Question Installing Windows10 on new nvme

[kurtakeating]

Hello!
You all helped me build my PC many moons ago. Now, I need to do some upgrading.

I'm running a Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H-B3 motherboard. With Win7. Just updated BIOS.

I just bought a nvme adapter and WD_BLACK SN850x SSD. Installed on the PCI x16 slot, all is good, I formatted (MBR), assigned and I can see the drive (K:/)

I downloaded the Win10 install media, dropped it on a usb and booted from it, and I can get the Win Install utility to pop up, but when I try to install the operating system to my new nvme drive (K:/) I get the following message:

WIndows cannot be installed to this disk. The computers hardware my not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.

Now, i have read some stuff about UEFI and CSM/legacy etc. But i'm not sure I fully grasp it. I actually made a couple changes that I thought almost prevented me from booting back to Win7. But here I am.

Need some help. . . what am I missing, what info can I provide to help diagnose?

 

[KingLoki]

Recommended that the drive be GPT, not MBR.
Also before installing windows disconnect all other drives and boot from a usb with a legit version of windows. UEFI is the latest GPT way to run systems. MBR is older and has it's limitations.

 

[Lafong]

Not all boards can boot from an NVME drive. Dig into the specs of your board.

 

[BFG-9000]

That board has Hybrid EFI which has some UEFI features, but predated UEFI. There are some requests for bios-mods for very similar boards to add the required UEFI NVMe module but this is just not possible.

Actual UEFI is technically not required to boot from NVMe, but in Legacy BIOS mode any NVMe drive would need a legacy OPROM to be bootable and this is a pretty rare feature, included only in drives like Samsung 950 Pro or Plextor M8Pe. And would have to be MBR too.

 

[kurtakeating]

Ok, so maybe I just bought myself 1TB of extra storage.
I guess the strange this is there are 2 more drives attached to my PC via USB that didn't have the same warning that it couldn't be installed, as the nvme.

I did not try to install on them, but I suppose I could move my data and try.

Is that a fools errand? I think one of them may actually be a SSD via sata not USB.

 

[BFG-9000]

Windows cannot actually be installed on an external USB drive, but linux can.

The BIOS can see USB drives, but can't see the NVMe drive so the installer can't. After Windows loads the driver, it can be seen by Windows.

My link gave three workarounds for putting the boot sector and driver on a USB stick to boot an OS on an otherwise unbootable NVMe drive.

 

[KingLoki]

@BFG-9000 "Windows cannot actually be installed on an external USB drive, but linux can." ????

Windows can be installed, executed and ran from a usb stick if needed using third-party software.

 

[BFG-9000]

Well sure, with install media modified by some of the same third-party software, OP could even install Win 11 on that unsupported hardware too the same way, by bypassing the checks or tricking the installer. Needless to say, this is never going to be as reliable as doing it the official way, but may work for a time. Microsoft themselves used to have a portable Windows on a USB stick called Windows To Go, but it was never as reliable as live-booting linux so they now suggest Windows PE instead.

Was just pointing out why Windows could see the USB external drives--the BIOS enumerates them, which is something it can't do with the NVMe drive. And if OP had actually tried to start installing Windows there using the official install media, it would have errored out because that's not supported.

 

[KingLoki]

Ok, no problem, good advice 👍