Samsung EVO SSD drives (Such as the 850 EVO and 850 PRO) now support Microsoft’s eDrive hardware encryption.  With a correctly provisioned device, you can now encrypt your entire drive without the ugly performance impacts BitLocker normally extracts.

…And there was much rejoicing!  … Wait a second, he said “With a correctly provisioned device”…

It seems provisioning Samsung EVO SSDs is a non-trivial task.  The high-level steps to provision a Samsung EVO SSD are:
(We are conveniently ignoring things like UEFI BIOS settings, TPM, Drive Passwords, etc.)

1. Create a Secure Erase bootable USB/DVD from the Samsung Magician software
2. Soft install the SSD in your device (Don’t screw it in just yet… you’ll need to fiddle with it in step#6)
3. Install a version of Windows which supports full drive BitLocker.  Keep this install simple and quick.  Don’t even bother to activate!
4. Install Samsung Magician software
5. Launch Samsung Magician software and set the Encrypted Drive (eDrive) to “Ready to Enable”
6. Reboot into the Secure Erase bootable USB/DVD created in step#1 above and perform a Secure Erase
   1. This can require some fiddling with the BIOS to allow you to boot the USB/DVD
   2. You will almost always have to “reset” the SSD by powering it off / removing it during Secure Erase
7. Reboot and install a version of Windows which supports full drive BitLocker
8. Screw the SSD in and replace all device covers

Did you catch the fact you have to install Windows two separate times?  You caught that right, install Windows TWICE!

This is a nightmare made real if you have to provision, say, 10+ devices for your company.

Large Scale Provisioning Made (slightly) Easier
For users provisioning multiple devices within a corporate environment, there is a slightly easier way.  These steps will allow you to skip the second install of Windows!

Preparation Step#1: Create a bootable USB Drive
The goal is to create a Windows 7 install on a USB 3.0 Drive which we can perform initial provisioning on our hardware.

1. Download and install WinToUSB
   http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/
2. Locate a Windows 7 x64 ISO (Pro or better is recommended)
   Why Windows 7?  As of this writing, several features of the Samsung Magician do not work in Windows 8.
3. Create a fully bootable Windows 7 install on your USB 3.0 drive using WinToUSB and your Windows 7 ISO
4. Boot from your newly created Windows 7 install and install Samsung Magician software on the instance

Preparation Step#2: Create a bootable DVD/USB with Secure Erase installed

Provisioning Your Devices
(We are conveniently ignoring things like UEFI BIOS settings, TPM, Drive Passwords, etc.)

1. Soft install the SSD in your device (Don’t screw it in just yet… you’ll need to fiddle with it in step#4)
2. Boot from the USB 3.0 drive created in Preparation Step#1
3. Launch the Samsung Magician software and set the Encrypted Drive (eDrive) to “Ready to Enable”
   NOTE: You may need to reset your resolution to 1024×764.  Magician is somewhat picky about resolutions
4. Reboot into the Secure Erase bootable USB/DVD created in Preparation Step#2 above and perform a Secure Erase
   1. This can require some fiddling with the BIOS to allow you to boot the USB/DVD
   2. You will almost always have to “reset” the SSD by powering it off / removing it during Secure Erase
5. Reboot and install a version of Windows which support full drive BitLocker
6. Screw the SSD in and replace all device covers

Our recommendation to Samsung
The Secure Erase bootable USB/DVD needs to have an option to perform the “Ready to Enable” step as part of the Secure Erase procedure.
This simply change would allow provisioning of the SSD for eDrive functionality directly from Secure Erase USB/DVD in one easy step!