Question MSI Z170A-Pro (MS-7971) cannot boot Win10 from M.2 nvme

[oraa]

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for your responses.

First of all I'd like to mention that I ve broken my head with this problem and read tons of forums (including this one, because there were people facing the same problem but in my situation the solution haven't work) and im deeply sorry for my English because it is not my mother language and I try to do my best.

I had a dream ... to get my system to SSD as I had troubles with my old hybrid HDD-SSD. I made a decision to change HDD for a SSD, chose Samsung 970 evo plus NVMe m.2 for 2 tb. I have MSI Z170-A Pro (MS-7971) mobo which is confirmed by BIOS and system settings. I made the latest update of BIOS from official web page of MSI dated by 2018 (which was a tough one too but I did it). I understood that I don't need nothing more than documents and wanted to do a clear installation. I bought Win10 and have a key, I made my install-flash drive by official windows media creation tool. I checked that my disk is listed in the disk storage tool in windows and it is working with files. That's a setup.

I turned off my PC, PLUGGED OFF everything except M.2, flash drive with Windows witch is obviously plugged directly in mobo's port, peripherals (mouse, keyboard and headphones), monitor. Then I entered MSI BIOS and changed boot only to UEFI and placed the boot order 1st UEFI USB ... (win10 installer), followed by 2nd - UEFI Hard disk. Then I SAVED changes, rebooted my PC and entered in the installation process witch ran smoothly without errors (I chose to instal it manually and I chose my SSD drive which was the only one listed), then PC made the installation and said it needed a reboot. After the reboot, I entered BIOS and changed priority to 1st UEFI Hard Disk - 2nd UEFI USB ... (win10 installer). I pushed F10, saved changes and rebooted.

And here is a problem: after a reboot, it starts an installation process again, like if I haven't done it at all but with one exception: when it comes to a step with choosing a disk for installation I have 3 tomes of my SSD (instead of 1 full clear) which means that it has separated SSD correctly, but again after that: installation - reboot - installation - reboot - installation, etc. If I unplug an USB during the reboot, it says that I need to chose a boot device and that's it.

To check that im doing everything correctly, I made a clear installation to my old hybrid drive and it works right now, so I think I understand when I need to plug in and plug off something.

I've read some stuff about security boot, clearing mapping and SATA raid mode, etc. but I haven't found any consolidation about it, some people say it is dangerous and won't help, some not and also there is no clear "guide" what to do exactly, because my motherboard UI differs from the others, so any help with this thing if it is needed is appreciated too.

I hope someone can help me with this one, because im desperate right now and don't know what to do more.

 

[deesider]

It may be an issue with the boot settings. Sometimes there is an option in the BIOS of something like this:

Boot from PCI-E Expansion Devices: Legacy only/UEFI driver first

Since you are wanting to boot from a PCI-E device you would need to make sure it is set to UEFI, not legacy only.

My suggestion is to unplug the HDD again, insert the USB, go into BIOS, check the boot settings in both the 'Boot Order Priorities' and 'Boot Option priorities' to see if there is a PCI-E UEFI selection that needs to be made.

Then set your SSD as the first option and USB boot as the second option. When you go to Save and Exit, there should be an option called Boot Override. There you can select the USB to boot into the installation process for that startup only. Afterwoulds it will default back to booting from the SSD and shouldn't go back to installation.

 

[oraa]

It may be an issue with the boot settings. Sometimes there is an option in the BIOS of something like this:

Boot from PCI-E Expansion Devices: Legacy only/UEFI driver first

Since you are wanting to boot from a PCI-E device you would need to make sure it is set to UEFI, not legacy only.

My suggestion is to unplug the HDD again, insert the USB, go into BIOS, check the boot settings in both the 'Boot Order Priorities' and 'Boot Option priorities' to see if there is a PCI-E UEFI selection that needs to be made.

Then set your SSD as the first option and USB boot as the second option. When you go to Save and Exit, there should be an option called Boot Override. There you can select the USB to boot into the installation process for that startup only. Afterwoulds it will default back to booting from the SSD and shouldn't go back to installation.

I did it and stated in my post

Then I entered MSI BIOS and changed boot only to UEFI and placed the boot order 1st UEFI USB ... (win10 installer), followed by 2nd - UEFI Hard disk. Then I SAVED changes, rebooted my PC

And this hasn't helped too

Then set your SSD as the first option and USB boot as the second option. When you go to Save and Exit, there should be an option called Boot Override. There you can select the USB to boot into the installation process for that startup only. Afterwoulds it will default back to booting from the SSD and shouldn't go back to installation.

 

[deesider]

I did it and stated in my post

You might want to post some pictures of the bios settings, since it is difficult to know what is happening without seeing them.

 

[USAFRet]

And here is a problem: after a reboot, it starts an installation process again

At that point in the install process, when it asks to reboot....remove the flash drive.

 

[oraa]

At that point in the install process, when it asks to reboot....remove the flash drive.

Thanks for avdvice, but i already have done that too

If I unplug an USB during the reboot, it says that I need to chose a boot device and that's it.

I'll do all of the installation process screenshots

You might want to post some pictures of the bios settings, since it is difficult to know what is happening without seeing them.