Question Unable to boot from M.2 NVMe drive ?

[Cahl Wescitt]

So I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix this and would really appreciate any help!

I have an ASUS PRIME Z390-P motherboard
Team TM8FP6001t 1tb M.2 NVMe SSD
Intel i7-9700k

This started a few days ago, I noticed my cpu was being power throttled while gaming at times so I decided to check if there was something in the bios I could adjust to help. I haven’t been able to boot windows since making changes, and resetting the bios to default settings didn’t help.

I think I may have accidentally made changes that caused problems reading my m.2 drive. I used the ASUS EZ TUNER at one point and clicked raid, which it looks like it applied. After whatever changes I made, I was getting an inaccessible_boot_device bsod. Currently after the steps I’ve taken, I now get a winload.efi basic with error code 0x000000f.

So far I have tried many different bios settings, formatted the m.2 and installed windows 10 using a usb external hdd(also tried with iso windows media tool), reseated the m.2 drive, attempted following guides for command prompt commands but am getting stuck.

Some info that might be helpful - if I keep settings for nvme m.2 RST controlled and raid on, then I see my m.2 and can boot to get the winload.efi error. If I change that setting to not rst controlled and sata mode to ahci, then I cannot locate my m.2. I don’t know why I would need raid with only 1 drive total. Windows repair always fails.

I would really appreciate any help with this, I just want to be able to boot and use my pc as it was! If there’s any useful info I can add I would be happy to. I’m willing to try anything at this point. Thank you

 

[SkyNetRising]

if I keep settings for nvme m.2 RST controlled and raid on, then I see my m.2 and can boot to get the winload.efi error. If I change that setting to not rst controlled and sata mode to ahci, then I cannot locate my m.2. I don’t know why I would need raid with only 1 drive total. Windows repair always fails.

Nope.
Turn Intel RST off and set sata controller to AHCI.
Might be necessary to enable csm and set storage control to legacy.
Then reinstall windows.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Nope.
Turn Intel RST off and set sata controller to AHCI.
Might be necessary to enable csm and set storage control to legacy.
Then reinstall windows.

Ok I’m going to try that right now, will update after. Thanks for the fast response!

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Nope.
Turn Intel RST off and set sata controller to AHCI.
Might be necessary to enable csm and set storage control to legacy.
Then reinstall windows.

I tried what you suggested, what’s happening now is the drive doesn’t show in the boot list. I enabled ahci, turned on csm and set to legacy. After the failed boot I disabled csm with the same result. I was able to see the drive and its multiple partitions to install windows too. I formatted it first, but for some reason I still see like 5 copies of windows when I try the repair tool. Trying “troubleshooting,” in repair doesn’t work.
Any other settings I should check? Just got it set to default and what you suggested at the moment. I’m not sure why I can install windows on the m.2 but the bios will not see it as a boot device unless it has rst on. I think the other day during troubleshooting I had a windows error about it being mbr format so I converted to gpt in case that is useful info. Thanks again

 

[SkyNetRising]

bios will not see it as a boot device unless it has rst on.

Clean the drive before installing Windows.
In UEFI mode storage device appears in boot priority list only if it is UEFI bootable (ie Windows is installed on it in UEFI mode).
Empty drive doesn't appear in boot priority list.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Clean the drive before installing Windows.
In UEFI mode storage device appears in boot priority list only if it is UEFI bootable (ie Windows is installed on it in UEFI mode).
Empty drive doesn't appear in boot priority list.

Ok will do. Any recommendations on how to clean the drive? I have an option to format before installing windows but that hasn’t worked. I can’t seem to find a way to clean the drive other than getting into windows to do so

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any recommendations on how to clean the drive?

Use diskpart clean method. Press Shift+F10 to open command prompt, when booted from windows installation media.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Use diskpart clean method. Press Shift+F10 to open command prompt, when booted from windows installation media.

great, will do as soon as I get a break from work lol. Thanks again

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Use diskpart clean method. Press Shift+F10 to open command prompt, when booted from windows installation media.

