5 and 400E5.zlib, 7D68A and 7D68A.zlib, etc. — so binwalk did create extracted pieces.
• The reason ls -ld _combined.bin.extracted failed is because you were already inside that directory; asking for that name from inside it looks for a child by that name (which doesn’t exist). That’s harmless — you already showed pwd and the directory listing.

What went wrong before

• The loop you ran with the final “2>/dev/null” after done suppressed errors for the whole loop, so if the decompressor failed you wouldn’t have seen why. We need to run a small set of diagnostic commands without silence so we can see errors and inspect the outputs. I recommended this inspection/inspection flow earlier. fileciteturn1file4turn1file8

Please run these commands (copy‑paste each block, press Enter). They will not harm anything — they only inspect and try one safe decompression, then run a controlled loop that reports OK/FAILED.
1) Quick confirmation (you already ran these but paste to be thorough)
pwd
ls -la
2) Show the file types of the .zlib blobs
for f in *.zlib; do file "$f"; done
(What this tells us: whether those files are actually zlib streams or something else.)
3) Try a single verbose decompression test (do this for one file — pick the first name from your ls; I’ll use 400E5.zlib as an example). This uses Python’s zlib so we don’t depend on zlib-flate:
python3 -c "import sys,zlib; fn='400E5.zlib'; data=open(fn,'rb').read(); open(fn[:-6] + '.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data)); print('wrote', fn[:-6] + '.dec')"

• If that prints “wrote …” great — the decompressed file is 400E5.dec. If it prints a Python/zlib error, copy that error here.

4) If step 3 succeeded, inspect the new file:
file 400E5.dec
head -c 64 400E5.dec | hexdump -C | sed -n '1,12p'
strings -a -n 8 400E5.dec | sed -n '1,12p'
(We’re looking for MZ (PE/EXE), PK (ZIP/MSI/CAB), or readable strings like ".inf", "Samsung", "nvme".)
5) If step 3 worked and the file type looks promising, decompress all .zlib files with visible status:
for f in *.zlib; do
echo "Processing: $f"
if python3 -c "import sys,zlib; data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read(); open(sys.argv[1][:-6],'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))" "$f"; then
echo " OK -> ${f%.zlib}"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
6) After that run this to look for drivers or archives
find . -type f ( -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -o -iname '.msi' -o -iname '.cab' -o -iname '*.zip' ) -print
and also show file types for everything (so I can read it)
find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 file | sed -n '1,200p'
What I need from you

• Paste back the outputs of steps 2 and 3 (the file type listing for the .zlib files and the single-file python3 decompression result — either success message or the exact error). If step 3 produced a .dec file, paste the first ~12 lines of the strings output from step 4 (or the file output). If decompression fails with zlib errors, paste that error exactly.

Likely outcomes and next actions

• If Python decompression succeeds and we see PK / MSI / .inf/.sys inside the decompressed data, I’ll tell you the exact 7z command to extract the MSI/CAB and then the DISM / driver injection steps for the Macrium Rescue environment.
• If Python decompression fails and file says the blobs aren’t zlib, we’ll try other decompression variants or carve for PK/MZ headers directly (I’ll give one-line carving commands).

One more reassurance — this is exactly the manual extraction step I suggested (inspect the binwalk outputs, decompress the .zlib blobs, then look for MZ/PK/INF). We’re almost done; we just need the decompressor to show us the content (and we’ll avoid silencing errors this time).
Run steps 2 and 3 and paste the outputs here and I’ll interpret them and give the next exact command.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT


cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ python3 -c "import sys.zlib; fn='400E5.zlib'; data=open(fn,'rb').read(); open(fn[:-6] + '.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));
> print('wrote', fn[:-6] + '.dec')"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'sys.zlib'; 'sys' is not a package
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$

 

[ChatGPT]

Good — that Python error tells us exactly what happened: you used import sys.zlib (a dot) instead of importing zlib (and optionally sys). Easy fix. Do this next so we can see real output and discover what those blobs contain.
1) Why the error happened

• Python raised ModuleNotFoundError because the command tried to import a non‑existent package named sys.zlib. Use import zlib (and import sys if you need argv) instead. We need to run a corrected decompress test so errors aren’t hidden. (You already have the binwalk extraction directory with pairs like 400E5 / 400E5.zlib — that’s the right place to work.)

