NVMe m.2 Drive Not Bootable

[dwightmccann]

ASUS Prime Z270-A, i7-7700K, Samsung EVO 960 1TB, 3 x 4TB HDD in RAID5: BIOS does not see m.2 in bootlist. Latest BIOS (1009?) installed.

 

[Calvin7]

The background here is NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Guide for installing Windows 10:

1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

I would also recommend installing the Samsung NVME driver at this point to replace the Windows one. (optional)

 

[dwightmccann]

Thank you! I am probably tied up for the rest of the day but will try this ASAP.

 

[lumineZ]

Calvin7 is correct.

I had to make sure no other disks, DVD, etc was plugged in before I had installed Win10 and no problem.

 

[dwightmccann]

Assuming this works (which I expect it will), is there a way I can recover all the work I put in (updating drivers, etc.) building a system on my RAID5 while trying to solve this problem? Can I create a bootable thumb drive from my system that I can install? Or, can I create a DVD, then create the m.3 bootable and then restore the DVD? Or even create the bootable m.2, boot the RAID5 system and image it to the m.2?

 

[dwightmccann]

I created a USB Recovery Drive from my updated Win 10 System but when it booted, asked for language, then asked about restore and I tried every different option I could but it repeatedly said that there was a problem and never started an installation. Perhaps I don't understand Recovery Drives. How do I create the UEFI bootable .ISO drive from my system?

 

[dwightmccann]

Created a 'standard' Win 10 USB install drive. Went through the process as described. Ended up on a screen similar to this but it complained about the partition, so I ran the format. When I clicked next I got this screen:

 

[dwightmccann]

The final solution: delete the partition and then format. The new format will create the required partitions. I now have a very fast running Win 10 system. Thank you all for the assistance.

 

[manuel.lopezdiaz]

Solved !!! For you all with problems booting Windows 10 x64 from Samsung 960 EVO 500GB. Reading on the web of Gigabyte The information on the motherboard, GA-Z270M-D3H, I notice that it supports 2 NVMe disks in RAID 0. The support of Gigabyte took 6 days to answer and it was not much help. By then I had already purchased another NVMe disk and an M.2 PCI-Express adapter card to mount the two disks in RAID 0. Before that I tried to install Windows 10 the new disk, mounted on the PCI-Express adapter. The installation completed correctly and after restarting the PC, started Windows 10 without problem. I assumed then that the problem was that the slot M.2 of my motherboard was not "bootable", ie it did not allow a boot disk, but only a secondary disk for storage. But I tried to reinstall Windows 10 on the new disk in slot M.2 and it also started without problems. And as you suppose, I tried to install Windows 10 on the first disk on the PCI-express slot, with the adapter card that had previously worked with the new disk. But this time did not work with the first disc, which is exactly the same, a Samsung 960 EVO NVMe 500GB. Therefore, it was clear that the problem was not the motherboard or slot M.2, but the NVMe disk defective, which nevertheless allowed me to install Windows 10, but did not boot. As a clue as to whether the same thing happens to you, in the BIOS, both disks had a capacity of 500GB, but in the Windows installer, the defective drive appeared with a capacity of 464GB, while the disk that started Windows 10 correctly, appeared with 465.8GB, or 1.8GB more than the defective drive. Also say that the defective disc came with its factory seal, which I cut myself to open the box. I hope it serves you and I also hope that Samsung will change the defective disk to one that works correctly. Greetings and thanks for the help.
BIOS settings: Intel rapid storage technology (RST) disabled or AHCI. Windows 8/10 features enabled. Don't select Windows 8/10 WHQL. It's for vendors to test compatibility. CSM disabled. Disconnect all other disks, except USB install disk and NVME.
BIOS must be in UEFI mode. USB Installation disk must be boot in UEFI mode and must be formatted in FAT 32 with the last Windows 10 x64 image from Microsoft for UEFI. I recommend RUFUS software to prepare USB installation disk.

 

[wevsky]

The background here is NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

Guide for installing Windows 10:

1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

I would also recommend installing the Samsung NVME driver at this point to replace the Windows one. (optional)

Sorry to drag up an old post, but im about to instal a M.2 nvme replacing my sata ssd, the bit you mention secure boot and set to other os? i run uefi and my current ssd is using this and my secure boot im sure is win8/10 support.. do i need to change it to other os when putting the new drive in ? i will be formatting it to gpt when i first instal it as im told the drives need formatting first? is this correct..
hoping my bios settings would be ok as is?

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry to drag up an old post, but im about to instal a M.2 nvme replacing my sata ssd, the bit you mention secure boot and set to other os? i run uefi and my current ssd is using this and my secure boot im sure is win8/10 support.. do i need to change it to other os when putting the new drive in ? i will be formatting it to gpt when i first instal it as im told the drives need formatting first? is this correct..
hoping my bios settings would be ok as is?

Please start a NEW thread for your particular situation.
Your parts and not the same as these in this 4 year old thread.