[SOLVED] ASUS N751JK not booting from SSD M.2

[georgeflr2000]

I recently bought a M.2 SSD for an upgrade. I own a 2014 ASUS N751JK notebook (Intel i7 4th generation, NVidia 850M 4GB, 8GB RAM which i upgraded to 16GB), which initially had the 202 BIOS version. The notebook has a M.2 slot, 2 SATA for HDD/SSD slots and 2 RAM slots.
The SSD bought is a SAMSUNG 970 EVO NVMe M.2 500GB. The problem is that the SSD is not visible from BIOS as a bootable device. It is seen from my computer and from the windows installation partitions. The windows completes the instalation in the M.2 but after the restart it goes in a loop with the instalation. When pressing Esc immediately after restart, the SSD does not appear as a boot option in the new window. 
It previously ran on windows 10 64bit, initially having from the factory windows 8.1 64bit.

I tried the following:
-doing a clean install and deleting everything from the notebook.
-physically removing the factory 1TB HDD, not giving any other option to boot
-updating the BIOS to the latest version, the 205 version available in the official site.
-Disabling "Launch PXE OpROM policy" from BIOS
-Enabling "Launch PXE OpROM policy" from BIOS
-Launch CSM Enabled/Disabled
-Secure Boot Disabled
-Secure Boot Control Disabled

I believe that in BIOS-Advanced-SATA Configuration the SSD should be visible. Instead it only shows the DVD-RAM and the HDD. 
I have seen tutorials on how to "mod" the BIOS, practically adding an extra file to make the BIOS recognise the M.2 SSD but I am aware of the dangers.

I am waiting for your advice on making the notebook boot on the SSD. 
Thank you!

 

[Calvin7]

The NVMe M.2 drive should be the only storage drive connected.

NVMe SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver

Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

Insert a USB memory stick with a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup* on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode.

Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

*How to create a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup
https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-uefi-usb-drive-with-windows-10-setup/

The Windows 10 ISO link is broken in the above. You can obtain the ISO file here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[rgd1101]

4th cpu not going to support boot from NVMe

 

[karenjoly]

You say the drive is accessible from the boot drive, the C drive and you can transfer files to and from etc . The sole problem is that windows will not boot from it ?
That is evidence that rgd above has it correct.

 

[georgeflr2000]

I am saying that the ssd is visible in my computer, is visible in the windows installation menu when you choose the partitions but it is not in bios whatsoever

 

[georgeflr2000]

And I have seen videos claming that they had installed a nvme ssd and it boots in 2 seconds

 

[USAFRet]

And I have seen videos claming that they had installed a nvme ssd and it boots in 2 seconds

1. Ask them how they did it.

2. "2 seconds" from a cold boot is actually impossible.

 

[georgeflr2000]

It was only a youtube video. In the comments they suggested only upgrading the BIOS to 205, whichbi did. Nothing else. The comments were from 2years ago

 

[neutral67fr]

Hi, sorry Calvin7 but the procedure you mentioned above does not work with the N751JK (or any other of the N751 series) because it doesn't have any Bios with NVMe driver module. So whatever the different settings, the laptop won't be able to boot off a m.2 NVMe drive, only off an mSATA one...
I actually read the same procedure to fix OS installation problems in UEFI mode but it was assumed that the bios IS already NVMe compliant.

So for the N751, the only 2 ways for booting off an NVMe m.2 drive is to mod the bios or to use the "Clover" workaround which consist of booting off a special EFI partition located on another drive (typically a flash drive such as USB stick or SD card according to the tutorial I have seen) and containing the suitable NVMe driver. This partition then redirects to the desired system partition located on the m.2 drive. But I assume it would also be possible to place the same boot partition an another SATA drive...

 

[dentex_YTD]

Hello!
May I know why this issue is marked as "resolved" ?
I don't see any solution.

(EDIT: I mean, I'm not considering a solution modding the "BIOS", if it even exists on this machine, or booting from a USB pendrive...)

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Hello!
May I know why this issue is marked as "resolved" ?
I don't see any solution.

(EDIT: I mean, I'm not considering a solution modding the "BIOS", if it even exists on this machine, or booting from a USB pendrive...)

Thanks!

The "solution" is...there is no out of the box solution to make that system boot from the drive in question.
The manufacturer BIOS simply does not know how to do it.

Sometimes, the correct answer is..."ya can't do it"

 

[Yahorosh]

Hello. I modify my bios to solve this problem.

 

[dentex_YTD]

Do you mind sharing it all? Thanks.