How To Install Windows On A PCIe SSD

parsec wrote: An XP941 might be bootable with your board, but I can't tell if your board had the appropriate UEFI/BIOS updates to support using the EFI boot loader that is required with that SSD. As I've told others, the difference in performance between a good SATA SSD (an M4 is good) and a PCIe SSD is not night and day. Not anything like going from an HDD to a SATA SSD. You can just disable CSM, as said in my guide, to allow booting from a PCIe SSD. But you then need a GOP compatible video source, and cannot use Windows 7 without a modification of a file location in the installation folders. Stay with the 850 EVO, it will be somewhat faster than an M4 in real world usage, but not all the time and not a big difference. An 850 EVO is among the few fastest SATA III SSDs, and frankly will be faster when starting a PC from a cold start/shutdown than any current PCIe SSD. PCIe SSDs are slow to complete POST. The startup time of my  Z170 board with all PCIe SSDs is much slower  than my Z87 board using a SATA III SSD.

Airbus480 wrote: parsec wrote: ziko wrote: Will ALL X99 boards Support this method? I own the X99 Extreme4/3.1 with 1.2 BIOS. Officialy, only the Extreme 4, without USB 3.1 support the NVME SSD. Its my first Asrock board and i am very disappointed with it. Today it boot normaly, tomorrow freeze at Asrock logo. After reset CMOS it boots again. How long, its a luck of the draw. Boot time is horrible, CSM disbled and Win 10 x64 fast boot enabled. My first and last Asrock product, for shure. Will now try to go along with this board. My boot drive is a OCZ Revodrive 3 x2 PCIe. No issue, only the boot problem and overclocking issue from board.   Can anyone answer my question about the M2 boot drive on my Extreme 4/3.1?   Welcome to the world of X99 boards. ALL X99 boards are slow to POST, which is the process that happens before the actual OS loading/boot occurs. Even with CSM Disabled and Fast Boot Enabled. If you check other forums with threads about other X99 boards, you will find complaints about the "boot time". The startup time of any PC includes BOTH the POST time, followed by the actual OS boot time. It is the POST time on X99 boards that is slower than other chipset boards. When you hear the single POST Ok beep from the board, that is when the OS boot process begins. There is a secret about "Fast Boot", it is actually Fast POST. Using Fast Boot causes the POST process to be shorter (or faster), which gives the affect of the overall PC startup process to be faster. Still, X99 boards are slow to POST, my X99 board is also slow to start. And I thought my X99 WS is the only one having this problem...the Asrock logo takes time to appear is Fast Boot only the solution? Because it gives this warning that the only way to go back UEFI is to Restart to UEFI utility in Windows but I am using Windows 7 x64 and can't find any Restart to UEFI utility under the downloads for Win 7 x64

I see now, you are using Win 7. The Restart to UEFI utility uses a new feature introduced in Win 8 that allows you to restart the PC and it will go directly into the UEFI UI. That feature is kinda buried within Win 8 (and all versions of Windows beyond Win 8) but it is there.

The bad news is Win 7 does NOT have that feature, which explains why there is no Restart to UEFI for Win 7 for your or any ASRock board.

If you want to use the Fast Boot option with Win 7, of which you could only use the Fast setting, unless your Win 7 installation is a UEFI booting one, which I highly doubt, there is one work around for getting into the UEFI UI. Not at all elegant, but it works.

What do you do? Anytime you want to get into the UEFI UI with Fast Boot enabled, clear the UEFI/BIOS first.

Of course the PC will start even slower once that is done, and you'll need to have saved at least one UEFI profile to restore your settings quickly. Sorry but that is the only way.

Don't forget that the X99 chipset is based upon/related to Intel's Enterprise type chipsets. Enterprise boards are not designed for fast start up, which is really caused by a short, abbreviated POST process. Enterprise type boards may take a full minute to POST, since all the board's hardware is thoroughly checked for correct operation.

Our X99 boards currently have UEFI options whose default settings help to shorten the POST process. Such as, the MRC Fast Boot option in the DRAM Configuration screen. When that is enabled, memory tests and memory training are skipped, two things that would never be not done on an Enterprise type system.

Plus you must know that a Revo Drive is slow to get started. The new NVMe SSDs are also slow to get started. The Intel 750 PCIe NVMe SSD has a firmware update to address the complaints by owners about how slow it was to "boot". No, not slow to Boot, slow to POST.

Frankly, we are lucky our X99 boards start up/POST as quickly as they do. Add anything that slows down the POST process, and you'll be waiting longer, sorry to say.

While exploring A-tuning I saw the Fast boot option and there's an option "Enter UEFI setup on next boot"
So it seems even when fast boot enabled on Windows 7 x64, you can still go to UEFI without even clearing the CMOS? I haven't tested A-tuning "Enter UEFI setup on next boot" though...

Edited by Airbus480 - 15 May 2016 at 3:35am

Edited by user180965 - 01 Jun 2016 at 9:43pm

Edited by user180965 - 03 Jun 2016 at 3:51am