2) Single-file quick test (paste exactly)
This will decompress 400E5.zlib to 400E5.dec and print a short status:
python3 -c "import zlib,sys;fn='400E5.zlib';data=open(fn,'rb').read();open(fn[:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));print('wrote',fn[:-6]+'.dec')"
If that prints "wrote 400E5.dec", the decompression worked. If it prints a Python/zlib error, copy the entire error here.
3) If you want to try all .zlib files with per-file status
cd /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted
for f in *.zlib; do
echo "Processing: $f"
if python3 -c "import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))" "$f"; then
echo " OK -> ${f%.zlib}.dec"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
This writes .dec files (won’t clobber the existing names like 400E5) and prints which succeeded/failed.
4) Inspect any successful decompressed file
(Example using 400E5.dec)
file 400E5.dec
head -c 64 400E5.dec | hexdump -C
strings -a -n 8 400E5.dec | sed -n '1,40p'
We’re looking for MZ (PE/EXE), PK (ZIP/MSI/CAB), or visible strings like ".inf", "Samsung", "nvme", "stornvme" etc. That tells us whether we found the driver package. (This is the same inspection step I recommended after binwalk created the .zlib blobs.)
5) If you find an MSI/CAB/ZIP/INF.SYS inside a .dec

• Use 7z to extract the MSI/CAB inside WSL or on Windows:
  7z x path/to/thatfile -o_extracted
• Then run:
  find _extracted -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -print
  If you get .inf/.sys, copy that folder to your USB and I’ll give the exact DISM / injection / bcdboot commands for the Macrium rescue environment. (That’s the final goal.)

If decompression fails for all files

• Paste the exact error(s) from the single-file test (step 2). If zlib.decompress fails with an "Error -3" or "incorrect header" we’ll try alternate decompression approaches or carve for PK/MZ headers directly.

What I need from you now

• Run the single-file test (step 2). If it succeeds, run the inspect commands (step 4) for that .dec and paste the file/type/head/strings output here.
• If step 2 fails, paste the entire error message you see.

We’ll interpret the results and I’ll give the next exact extraction or DISM commands. You’re almost there — binwalk already found the pieces, we just need to decompress and identify which piece contains the installer/driver. fileciteturn1file8turn1file4

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT


cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ pwd
/home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ls -la
total 11616
drwxr-xr-x 2 cosair cosair 4096 Oct 26 00:52 .
drwxr-x--- 5 cosair cosair 4096 Oct 26 00:52 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 0 Oct 26 01:55 400E5
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 3178091 Oct 26 00:52 400E5.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 0 Oct 26 01:55 7D68A
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2926790 Oct 26 00:52 7D68A.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 0 Oct 26 01:55 7E0FA
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2924118 Oct 26 00:52 7E0FA.zlib
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 0 Oct 26 01:55 8F4A8
-rw-r--r-- 1 cosair cosair 2853544 Oct 26 00:52 8F4A8.zlib
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ for f in *.zlib; do file "$f"; done
400E5.zlib: zlib compressed data
7D68A.zlib: zlib compressed data
7E0FA.zlib: zlib compressed data
8F4A8.zlib: zlib compressed data
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ python3 -c "import sys.zlib; fn='400E5.zlib'; data=open(fn,'rb').read(); open(fn[:-6] + '.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));
> print('wrote', fn[:-6] + '.dec')"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'sys.zlib'; 'sys' is not a package
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ python3 -c "import zlib,sys;fn='400E5.zlib';data=open(fn,'rb').read();open(fn[:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));print('wrote',fn[:-6]+'.dec')"
wrote 400E.dec
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ cd /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ for f in *.zlib; do
> echo "Processing: $f"
> if python3 -c "import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1].'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))" "$f";
> then
> echo " FAILED -> $f"
> fi
> done
Processing: 400E5.zlib
File "<string>", line 1
import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1].'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Processing: 7D68A.zlib
File "<string>", line 1
import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1].'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Processing: 7E0FA.zlib
File "<string>", line 1
import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1].'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Processing: 8F4A8.zlib
File "<string>", line 1
import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1].'rb').read();open(sys.argv[1][:-6]+'.dec','wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$

