[SOLVED] Windows 10 wont boot from M.2

[carti123]

I have a Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB M.2 installed but for some reason I cant boot Windows 10 from it. i have a bootable USB drive which i use to install windows 10 onto the m.2 partition. however, when it is done installing and i go back into bios to change the boot order so that i can boot from my m.2 with the new install of windows 10, it doesn't show up as UEFI like the other bootable disks and when i decide to boot from it anyway, i get a message telling me to connect a bootable disk. i have already tried unplugging all other disks, ive tried doing this way too many times now, format after format and it still just doesn't work. I have already tried following the steps from this (https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cant-boot-from-m-2-nvme-ssd.3365143/) tutorial but i couldnt seem to find the same setting in my B450 Tomahawk Max BIOS and when i tried to experiment with some CSM things that I did manage to find, it didnt help anyway. i have completely ran out of ideas, any help would be appreciated.

 

[Lafong]

i have a bootable USB drive which i use to install windows 10 onto the m.2 partition.

"onto the m.2 partition"..................

Hmmmmm.

Standard procedure would be to install "onto an empty drive with no partitions".

Maybe that's what you mean. I don't know.

Did you specifically make a choice to delete ALL pre-existing partitions on the drive?

You should NOT have to format anything. The installer will do that.

Have you tried all available m.2 ports on the motherboard?

There has been a lot of similar "can't boot from m.2" posts lately. Not sure why.

 

[carti123]

"onto the m.2 partition"..................

Hmmmmm.

Standard procedure would be to install "onto an empty drive with no partitions".

Maybe that's what you mean. I don't know.

Did you specifically make a choice to delete ALL pre-existing partitions on the drive?

You should NOT have to format anything. The installer will do that.

Have you tried all available m.2 ports on the motherboard?

There has been a lot of similar "can't boot from m.2" posts lately. Not sure why.

Well I have 2 partitions on the m.2, one of which i already have quite a lot of data on that i dont really want to go, and the other one is the partition on which i want to install windows 10. i also have only one m.2 port on the mobo so i dont really have a lot of places to choose from. i can see all the disks and partitions perfectly well in diskmgmt and it shows up in BIOS, it just doesnt change to UEFI and it doesnt want to boot windows 10 after it is done installing from the bootable USB. I didnt delete all pre-existing partitions, as i said i just have one partition with a lot of data, and another partition on the m.2 on which i want to install the system.

 

[Lafong]

Simplest would be to copy whatever data is on the other partition to a totally different drive.

Then reinstall, deleting all partitions on the m2.

Then make a new partition on the m2 after the installation.

Then copy the data back from that totally different drive.

Is there ANYTHING other than data on this other partition? Such as maybe you have some apps installed on it rather than on C?

 

[SkyNetRising]

i go back into bios to change the boot order so that i can boot from my m.2 with the new install of windows 10, it doesn't show up as UEFI like the other bootable disks and when i decide to boot from it anyway,
i get a message telling me to connect a bootable disk.

Set first boot device to Windows Boot Manager. That is the option, you have to choose, if windows was installed in UEFI mode.
The other boot option (with M.2 drive model name) is for legacy boot. It can not be used with UEFI install.

 

[carti123]

Set first boot device to Windows Boot Manager. That is the option, you have to choose, if windows was installed in UEFI mode.
The other boot option (with M.2 drive model name) is for legacy boot. It can not be used with UEFI install.

Sorry for late reply but im pretty sure that the windows boot manager option shows up only when my system disk is connected, which it then chooses to boot from, if you are still ready to help I will try to link some images of what the BIOS looks like in every stage of the install.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I will try to link some images of what the BIOS looks like in every stage of the install.

Sure.

Boot from windows installation media into command prompt (press Shift+F10).
And show a photo of command output for following commands:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

 

[carti123]

Sure.

Boot from windows installation media into command prompt (press Shift+F10).
And show a photo of command output for following commands:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

https://imgur.com/a/W4QOJBz

View: https://imgur.com/a/W4QOJBz
- This is the gallery with all of the images. I suppose I've got to change something about the CSM/UEFI option but other than that I dont have a clue about why it doesn't work. Sorry for some poor image quality.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Disconnect 2TB drive during install of windows.
Set Boot mode select to UEFI only.
And remove all those unnecessary boot options. You have 11 unnecessary options.
Leave only UEFI:Hard Disk and UEFI:USB Key.

 

[carti123]

Disconnect 2TB drive during install of windows.
Set Boot mode select to UEFI only.
And remove all those unnecessary boot options. You have 11 unnecessary options.
Leave only UEFI:Hard Disk and UEFI:USB Key.

Now after the install if I leave the USB in it just goes back to the installation and if I unplug it it just automatically goes into BIOS.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Now after the install if I leave the USB in it just goes back to the installation and if I unplug it it just automatically goes into BIOS.

Set windows Boot Manager as 1st boot option.
May also need to disable secure boot.

