How To Install Windows On A PCIe SSD

kdeuser wrote: I was pleased with my board's price/performance, but interested in the new storage technology so took a leap...  Out of curiosity, which of the X99 motherboards do a better job installing Windows as a boot drive using one of these M.2 nvme SSD's?  ...and why?

Besides providing NVMe support in the UEFI/BIOS (which is either there or not), and the UEFI/BIOS having the appropriate options that allow UEFI booting (again, either there or not), there isn't one or more X99 boards that are superior to others when installing an OS on an NVMe SSD. Your X99 Extreme3 is not worse or better than any other X99 in that regard.

You're really asking if it would have been easier to do with a different ASRock (or other manufacture's) X99 board. Not at all, no difference.

The CSM option and sub-options are the same in the UEFI/BIOS of all ASRock boards. While most X99 boards were introduced before NVMe SSD existed, NVMe support that allows using NVMe SSD as the OS drive was able to be added to X99 board's UEFI/BIOS.

Newer chipset boards like the Z170 and Z270 have advantages in the number of M.2 interfaces they support, and even support using NVMe SSD in Intel's IRST RAID arrays (no other Intel board's do), and as the OS drive. But there is no difference in the way Windows is installed on them compared to X99 boards.

I think you are confusing difficult with different. Yes, new and different can be difficult, but only because we don't understand it. Once we understand it, it's no longer difficult. You did this for the first time, and just because it is not the same (different) as installing Windows on a SATA SSD, does not mean it is difficult. But anything is difficult if we don't know what to do. If there was a UEFI option that you enabled called "Install Windows in UEFI Mode", that did everything for you automatically, it would be easy but you would be helpless if you had to do it manually.

Windows can be installed on SATA SSDs in UEFI booting mode, that's what I did when I learned how to do it using my ASRock Z77 Extreme4 board. What is the difference between installing Windows in UEFI booting mode with SATA and NVMe SSDs? There is no difference in the procedure at all, it is exactly the same. Sure, NVMe SSDs need "NVMe Support" (whatever that is...) in the UEFI/BIOS, but that is not something we enable or configure, it is provided for us.

You seem to have become so frustrated and worked up about getting it to work, that when it finally did for you, it seemed to be a miracle, and you were not sure why it worked. But I bet if you looked back at what you did carefully, and what you prepared, possibly in multiple steps, it would not seem that complex and hard.

If we think about it, installing Window in "Legacy", non-UEFI booting mode, can be done with your eyes closed. The Windows installers are set up for that, with all default UEFI/BIOS settings. Stick a disk in the optical drive, and let it run with a few clicks here and there.

Is it really that difficult to create the Windows installation media ourselves from an ISO file and a USB flash drive, set one or two options in the UEFI/BIOS, select an entry in the boot order for the installation media with the prefix "UEFI:", and maybe load a driver during the Windows installation? Ok, yes it is compared to the eyes closed method, but we can handle it, right?

kdeuser wrote: I had previously disabled fast startup after scouring various posts...  Oddly, out of the blue, everything started working normally and I can't explain why.  Maybe an update or AVG Tune-Up caught something.  Who knows...  In any case, I get performance at specs (according to the tool in Samsung Magician) and the PC starts up normally.  I think this is the kind of situation that caused primitive cultures to thank a deity for their good fortune?  Thank goodness for this thread! Kurt

I am also thanking the gods of UEFI that it is working well for you now!

I'm also relieved you are not cursing this thread and me, I hope it really did help you, thanks!

Mother board manufactures get the honor of supporting booting an OS from these new SSDs, and providing some support about installing Windows on them, although they are unrelated to the sources of those products. I wonder if they are sending users with questions about this to us!!

Kurt, doing what you did on an older board is the most difficult way to do it, so give yourself some credit!

kdeuser wrote: Some interesting observations...  I reloaded the Samsung NVMe driver.  After that is when I could see the "NVMe" option under Advanced Settings in UEFI.  The constant swapping of cards in the slots seems to have stopped, and the machine now recognizes the 960 EVO after each cold boot. The problem with Windows Startup still occurs.  I am not sure why or what causes it, but searching the internet suggests this is a Windows 10 issue and not a topic for this forum. My other hard drive, SSD and DVD are attached without any effect on bios, boot or Windows startup behavior (for now...fingers crossed!). I can live with hitting the enter key when I reach the "black screen" for now.  Interesting that a restart command from within Windows and the machine restarts normally!

A restart causes the PC to boot normally? That hints that the Windows 10 Fast Startup feature is causing the cold boot/startup black screen thing.

You can disable Fast Startup by doing this: You must have Admin privileges to do this. Open your Windows Power Plan (Control Panel, Power Options, or left click the Windows icon on the Task Bar and click Power Options), and on the left side click on Chose what the power buttons do. Click on Change settings not currently available, to open the Shutdown settings. The first one is Turn on fast startup, just uncheck it. Then click Save changes, and you're done.

To test it, you'll need to completely shutdown the PC, a standard Windows shutdown. Doing a restart is not testing if this works.

Did you see where it said "Restart isn't affected" next to the Turn on fast startup setting? This feature, introduced in Windows 8, saves certain data that is used to make a cold boot faster, vaguely similar to a Windows Hibernate, but just an image of the kernel and drivers. It is not used on a Restart. The same file that Hibernate uses is used for this data. With this feature enabled, we really aren't doing a full shutdown, it's a "hybrid shutdown".

