My Samsung 960 EVO is detected as a storage drive, but not as a boot drive!

[lordtroller]

Here goes:

Motherboard used = Optiplex 7010 OS = Win 10

Hello, I used an M.2 Adapter to connect my Samsung 960 EVO to my motherboard.

Installed the official driver.

Installed Samsung Magician (to migrate data and stuff)

When I clone my Original SSD to the Samsung, it actually does it.

The Samsung is recognized from the PC and I can use it as a storage drive

My Boot options don't show the 960.

How can I make it bootable?

I read in other forums that I just can use the 960 as a storage drive but not boot from there, so if that's the case, so be it, but if there's something I can do, let me know please, need to make my NVME card bootable!!

 

[USAFRet]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

 

[lordtroller]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

Ok I found it via CMD.

Dell Optiplex 7010 MT Mini Tower Motherboard Socket LGA1155 DDR3 GY6Y8 KRC95

It was from a Mini Tower built into a big PC case by the way.

So I guess I won't be able to boot?, what would be the cheapest motherboard to support the SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

Ok I found it via CMD.

Dell Optiplex 7010 MT Mini Tower Motherboard Socket LGA1155 DDR3 GY6Y8 KRC95

It was from a Mini Tower built into a big PC case by the way.

So I guess I won't be able to boot?, what would be the cheapest motherboard to support the SSD?

A MUCH better solution would be to just get a regular SATA SSD.
An NVMe drive doesn't really benefit for the OS drive.

A new motherboard to support booting from that will also require a new CPU/RAM, etc.

 

[lordtroller]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

Ok I found it via CMD.

Dell Optiplex 7010 MT Mini Tower Motherboard Socket LGA1155 DDR3 GY6Y8 KRC95

It was from a Mini Tower built into a big PC case by the way.

So I guess I won't be able to boot?, what would be the cheapest motherboard to support the SSD?

A MUCH better solution would be to just get a regular SATA SSD.
An NVMe drive doesn't really benefit for the OS drive.

A new motherboard to support booting from that will also require a new CPU/RAM, etc.

Well, I have a i5 proccesor and 20 GB RAM installed, plus a regular SSD by the way, so, I think it's worth the upgrade in the end?

 

[USAFRet]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

Ok I found it via CMD.

Dell Optiplex 7010 MT Mini Tower Motherboard Socket LGA1155 DDR3 GY6Y8 KRC95

It was from a Mini Tower built into a big PC case by the way.

So I guess I won't be able to boot?, what would be the cheapest motherboard to support the SSD?

A MUCH better solution would be to just get a regular SATA SSD.
An NVMe drive doesn't really benefit for the OS drive.

A new motherboard to support booting from that will also require a new CPU/RAM, etc.

Well, I have a i5 proccesor and 20 GB RAM installed, plus a regular SSD by the way, so, I think it's worth the upgrade in the end?

Upgrading the whole system just to be able to use the NVMe as the boot drive?
No way.

 

[photonboy]

PCIe is not bootable on most pre-builts.

Long story short is if you don't see it in the BIOS boot order list it's not going to happen.

 

[USAFRet]

https://www.dell.com/support/article/ca/en/cadhs1/sln300820/what-are-pcie-ssds-and-how-to-use-them-as-a-boot-drive-for-a-dell-pc-?lang=en

Hey,
You need to be able to see the drive in the BIOS boot list, but see if there's anything under point #3 that helps..

Also, maybe there's a newer BIOS that would help.

It seems very ODD to me that an M.2 slot would only support secondary drives. So I'd think there would be a setting and/or BIOS update that would fix things.

Also, try UNHOOKING the other drives first while you mess around with the settings.

"I used an M.2 Adapter"
Sounds like a PCI-E adapter? Which would typical for a board of that age. No built in m.2 slot.

 

[lordtroller]

Which specific motherboard is this?

If more than a generation old, you probably cannot boot from a NVMe drive connected in a PCI-E slot.
There is no magic to make this work.

Ok I found it via CMD.

Dell Optiplex 7010 MT Mini Tower Motherboard Socket LGA1155 DDR3 GY6Y8 KRC95

It was from a Mini Tower built into a big PC case by the way.

