Question Is there a way for a Z97 motherboard to support NVME

[user5423]

My motherboard is a Z97X Gaming 5 Gigabyte motherboard. So recently I purchased a new m.2 NVME SSD, and wrongly assumed that the motherboard would support NVME. I attempted to do a clean install of Windows, but ended in a install loop, where partitions where created successfully + the install was said to be finished, but after a reboot would load me back into the installer again. Furthermore, after installing the new NVME ssd, my other HDD and SATA SSD and the actual m.2 NVME aren't found in the BIOS. Yet for some reason the windows installation media only detects the NVME ssd when attempting to install windows.

The motherboard has an older BIOS version, so do you think it's possible that newer BIOS versions would support NVME. Or is there some sort of adapter that I can use on my board? There isn't a lot of information currently out there. I don't mind if the drive runs slower than advertised speeds, as long as it works for the time being until I upgrade the CPU/Mobo in the future. What are my options here, to get the drive working?

 

[Calvin7]

You wrote, that you "wrongly assumed that the motherboard would support NVME. "

Motherboard Specifications show:
1 x M.2 PCIe connector
(Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe SSD support)

Windows 10 includes the NVMe driver, however it appears you don't know the correct procedure to install an NVMe drive. You also don't list which Windows OS. You list numerous drives, but don't identify them or what the boot drive is.

 

[user5423]

You wrote, that you "wrongly assumed that the motherboard would support NVME. "

Motherboard Specifications show:
1 x M.2 PCIe connector
(Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe SSD support)

Windows 10 includes the NVMe driver, however it appears you don't know the correct procedure to install an NVMe drive. You also don't list which Windows OS. You list numerous drives, but don't identify them or what the boot drive is.

I'm running Windows 10 on the SATA SSD drive and that is the boot drive. But when I installed the m.2 ssd, no drives at all showed up. I thought I may have accidentally pulled one of the SATA cables, so I checked. No luck. But then I removed the m.2 NVME ssd, works perfectly fine; the SATA SSD and the HDD show up.


Mobo: GA Z97X Gaming 5 (Gigabyte)
CPU: i7 4790K
GPU: GTX970
HDD: Some generic 1TB WD drive
SSD: 2.5 inch Kingston 128GB SATA SSD (boot drive - windows 10 installed here)

The NVME ssd in question is: ADATA SX8200 Pro 512Gb

I knew there was a m.2 pciE connector, but the specs I found online didn't mention whether it supported NVME. Does NVME come under PCIe SSD support? You mentioned I didn't properly install it. What would be the right way to install it? The fact that all drives don't display in BIOS when NVME ssd is installed suggests there's a bigger problem, no? It's also weird that the NVME ssd is detected by Windows 10 installation media though

UPDATE: After the reading the Motherboard specifications carefully, SATA connectors 4 and 5 are disabled. Both SATA SSD and HDD were connected through these ports. After moving both to other ports, I can now boot into Windows 10. The NVME SSD shows up aswell as the HDD and SATA SSD.
Using crystal disk mark, I got 830MB/s read and 800MB/s write. Which is much better than the SATA SSD, but nowhere near the theoretical speeds of 3500MB/s read and 2300MB/s write. There may be a possible bandwith limitation?

I'm going to attempt to install windows on this NVME drive now.
Update 2: I still can't find the SSD in the BIOS, but when it Windows I can. The end goal was to boot from the NVME SSD into Windows rather than use the SATA SSD

 

[Calvin7]

ADATA SX8200 Pro 512Gb is a
NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive
The motherboard is capable of 10Gb/sec on the Gen2x2 PCIe connector.

To install Windows 10 to the drive have the M.2 drive as the only drive connected. You can unplug the other storage drives.

BIOS option changes:
CSM Support change to [Never]

Boot Mode Selection
Change to [UEFI only]

Installation media;
Have small flash drive available
Download latest Microsoft Windows 10 ISO
Use Rufus program along with the two above items to make a bootable UEFI installation USB flash drive.
Rufus

Insert the drive you made with Rufus and reboot. If the drive is new and empty it will begin installing Windows 10 without searching for the drive. If you already have some kind of files on the M.2 drive you may need to set the boot order to boot from the USB flash drive and delete existing partitions after the installation screen appears.

 

[user5423]

ADATA SX8200 Pro 512Gb is a
NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive
The motherboard is capable of 10Gb/sec on the Gen2x2 PCIe connector.

To install Windows 10 to the drive have the M.2 drive as the only drive connected. You can unplug the other storage drives.

BIOS option changes:
CSM Support change to [Never]

Boot Mode Selection
Change to [UEFI only]

Installation media;
Have small flash drive available
Download latest Microsoft Windows 10 ISO
Use Rufus program along with the two above items to make a bootable UEFI installation USB flash drive.
Rufus

Insert the drive you made with Rufus and reboot. If the drive is new and empty it will begin installing Windows 10 without searching for the drive. If you already have some kind of files on the M.2 drive you may need to set the boot order to boot from the USB flash drive and delete existing partitions after the installation screen appears.

I followed all of these steps, but I cannot boot from the NVME drive. I'm pretty sure that Windows is installed on that drive, since installation seems successful. But the BIOS simply doesn't detect the drive so I can't choose to boot from it