 

[carti123]

Here are 4 more images from my BIOS, showcasing that I dont have windows boot manager as an option (maybe I need to make a new USB bootable drive?) And then I show some different settings in the BIOS, the Windows OS Configuration is usually set to CSM, but I have changed it to UEFI to be able to see the secure boot options, i have also sent an image showing the key management settings if that is any help.

https://imgur.com/a/oy5notf

View: https://imgur.com/a/oy5notf

 

[SkyNetRising]

It may be necessary to repair bootloader.
Boot from windows install media into command prompt (only 1TB drive connected).

Execute following and show screenshot

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

assign letter=K​

(assign a free drive letter)​

list volume​

(note drive letter for 199GB partition, in your previous screenshots it was G: , now probably a different letter)​

exit​

bcdboot G:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

(modify accordingly, if 199GB partition has a different drive letter than G: or letter K: was not available and you used a different one for EFI system partition​

verify - there were no errors, message should be "Boot files created successfully")​

After this boot into BIOS and you should have a boot option with Windows Boot Manager.

 

[carti123]

It may be necessary to repair bootloader.
Boot from windows install media into command prompt (only 1TB drive connected).

Execute following and show screenshot

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

assign letter=K​

(assign a free drive letter)​

list volume​

(note drive letter for 199GB partition, in your previous screenshots it was G: , now probably a different letter)​

exit​

bcdboot G:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

(modify accordingly, if 199GB partition has a different drive letter than G: or letter K: was not available and you used a different one for EFI system partition​

verify - there were no errors, message should be "Boot files created successfully")​

After this boot into BIOS and you should have a boot option with Windows Boot Manager.

https://imgur.com/a/XP5X6Tl

View: https://imgur.com/a/XP5X6Tl

 

[SkyNetRising]

Still no Windows boot Manager boot option?

It may be necessary to write a new boot sector.
Boot from windows install media into command prompt (only 1TB drive connected).

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

​

Show screenshot.

 

[carti123]

Still no Windows boot Manager boot option?

It may be necessary to write a new boot sector.
Boot from windows install media into command prompt (only 1TB drive connected).

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

​

Show screenshot.

https://imgur.com/a/qlUfQvw

View: https://imgur.com/a/qlUfQvw

 

[SkyNetRising]

It is complaining about sector sizes.
Ok. We'll have to format it. Do this.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

format fs=fat32 unit=512​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

​

Show screenshot.

 

[carti123]

It is complaining about sector sizes.
Ok. We'll have to format it. Do this.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

format fs=fat32 unit=512​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

​

Show screenshot.

After typing format fs=fat32 unit=512 it says 0 percent completed
Virtual disk service error:
Cluster size is too small.
(I translated it from polish)

 

[SkyNetRising]

Then delete and recreate EFI system partition.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi size=300​

(it may not allow size 300, then use a smaller number - 290 for example)​

format fs=fat32 unit=512​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

Show screenshot.

 

[carti123]

Then delete and recreate EFI system partition.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi size=300​

(it may not allow size 300, then use a smaller number - 290 for example)​

format fs=fat32 unit=512​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi /v​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

Show screenshot.

Even after creating the new efi partition it still shows the same message saying the cluster size is too small

https://imgur.com/a/ybKLl0O

View: https://imgur.com/a/ybKLl0O

 

[SkyNetRising]

Personally I haven't had this particular error.
Ok. Let's try it this way - format without specifying unit size and add bootrec commands.
(only single drive connected)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi size=300​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootrec /fixmbr​

bootrec/fixboot​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

Show result.

 

[carti123]

No

Personally I haven't had this particular error.
Ok. Let's try it this way - format without specifying unit size and add bootrec commands.
(only single drive connected)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk, x=0 or x=1)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 300MB EFI System partition)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi size=300​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=K​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s K: /f uefi​

( D : - 199GB partition, K: - 300MB EFI System partition)​

bootrec /fixmbr​

bootrec/fixboot​

bootsect /n60 K: /force​

Show result.

After typing the fixmbr line it says that a device connected to the computer doesn't work and after typing fixboot it says access denied

https://imgur.com/a/YLkDN09

View: https://imgur.com/a/YLkDN09

 

[SkyNetRising]

And last bootsect command? Did you try running that too?

 

[carti123]

And last bootsect command? Did you try running that too?

It shows the same error as before "fat32 filesystem bootcode is only supported on hardware with 512 byte sector sizes". Now I'm thinking it might be a problem with the m.2 itself but I've seen plenty of reviews about this m.2 saying windows 10 should normally install and run on jt

 

[SkyNetRising]

Then I'm out of ideas.
Probably something with non-standard partition configuration is messing up the process.
EFI system being between 2 data partitions maybe. Usually EFI system is placed in the beginning of the drive.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...t-based-hard-drive-partitions?view=windows-11

Last resort -

backing up data to another drive,​

cleaning the drive and​

reinstalling windows with only single drive connected.​