[SOLVED] I can't boot windows 10 from new nvme drive - help!

[joespanley]

I'm trying to replace my old samsung 830 sata boot drive ssd with a new 970 evo m.2 and use the 970 as main boot drive, while removing the 830 completely.

The m.2 has been installed properly on the motherboard, bios detects it, windows (on old ssd) detects it, I can access it's space - basically the m.2 works normal.

However it doesn't show up in my boot list.

Initially I tried installing win10 on the m.2 from a bootable stick drive, formatted old ssd in the process so I don't have conflicts with what OS to run.
Installation on the m.2 went normally without facing errors.

The pc restarted after installation finished and I expected to get on win10 in the new m.2. It gave me a blue screen saying "Your PC needs to be repaired". I assumed it gave me this because it tried loading win10 from the old boot drive, which is now formatted.

I went to bios and noticed on the boot menu that my old 830 is still on the list while the 970 evo is nowhere to be found. Like I said, the 970 evo is detected in bios as a storage device, but it does NOT appear on the boot menu, even if I already installed win10 on it.

Note: I didn't install any drivers, since the seller told me that it will just grab it's drivers by itself.

I'm currently on a reinstalled win10 on the 830 until I find a solution.

It's probably because I need to do some BIOS settings, but I have no idea what to change. I need help from someone good at ASUS ROG BIOS for this one.

Please help ASAP!

 

[USAFRet]

You absolutely need to have only the NVMe drive connected when you install the OS.

Redo it.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[joespanley]

You absolutely need to have only the NVMe drive connected when you install the OS.

Redo it.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

I have unplugged ALL sata drives and this time it worked.

However, I had another storage sata ssd which would now not appear in windows explorer.
The drive was detected in BIOS, but not in windows. I assumed it was connected in a disabled sata port and moved it, but still no result.

While I was still trying to make the m.2 work before the installation, I went to onboard devices in bios and set PCIEX16_3 Bandwidth to X4 mode (it was initially set to X2 mode).

I turned it back on to X2 mode and finally my ssd got detected in windows, but now my boot speed is as slow as the old boot drive and takes ages to restart - stays at least 10 seconds on the restarting loop screen.

What is more weird is that now I changed it back to X4 mode and the storage drive would still appear, but I'm still stuck at same slow boot speed.