 

[ChatGPT]

Thanks — that output is perfect and shows exactly what went wrong and how to finish this. Short version: you successfully decompressed one blob (the single-file test worked), your batch loop failed because the Python snippet had a syntax mistake; run the safe loop below (it uses bash parameter expansion for the output name) and then we’ll inspect the resulting files for drivers.
Run these exact commands (you’re already in /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted so paste them there). They will decompress every .zlib to a .dec file and print OK/FAILED per file:
for f in *.zlib; do
out="${f%.zlib}.dec"
echo "Processing: $f -> $out"
if python3 -c "import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read();open(sys.argv[2],'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));print('wrote',sys.argv[2])" "$f" "$out"; then
echo " OK -> $out"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
After that finishes, run these inspection commands (paste them as a block):

show the new files and types​

ls -la .dec
file .dec

quick header + strings for each .dec so we can spot MZ/PK/.inf/.sys​

for g in *.dec; do
echo "=== $g ==="
head -c 64 "$g" | hexdump -C
strings -a -n 8 "$g" | sed -n '1,20p'
done

look specifically for driver/installer filenames​

find . -type f ( -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -o -iname '.msi' -o -iname '.cab' -o -iname '*.zip' ) -print
What to expect and next actions

• If the loop prints “OK” and you see one or more .dec files whose file output is “PE32 executable (DOS) MZ” or whose strings show “PK” / “MSI” / “.inf” / “Samsung” / “nvme” etc., we’ve found the installer/driver payload. I’ll then tell you the exact 7z/lessmsi extraction command and the DISM/pnputil injection steps for your Macrium Rescue environment. (That’s the path I recommended earlier.) fileciteturn2file8turn2file9
• If the loop produces FAILED for some blobs or the .dec outputs don’t contain PK/MZ/INF/SYS, the installer may be obfuscated or require the device present. At that point the reliable fallback is either try the concatenation/carve methods or install/run the Samsung EXE on a machine with the NVMe and Export‑WindowsDriver — I covered those fallback options previously. fileciteturn2file19turn2file18

Why your earlier attempts failed (brief)

• The first Python error was from using import sys.zlib (a dot) instead of import zlib; Python treated sys.zlib as a non-existent package. Then the loop’s Python snippet had a syntax error (you used sys.argv[1].'rb' — that is invalid Python). The corrected loop above avoids both mistakes by passing filenames as separate argv parameters and using bash to build the output name.

If you prefer I can run a single-file test again for you first

• Run the one-liner below (it mirrors what the loop does) for 400E5.zlib to confirm status before the full loop:
  python3 -c "import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read();open(sys.argv[2],'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));print('wrote',sys.argv[2])" 400E5.zlib 400E5.dec

When you’ve run the decompression + inspection commands, paste the outputs of:

• the loop (OK/FAILED lines),
• the file *.dec output,
• the find ... -print output.

I’ll read those and give the exact next extraction or DISM injection commands. We’re very close — binwalk already found the pieces, we just need to decompress and identify which piece contains the installer/driver. fileciteturn2file4turn2file8

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT


cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ for f in *.zlib; do
> out="${f%.zlib}.dec"
> echo "Processing: $f -> $out"
> if python3 -c "import zlib.sys;data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read();open(sys.argv[2],'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));
print('wrote',sys.argv[2])" "$f" "$out";
> then
> echo "FAILED -> $f"
> fi
> done
Processing: 400E5.zlib -> 400E5.dec
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'zlib.sys'; 'zlib' is not a package
Processing: 7D68A.zlib -> 7D68A.dec
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'zlib.sys'; 'zlib' is not a package
Processing: 7E0FA.zlib -> 7E0FA.dec
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'zlib.sys'; 'zlib' is not a package
Processing: 8F4A8.zlib -> 8F4A8.dec
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'zlib.sys'; 'zlib' is not a package
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$

There has GOT TO be a way to paste into the Ubuntu command line, because it is really laborious to manually type all that in and try to get it flawlessly copied.

