Question m.2 ssd NVME not recognized in BIOS or Win10 install

[stryfestryfe]

I've read countless posts and I am having such troubles with this. The drive isn't recognized in either Bios or Win10 install.

mobo: gigabyte z97x-ud3h
ssd: crucial p1 m.2 1tb (nvme)
win10 via RUFUS bootable usb

updated bios to latest firmware (f8)
removed all sata connections. Only the m.2 ssd is seated

Tried a number of different bios settings:
Windows 8 -> disabled CSM. Also, tried other OS which automatically disables CSM
Intel RST = Enabled and tried both options (AHCI/RAID controller | PCIE AHCI/NVME Controller)
Set SATA to AHCI
Enabled Secure Boot

Tried to load the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver manually during the Windows install, no luck.


I've ran out of things to try. Please can someone help!

 

[onespeedbiker]

Is your m.2 NVMe drive plugged into the correct socket? According you your MB specs, only the Socket 3 supports a PCIe ssd. My bad there is only one shared connector.

The first thing is to double check you M.2 drive if fully inserted, it sometimes takes more effort than you would think.

 

[stryfestryfe]

Thanks for your reply. I tried to reseat (makes it a 3rd time) and the drive still does not show up during Win10 installation (or bios).

This is so strange.. Faulty m.2 drive perhaps? I think I may just need to stick with regular sata ssd

 

[onespeedbiker]

So this is your first attempt at using the m.2 slot? The first thing I would do is return the bios to the default settings, then disable the CSM and enable EUFI and the PCIE AHCI/NVME Controller. Boot from the USB and choose repair. That should take you to WinPE. Choose the UEFI setup.

Also take some time to read this over https://www.intel.com/content/dam/s...ast-ssds/PCIe-NVMe-SSD-Install-Boot-Guide.pdf

 

[stryfestryfe]

Thanks for your time. I've tried those steps but unfortunately no luck. Booting via usb stick (shows its UEFI) into the windows installer. This is a fresh windows install btw. CSM is disabled.

Tried installing the Intel RST file mentioned in that link also

Sorry, this is such a headache. My motherboard might just be too old for these newer m.2 drives.

 

[Calvin7]

Guide to install NVMe M.2 drive is in this thread:

Can't boot from M.2 NVMe SSD

I had a Samsung 850 SSD (SATA) with Windows 10 on it. I bought Samsung 970 SSD (M.2). Turned off the computer, plugged it in, inserted a bootable USB stick with Windows 10 on it. Went directly to BIOS and changed boot priority to boot from the stick. Then, I installed Windows 10 on the new drive...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[stryfestryfe]

Hi Calvin, thanks I actually was using your guide quite a bit before I decided to post this.

I've disabled CSM, removed all other SATA connections, set to Secure Boot and cleared all the keys.

My problem is Windows installer doesn't even recognize the drive to begin creating the UEFI partition. So both 1) BIOS and 2) Windows Installer doesn't recognize the disk!

"Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in. " -> so this is confusing me because I would have thought I could at least get windows installed on the drive, but doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[onespeedbiker]

There is a difference between NVMe support and NVMe natively supported. When your board came out NVMe was the kid on the block. Interestingly enough, even though I do not have an M.2 slot, I tried installing a PCIe NVMe drive with an adapter card, and while it wouldn't boot, my old bios and Windows at least recognised the drive, even if it wouldn't boot.

 

[onespeedbiker]

You may want to check your bios version again. The newest is f10b

 

[SkyNetRising]

Tried a number of different bios settings:
Windows 8 -> disabled CSM. Also, tried other OS which automatically disables CSM
Intel RST = Enabled and tried both options (AHCI/RAID controller | PCIE AHCI/NVME Controller)
Set SATA to AHCI
Enabled Secure Boot

Intel RST - has to be disabled.
Sata controller to AHCI mode.
Disable Secure boot.

Latest non-beta bios is F9.

 

[onespeedbiker]

Okay, from what I have been able to discern, your motherboard supports UEFI PCIe but not NVMe. Looking at your Bios, I can not find any mention of NVMe (you said there was a ACHI/NVMe mode but i can not find it in your MB Manuel). There is a list of approved PCIe drives for your mother board (see below), they max out at 512gb and none are NVMe, and they use the slower x2 and x4 bus, not x16. If you want to use your NVMe drive, you will need to get an adapter card that supports NVMe.

Plextor PCIE PCIEx2 2280 PCIe M/B PXAG128M6e 128GB
Samsung PCIE PCIEx4 2280 PCIe M MXP941 MZ-HPU512T 128GB
Samsung PCIE PCIEx4 2280 PCIe M MXP941 MZ-HPU128T 128GB
Plextor PCIE PCIEx2 2280 PCIe B/M 256G 2280 (PCIE2.0)256GB
Plextor PCIE PCIEx2 2280 PCIe B/M 128G 2280 (PCIE2.0)128GB
Lite-On PCIE PCIEx2 22280 PCIe B/M LGT-256B1P 2280 (PCIE2.0)256GB

 

[stryfestryfe]

Thanks all for your help. I tried all these suggestions (except the pci-e adapator) and no luck. Turns out either the disk itself was faulty or not compatible with my mobo

I bought an xpg sx8200 1tb (also nvmd) and my bios recognized it right away! Installing windows on it now. What a wild ride this was

thx again

 

[onespeedbiker]

That's great! I think with the older boards it depends how the M.2 PCIe drives deal with NVMe. Fortunately, you found a one that works.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Okay, from what I have been able to discern, your motherboard supports UEFI PCIe but not NVMe.

M.2 PCIE and NVME is the same thing.

 

[onespeedbiker]

I believe there is a difference. PCIe exsisted years before NVMe. The ssd PCIe drives I linked were pre NVMe, AHCI drives.


PCI Express using AHCI
Used for PCI Express SSDs and interfaced through the AHCI driver and provided PCI Express lanes, providing backward compatibility with widespread SATA support in operating systems at the cost of performance. AHCI was developed when the purpose of a host bus adapter (HBA) in a system was to connect the CPU/memory subsystem with a much slower storage subsystem based on rotating magnetic media; as a result, AHCI has some inherent inefficiencies when applied to SSD devices, which behave much more like DRAM than like spinning media.

PCI Express using NVMe
Used for PCI Express SSDs and interfaced through the NVMe driver and provided PCI Express lanes, as a high-performance and scalable host controller interface designed and optimized especially for interfacing with PCI Express SSDs. NVMe has been designed from the ground up, capitalizing on the low latency and parallelism of PCI Express SSDs, and complementing the parallelism of contemporary CPUs, platforms and applications. At a high level, primary advantages of NVMe over AHCI relate to NVMe's ability to exploit parallelism in host hardware and software, based on its design advantages that include data transfers with fewer stages, greater depth of command queues, and more efficient interrupt processing. M-2 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2

 

[The_Implicator]

I bought an xpg sx8200 1tb (also nvmd) and my bios recognized it right away! Installing windows on it now.

I have the same M.2 issue, but with a ROG MOB/Ryzen 7. First build for me. Would you suggest that for my system?