If the data in that file is corrupted, or does not match what the affected hardware expects, the results will not be normal, with many random things possible. After at least one normal shutdown and cold boot, you can enable that feature again if you want to, the saved data will be created over again, and should work correctly.

If you have the Fast Boot option in the UEFI/BIOS set to anything besides Disabled, set it to Disabled for a while along with disabling Windows Fast startup.

The formatting of your 960 EVO tells me you did not do a "UEFI booting" Windows installation. You mentioned you had set the CSM, Launch Storage OpROM Policy to UEFI Only, but the 960 EVO should have been formatted as GPT, not MBR. When you used the USB flash drive to install Windows 10, in the boot order there should be two entries for the flash drive, the one you want to use will have the prefix "UEFI:" in front of the flash drive name.

Samsung M.2 NVMe SSDs have a built in "Option ROM" that allows them to boot in Legacy/MBR mode, while all other NVMe SSDs must boot in UEFI/GPT mode. The Samsung 950 Pro is known to have that built in Option ROM, but some users thought the Samsung 960 SSDs do not have it. Your experience seems to indicate that the 960's also include it.

Does this help?

I did notice an entry in bios today for "NVMe" in the Advanced (IIRC that is where it was) Bios tab.  Don't remember seeing that before.  This is with the Transcend SSD disconnected (former boot).





Edited by kdeuser - 03 Feb 2017 at 5:59am

kdeuser wrote: One last try to see if anyone can help...  After getting Windows installed and running on the Samsung 960 EVO ssd, there are two things I have observed, both of which are occurring when the system is powered up. My system: X99 Extreme3, 32GB Ram, 5820 I7, MSI R9-290 Gaming (only PCIe device) 500gb M.2 960 EVO with Win 10.1 installed 1.  When I power the system up (and the SSD is recognized), there is a noticeable delay in Windows starting and the screen changes to "black".  If I hit the escape key it starts right up and Windows immediately loads. 2.  Every other time I start, I have to change the position of my video card in the system or the SSD is not recognized. This is not something anyone could live with...  does ANYONE have any idea what is going on? Thanks, Kurt

Which UEFI/BIOS version are you using?

X99 systems were designed before NVMe SSD existed, and while support was added for them, it is not as perfect as the latest Intel chipset boards, the 100 and 200 series chipset boards.

It is normal for an M.2 NVMe SSD like your 960 EVO to not be shown in the Storage Configuration screen. It is not a SATA drive, it uses the new NVMe protocol, different and unrelated to SATA. The M.2 slot in your board can be used with SATA M.2 SSDs, or NVMe SSDs. If your M.2 SSD was a SATA drive, it would be shown in in the Storage Configuration screen.

An NVMe SSD will be shown in the System Browser feature in the Tools screen, on X99 boards. The latest UEFI/BIOS version may include an NVMe Configuration screen in the Advanced screen. All it does is list the NMVe drives.

During all the changes in the hardware configuration, like moving the video card, removing the WiFi card, removing and adding SATA drives, etc, did you ever clear the UEFI/BIOS, with the jumper on the board, or button on the IO panel? If you did not, you really must do that otherwise things get confused. The need to move the video card makes no sense, I've never seen that happen. You really need to clear the UEFI/BIOS, and I wonder what UEFI/BIOS version you are using?

What Windows 10 installation media did you use? An optical disk? ISO image on a USB flash drive? Did you select the entry for the Windows installation media in the Boot order specifically, or just let it run from whatever entry was first?

When you installed Windows 10, were any other drives connected to the board? It seems there was at some point, if you did that could be why you get that black screen delay. Also, do you have the HDD Saver option enabled, and do you have the special power cable used with that feature connected to any SATA drives?

Pressing the Esc key to cause Windows to boot sounds like your board has the Boot Manager feature, but I don't see that in the manual. Or that is caused by multiple system/boot partitions on at least one other drive, which is seen by Windows as a dual/multiple OS booting configuration, which is  not configured correctly, since you are not trying to do that.

Whenever you install Windows, you should only have the drive that Windows will be installed on connected to the board. Otherwise the Windows installer will put the system/boot partition on another drive. That would really cause strange behavior with an NVMe SSD with all of Windows on it, except for the system/boot partition on a SATA drive. If you had another drive connected to the board during an earlier Win 10 installation attempt, it may have a boot partition on it, and when you connected it to the board again, it causes the situation you have.

From your board's specifications: SSATA3_2 connector is shared with Ultra M.2 Socket. If you have a SATA drive connected to that SATA port, a M.2 drive in the M.2 slot would not be detected.

What options in the UEFI/BIOS did you configure for the NVMe SSD before installing Windows 10?

What type of Windows 10 installation was done? Did you use the Custom installation option, or just the standard installation?

When you are in Windows, start Device Manager and open Disk drives, and then the Properties of the 960 EVO. Click the Volumes tab, and click Populate. What does the Partition Style line say?

Have you installed the Samsung NVMe driver for your 960 EVO?

What is the entry in the Boot order for the 960 EVO, does it say 960 EVO or something else?

The only information we have to diagnose your problems are what you tell us, since we don't have the PC in front of us to examine. That's why about all I can do at this point is ask questions.