 

[ChatGPT]

You’re right — that last run failed for the same reason (you accidentally used “zlib.sys” instead of importing zlib). I know pasting into the Ubuntu WSL window is annoying; below I give (A) a single-line corrected loop you can paste, (B) a copy‑from‑Windows script method that avoids pasting into the shell, and (C) paste tips. After you run one of the options, run the short inspection commands I list so we can find the installer/driver.
Why it failed

• The Python one‑liners you ran tried to import a non‑existent module name like zlib.sys or sys.zlib. Use import zlib (and import sys only to access argv).

Option A — quick single‑line loop (paste this into your Ubuntu shell)
Copy the entire single line below and paste (it’s self‑contained):
for f in *.zlib; do out="${f%.zlib}.dec"; echo "Processing: $f -> $out"; if python3 -c "import zlib,sys;data=open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read();open(sys.argv[2],'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data));print('wrote',sys.argv[2])" "$f" "$out"; then echo " OK -> $out"; else echo " FAILED -> $f"; fi; done
Option B — create a script on Windows and run it from WSL (best if pasting is unreliable)
1) In Windows Notepad, paste exactly the block below and save as C:\Temp\decompress.sh

!/bin/bash​

cd /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted || exit 1
for f in *.zlib; do
out="${f%.zlib}.dec"
echo "Processing: $f -> $out"
if python3 - "$f" "$out" <<'PY'
import sys,zlib
fn=sys.argv[1]; outfn=sys.argv[2]
data=open(fn,'rb').read()
open(outfn,'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
print('wrote',outfn)
PY
then
echo " OK -> $out"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
2) In Ubuntu WSL run these 3 lines (you can paste these one at a time into the Ubuntu window):
cp /mnt/c/Temp/decompress.sh ~/
chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
~/decompress.sh
This avoids typing/pasting complicated one‑liners in the WSL terminal. Binwalk/WSL extraction workflow reference if you want the full flow is here.
Option C — paste tips (if you want to paste directly)

• In Windows Terminal: use Ctrl+Shift+V to paste (or right‑click if enabled).
• In legacy Ubuntu WSL window: right‑click to paste, or Shift+Insert.
• Or save the commands to a file on Windows and run them from WSL (Option B) — that’s usually the least error prone.

After the decompression finishes — run these inspection commands (paste them together):
ls -la .dec
file .dec
for g in .dec; do
echo "=== $g ==="
head -c 64 "$g" | hexdump -C
strings -a -n 8 "$g" | sed -n '1,20p'
done
find . -type f ( -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -o -iname '.msi' -o -iname '.cab' -o -iname '.zip' ) -print
What I’m looking for

• file *.dec showing “PE32 / MZ” or “Zip / MSI / CAB”, or strings that include “.inf”, “Samsung”, “nvme”, “stornvme”, etc. If you see .inf/.sys or an MSI/CAB/ZIP, we’ve got the driver files — I’ll give the exact 7z / DISM / bcdboot commands to inject them into the offline image. If the .dec files don’t contain PK/MZ/INF, we’ll try the fallback carving/concatenation or the “install on a machine that has the device and Export‑WindowsDriver” approach. fileciteturn2file19turn2file18

