X99-WS, SM951 NVMe, Windows 10 Oddities

I have logged a  ticket about this but I thought I would ask the forums to see if anyone has any thoughts. There is a fair bit to go through so please hang in there.

My setup is as follows:

i7-5930k (Stock)
Asrock X99-WS now running Bios 2.10 (Was Running 1.95)
32GB RAM - Corsair Vengance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz - Currently at 2133Mhz (not enabled XMP)
EVGA 980Ti Classified (Stock)
256GB PLEXTOR PX-256M5Pro (SSD) - \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\
2TB Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632 (SATA) - \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk1\
1TB Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 (SATA) -\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk2\
512GB NVMe SAMSUNG MZVPV512 - \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk3\

OS is Windows 10 build 10240 installed in UEFI mode and booting fine from the Samsung NVMe Drive.

DISKPART> list disk

 Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
 --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
 Disk 0    Online          238 GB      0 B
 Disk 1    Online         1863 GB  1024 KB        *
 Disk 2    Online          931 GB  1024 KB
 Disk 3    Online          476 GB      0 B        *

DISKPART> select disk 3

Disk 3 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

 Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
 -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
 Partition 1    Recovery           450 MB  1024 KB
 Partition 2    System             100 MB   451 MB
 Partition 3    Reserved            16 MB   551 MB
 Partition 4    Primary            476 GB   567 MB

So my C: Drive is Partition 4 on Disk 3, UEFI Boot Partition is Partition 2 on Disk 3 and my Windows Recovery Partition is partition 1 on Disk 3.

And the (WinRE) recovery environment seemed to be configured as it should:

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk3\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: {BCDGUID1}
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


Ok roll on to November and Microsoft release Version 1511 (Build 10586) and I go to install it  .... I do this via windows updates which seems to go well, but on the first reboot I am met with a Windows error 0xc00000bb "Required Device isnt connected or cant be accessed" ... when I get back in to windows after it has rolled back I am greeted by the 0XC190010 0x20017 error "installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during Boot operation". I tried several times over the next few weeks all with the same error.  

In January 2016 I use the media creation tool and try the upgrade from the pen and the local ESD folder all fail with the same error on that first reboot. So having done some more digging I release that during that first reboot it tries to reboot in to a recovery environment to replace a bunch of windows files. With that in mind from my operational 10240 build I try and reboot in to RE, I tried both the shift method during reboot and bcdedit boottore . Amazingly it failed with exactly the same error. 0xc00000bb "Required Device isnt connected or cant be accessed" for some reason the PC will not access either winre.wim or boot.sdi on Harddisk3 (the Samsung NVMe M.2 Drive) ...

Using information found at

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9801aa0a-d876-4699-a31d-ba4ca08eea50/solved-how-do-i-prepare-windows-recovery-environment-on-windows-10-taking-backup-measures-on-your?forum=WinPreview2014Setup

I move the recovery environment to harddisk0 my Plextor SSD and much to my surprise it no longer generated the error, it still did not load however and seemed to crash my PC. So I moved WinRE to harddisk1, the 2TB normal HD and it worked fine!!!!

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk1\partition2\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: {BCDGUID1}
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

Thinking this may be a bios related issue, I upgrade to 2.10 and moved winre envrionment back to the dedicated partition but it still errored.

As I have a working WinRE environment off the SATA drive I am about to re-attempt the upgrade, I have a nasty feeling however that as part of the upgrade it refers/links to the WinRE/Ramdisk in $Windows.~BT which always gets created on C (M2) and therefore will not work on the reboot!! I have not been able to find a way to get that directory created on another drive.

Does anyone know why the machine will not reboot in to a winre environment located on the M.2 NVMe SSD - yet it will boot in to an operating system on the device.

I have tried all the permutations for CSM in the Bios and the only thing listed my bootlist in Bios is Windows Boot Manager. Has anyone else had the same issue ?





Edited by GuruNot - 28 Jan 2016 at 3:28am

To (not) answer your specific question, no I don't know why.

But if you installed Windows 10 on your SM951 with even one other drive connected to the PC at that time, then the System partition in use could be on another drive. Actually that is a given if more than the target OS drive was powered on during the Win 10 installation.

Or, if any of your other drives have a left over System partition on it, that could be causing the confusion.

Given the fix you came up with, moving a partition to the Plextor SSD, there seemed to be some type of confusion like I described, or possibly a corruption of a partition on the SM951.

You should run Diskpart and examine the partitions on all of your drives. But at this point that may not provide an answer.

I recently installed Win 10 10240 on a RAID 0 array of two 950 Pros, in UEFI mode. I updated to 10586 via Windows Update just two days ago, by coincidence. I did not have the problem you had. I'm using that PC now. It is a different platform (Z170), and I did not check the UEFI versions for your board.

I don't know how this could be caused by a BIOS problem. Given all you've done to fix your issue, it may be impossible to show it is a BIOS problem.

A UEFI booting Windows installation on a SATA SSD can boot with CSM Enabled, but I doubt a PCIe SSD can, since it should require the EFI boot loader. That is not used when CSM is Enabled.

Is defo looks like it is uefi booting off the sm951 System Partition. Msinfo shows:

OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version    10.0.10240 Build 10240
Other OS Description     Not Available
OS Manufacturer    Microsoft Corporation
System Name  Blank
System Manufacturer    To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model    To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Type    x64-based PC
System SKU    To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date    American Megatrends Inc. P2.10, 07/01/2016
SMBIOS Version    2.8
Embedded Controller Version    255.255
BIOS Mode    UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer    ASRock
BaseBoard Model    Not Available
BaseBoard Name    Base Board
Platform Role    Desktop
Secure Boot State    Off
PCR7 Configuration    Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory    C:\Windows
System Directory    C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale    United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer    Version = "10.0.10240.16392"


And using WinObj to check the translation for \Device\HarddiskVolume2 shows it equates to Harddisk3partition2

Exactly the same issue when installing with just the M.2 connected.

I did a clean install, as soon as configured attempted to reboot in to the recovery environment and was greeted with the 0xc00000bb error.

I will try installing the SSD tomorrow.


Edited by GuruNot - 28 Jan 2016 at 3:28am

I did not have the Samsung NVMe driver loaded I was using the Native Microsoft one , I have since installed Versions 1.1 of the Samsung Driver and that has made no difference. To be honest I am not sure that it even comes in to play at that point.

I have tried both ways to the boot in to WinRE , running the command line:

reagentc.exe /boottore

and then rebooting.

Or

Following Step 2 at http://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10 choosing startup repair under Advanced options. This launches winre just like a build upgrade does.

Neither method works, I still get the 0xc00000bb error.

With regards to the part of the post with the BCD Data, I do a get a string there too, I chose not to post it for privacy reasons.

The SSD is one of the drives that is already in the PC I will flatten the OS on the SM951 and do a UEFI Install of Windows 10 to that to see if things work.





Edited by GuruNot - 28 Jan 2016 at 3:46am