So I guess I won't be able to boot?, what would be the cheapest motherboard to support the SSD?

A MUCH better solution would be to just get a regular SATA SSD.
An NVMe drive doesn't really benefit for the OS drive.

A new motherboard to support booting from that will also require a new CPU/RAM, etc.

Well, I have a i5 proccesor and 20 GB RAM installed, plus a regular SSD by the way, so, I think it's worth the upgrade in the end?

Upgrading the whole system just to be able to use the NVMe as the boot drive?
No way.

PCIe is not bootable on most pre-builts.

Long story short is if you don't see it in the BIOS boot order list it's not going to happen.

Oh well, do you happen to know a good Motherboard to replace all my components there? Maybe an Intel Z170 or something like that?

The reason to have a bootable NVME is to gain 214% more power according to the SSD benchmark page by the way, and I need it since I work with After Effects and similar software.

 

[USAFRet]

Oh well, do you happen to know a good Motherboard to replace all my components there? Maybe an Intel Z170 or something like that?

The reason to have a bootable NVME is to gain 214% more power according to the SSD benchmark page by the way, and I need it since I work with After Effects and similar software.

Use it as the secondary drive.
Install your application on it, and have your working files on it.

Using it as the OS drive does NOT give you "214% more power"

 

[lordtroller]

Yeah photonboy, I'll try to update the BIOS and see how it goes, I guess that if it can recognize it as a secondary drive, it can boot it somehow, I need that extra power!

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah photonboy, I'll try to update the BIOS and see how it goes, I guess that if it can recognize it as a secondary drive, it can boot it somehow, I need that extra power!

No, it CAN see it as a second drive.
It cannot boot from it.

 

[photonboy]

My FIRST COMMENT was deleted (not fast enough) because I at first thought there was an M.2 slot on the motherboard, then when I reread the comments I realized there was a PCIe adapter.

USAFRET is correct.

1) You can NOT boot to a PCIe device for that PC
2) You can use it as secondary storage only

 

[lordtroller]

So just to clarify, the speed of whatever NVME or SSD will be the same whether if it's booting or used as a second drive?

That would change the whole thing and I wouldn't need to do anything, but migrate my SSD files to the 960 Evo, is that what you said?

 

[USAFRet]

So just to clarify, the speed of whatever NVME or SSD will be the same whether if it's booting or used as a second drive?

That would change the whole thing and I wouldn't need to do anything, but migrate my SSD files to the 960 Evo, is that what you said?

Just because it is or isn't the boot drive does not make a specific drive 'faster'.

The NVMe drive is 'faster' than a regular SSD, but for the actual OS drive, the NVMe being "faster" is not as spectacular as it would appear to be.

Migrate your SSD files?
Not sure what you're saying with "migrate", but no.
Use it for your video files? Yes.

Assuming the system still runs just fine with the original SSD, just have the 960 as a second drive and drive letter.

 

[photonboy]

1) Don't buy a new motherboard. If you don't have an SSD as the boot drive, buy one and keep the PCIe solution for storage... the speed advantage of a really fast SSD vs normal 6Gbps in reality is pretty minor.

2) The EXCEPTION is things like video editing, and even then only if you benefit from fast read and/or writes to the 960 Pro SSD (other times it's likely a CPU or GPU bottleneck).

So again, for MOST situations a good SSD is hitting the point of rapidly diminishing returns such that an even FASTER SSD won't benefit much if at all.

 

[lordtroller]

1) Don't buy a new motherboard. If you don't have an SSD as the boot drive, buy one and keep the PCIe solution for storage... the speed advantage of a really fast SSD vs normal 6Gbps in reality is pretty minor.

2) The EXCEPTION is things like video editing, and even then only if you benefit from fast read and/or writes to the 960 Pro SSD (other times it's likely a CPU or GPU bottleneck).

So again, for MOST situations a good SSD is hitting the point of rapidly diminishing returns such that an even FASTER SSD won't benefit much if at all.

So if I install all my programs in the 960, will I get some benefit?