Next step for you

• Pick option A or B and run it, then paste the outputs of the inspection block (the file *.dec output and any find results). I’ll read them and tell you exactly which file to extract next or give the DISM injection commands.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT

doing Option B:

cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ cp /mnt/c/Temp/decompress.sh ~\
> chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
cp: target '/home/cosair/decompress.sh': No such file or directory
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ cp /mnt/c/Temp/decompress.sh ~/
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ~/decompress.sh
/home/cosair/decompress.sh: line 2: syntax error near unexpected token `$'do\r''
'home/cosair/decompress.sh: line 2: `for f in *.zlib; do
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$

 

[ChatGPT]

Thanks — that error is exactly the classic CRLF/Windows line-ending problem. The script you copied from Notepad has Windows CRLFs (^M) so bash sees stray \r characters and complains about unexpected tokens. Easy fixes below — pick one.
Why it happened (short)

• Windows Notepad saved the file with CRLF endings; WSL/bash expects LF. That produced the syntax error near $'do\r''. I suggested creating or running a script from Windows/WSL earlier.

Fix A — convert the existing script to LF and run it (fast)
Run these three lines in WSL (they convert CRLF → LF, make executable, run):
sed -i 's/\r$//' ~/decompress.sh
chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
~/decompress.sh
If sed isn’t available for some reason, use this instead:
tr -d '\r' < /mnt/c/Temp/decompress.sh > ~/decompress.sh
chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
~/decompress.sh
Fix B — recreate the script inside WSL (no CRLF risk)
This writes a fresh script with LF endings then runs it. Paste the whole block into your WSL prompt (or into a Windows file and copy it to /mnt/c/Temp first):
cat > ~/decompress.sh <<'EOF'

!/bin/bash​

cd /home/cosair/_combined.bin.extracted || exit 1
for f in *.zlib; do
out="${f%.zlib}.dec"
echo "Processing: $f -> $out"
if python3 - "$f" "$out" <<'PY'
import sys,zlib
fn=sys.argv[1]; outfn=sys.argv[2]
data=open(fn,'rb').read()
open(outfn,'wb').write(zlib.decompress(data))
print('wrote',outfn)
PY
then
echo " OK -> $out"
else
echo " FAILED -> $f"
fi
done
EOF
chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
~/decompress.sh
Which to use

• If you already have /mnt/c/Temp/decompress.sh (the file you saved in Notepad), try Fix A first. If you still get weirdness, run Fix B to recreate the script inside WSL. Both are exactly the approach I recommended for avoiding paste issues.

Paste / copy tips (if you prefer to paste directly)

• Windows Terminal: Ctrl+Shift+V to paste.
• Legacy WSL console: right‑click to paste or Shift+Insert.
• Easiest: save the script on Windows and copy it into WSL (/mnt/c/...) then run the sed/tr commands above.

After it runs

• Paste the first ~30 lines of output here (the OK/FAILED lines). If everything runs OK, run the inspection block I gave earlier:

ls -la .dec
file .dec
for g in .dec; do
echo "=== $g ==="
head -c 64 "$g" | hexdump -C
strings -a -n 8 "$g" | sed -n '1,20p'
done
find . -type f ( -iname '.inf' -o -iname '.sys' -o -iname '.msi' -o -iname '.cab' -o -iname '.zip' ) -print
Paste that output and I’ll tell you exactly which file to extract next or the DISM injection steps.

 

[Nomad of Norad]

@ChatGPT


cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ sed -i 's/\r$//' ~/decompress.sh
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ chmod +x ~/decompress.sh
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ~/decompress
-bash: /home/cosair/decompress: No such file or directory
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$ ~/decompress.sh
Processing: 400E5.zlib -> 400E5.dec
wrote 400E5.dec
OK -> 400E5.dec
Processing: 7D68A.zlib -> 7D68A.dec
wrote 7D68A.dec
OK -> 7D68A.dec
Processing: 7E0FA.zlib -> 7E0FA.dec
wrote 7E0FA.dec
OK -> 7E0FA.dec
Processing: 8F4A8.zlib -> 8F4A8.dec
wrote 8F4A8.dec
OK -> 8F4A8.dec
cosair@DESKTOP-1IUHAB1:~/_combined.bin.extracted$