Ok so I cleaned using diskpart successfully, but after closing cmd and trying to install windows onto the drive, I ran into “A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a dvd, usb, or hard disk driver. “ and tells me to insert media to install. Assuming this is a missing hard disk driver since that’s what I’m having the issue with, but going to retry this process and see if I get the same error and really need to manually update driver.

Will update after trying. I’m happy to try something else or any ideas you have, thanks man

 

[SkyNetRising]

If storage drivers were missing, you would not be able to clean the drive.
Did you clean windows installation media drive?

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

If storage drivers were missing, you would not be able to clean the drive.
Did you clean windows installation media drive?

Yes, I’m a goof and cleaned my windows install external lol… after realizing that, I fixed my external, cleaned the correct drive via disk part in cmd and am now seeing the drive in the windows installer.

When trying to install I get a windows setup error “ windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk’s controller is enabled in the bios menu.”

I am going to start browsing (and not touching) for a related setting in bios. Will Google the error as well. Any ideas at this part? We’re going to get this man, I won’t let you down! 😂

 

[SkyNetRising]

Have only single drive connected, where windows will be installed.
Physically disconnect all other sata or M.2 drives.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Have only single drive connected, where windows will be installed.
Physically disconnect all other sata or M.2 drives.

It is the only drive connected other than my external with windows media plugged in by usb. Do you mean unplug the usb, or that would kick me out of the installer?

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

https://imgur.com/a/whtAXX5

this is what I see after cleaning the m.2. Drive 0 is the m.2 and drive 1 is my external ssd with windows media tool in it

 

[SkyNetRising]

What does "show details" - tell you?

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

What does "show details" - tell you?

https://imgur.com/a/C0eKfzD

 

[SkyNetRising]

Check BIOS settings.
Did you turn off Intel RST?
Did you set sata controller to AHCI?
Did you enable CSM?
Did you set storage boot control to legacy?

Show screenshots for all those listed BIOS settings.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Check BIOS settings.
Did you turn off Intel RST?
Did you set sata controller to AHCI?
Did you enable CSM?
Did you set storage boot control to legacy?

Show screenshots for all those listed BIOS settings.

https://imgur.com/a/e2VKU3s

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

The last one I saw while browsing for the others, I don’t know why it doesn’t detect nvme. All the other settings have been that way since before cleaning the m.2

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

https://imgur.com/a/j2TmMcS

M.2 below the gpu, reseated securely last night

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well ... NVME device has to be detected properly before you can install anything on it.

Put it in upper slot.
Lower one is 2x slower than upper (PCIE 3.0 x4 vs PCIE 3.0 x2).

But it should still be detected in either slot.

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

ok, you think i might've messed up the slot it's in currently? i got it as a pre build and that's where they had it so i just didn't move it. looks like i can get it in the upper spot but i need to take the gpu off to get to it so could take a few. will try it now if you think switching slots will get it detected

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Well ... NVME device has to be detected properly before you can install anything on it.

Put it in upper slot.
Lower one is 2x slower than upper (PCIE 3.0 x4 vs PCIE 3.0 x2).

But it should still be detected in either slot.

i think what throws me off the most is that the windows installer sees it but the bios doesn't. as you can tell i'm no expert though lol. like i said, will try the other slot and update

 

[Cahl Wescitt]

Well ... NVME device has to be detected properly before you can install anything on it.

Put it in upper slot.
Lower one is 2x slower than upper (PCIE 3.0 x4 vs PCIE 3.0 x2).

But it should still be detected in either slot.

moved it to the upper slot, same thing unfortunately. nvme config still shows not detected in bios, but i can see the drive and get the same "windows can't be installed on this drive" error. the only way i can see it in bios is when browsing for bios update locally. so weird to me that i can see it as an option to install to but bios just doesn't detect as nvme. think i fried the m.2?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Try to set
Fast Boot to disabled,
Boot Device control - UEFI and legacy.
Save and reboot.