Asrock 990 FX killer with Samsung SM951

Finnipinni wrote: After alot of coffe, little update to my earlier posts. First of all : There are no such word as "UEFI BIOS" It's either UEFI or BIOS. UEFI has taken over for the old BIOS in 2007, now running version 2,5. Got my first mobo with UEFI about 2011, so it's about time to make full use of it ! UEFI has the capability to run in both BIOS and UEFI in order to handle equipment that are not UEFI combatible as well. This feature is called CSM (CompabilitySupportModule), and are by default Enabled. Today all equipment are UEFI combatible. Only the disks needs any "tampering". BIOS format disks in BMR(MasterBootRecord) UEFI format disks in GPT(GuidePartitionTable) To make use of both MBR- and GPT -disks, CSM has to be "fiddled" with. Running GPT on all internal disks means you should disable CSM. Advatages : Better security, a littel faster operation and use of big disks. Installing NVMe disks like the SM951 have some demands. They are not wery well taken care of in UEFA 2.5. Full advantages is only possible in UEFI and has to be formatted in GPT. In UEFI Mode, Windows 10 installer program will not find an MBR disk (in UEFI called Legacy disk). And will not find any place to load. Formatting in the program means to establish the MBR !! So, in UEFI the OS-disk has to be formatted in GPT in advance, regardless of disk type. Rest of the disks may be formatted in GPT when W10 is installed. In UEFI : also set USB3 handling to AUTO, then USB will handle both MBR and GPT. How to make GPT disks : In Disk Mangement : The chois MBR to GPT are in R.click menu when pointing the disk in the left collumn. 1. Format 2. Choose Delete Volume. 3. MBR to GPT. 4. R.click unallocated volume/new simple volume, and follow the precidure (Next all the way). You can label the disk later. In Command promt (admin) : Type diskpart/list disk/select disk 1 (the disk number) clean/convert GPT Both ways will cleene the disk completly, so backup all you want to keep ! There are programs who can do this without loss. I investigated one of them - it was complicated..... So many words.... Simplest way to get success, is first to format OS-disk to GPT. In UEFI : Disable GSM. Set USB3 handling as suggested. Then no problem should occure.

I am thrilled you got your SM951 booting! It is booting Windows, right?

You are Norwegian (so am I, a little bit, and Danish too), and your English skills are good. But it is hard for you to describe these things, right? I'm not sure if I understand everything you wrote, so I want to review it to be sure. I hope you will do that for me, please.

One other thing first. When I write UEFI/BIOS, I do that so people will start using UEFI as the name of the firmware on our mother boards. We do not use BIOS firmware anymore, but most people still call it "BIOS". I do that so people know when I write UEFI, I mean what they are calling BIOS. You are right that we either have UEFI or BIOS firmware. We now only have UEFI firmware.

The CSM, when Enabled, runs the UEFI firmware in emulated BIOS mode. That means none of the advantages of UEFI firmware is used, which is terrible. Setting CSM to Disabled allows all the features that UEFI firmware has, to be used. But when really using the UEFI firmware, with CSM disabled, Windows must be installed with a GPT partitioning type, and will then use the Windows EFI boot loader.

But to use the EFI boot loader, that normally requires an EFI compatible storage Option ROM to be used, which is part of the UEFI file.

I have been installing Windows on regular SATA SSDs to boot from the Windows EFI bootloader. That is what happens when you have GPT partitioning of the SSD, and have CSM disabled as you said you did in your post above, right?

When I am using Intel mother boards, I set CSM to Disabled. I then set the SATA mode to RAID. Those two things cause the EFI compatible storage Option ROM to be used during the Windows installation. I also must load the Intel "F6" Intel RAID driver, or the SSD will not be seen by the Windows installation program. I do not format the SSD at all.

After I load the F6 RAID driver, the SSD is then seen by the Windows installation program. I then click on "New", and Windows formats the SSD as GPT, and creates three other partitions, that are needed for a complete EFI booting Windows installation.

I'm not saying formatting the SSD before the installation as GPT is wrong, I don't know if your Windows installation has all the partitions that mine do. Your method seems to work fine.

I have an ASRock 970 Performance/3.1 board, that uses the same AMD Southbridge (SATA) chipset as your ASRock 990FX Killer, so control of SSDs should be the same.

When I tried to install Windows 10 in the same way on the AMD board as I do when I use Intel boards, the installation fails. I have the SATA mode set to RAID, and CSM set to Disabled.

I cannot find an AMD F6 RAID driver that will work like the Intel F6 driver does. So the SSD is never seen by Windows.

Your method, which seems to work, starts with the SATA mode set to AHCI, is that right? You did not say which SATA mode you used in your post.

You also did not say what AHCI driver you are using. It seems to be the standard Windows AHCI driver, storahci. Or do you install an AMD AHCI driver after the Windows 10 installation.

Next, you format the SSD as GPT in Diskpart. That can also be done in Windows Disk Management.

You have CSM Disabled when the other two things are done, and then can install Windows fine, right?

Do you the Windows disk, or a USB flash drive?

I am curious about how your OS disk appears in Disk Management after the Windows Installation. This is how my EFI booting Windows 10 installation appears in Disk Management, the top entry:



That disk is really two Samsung AHCI SM951s in a RAID 0 array. That can be done now on the newest Intel chipset boards, like a Z170. That is my Window 10 drive on my ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ board. The 450MB Recovery Partition is actually two partitions, one is a hidden MBR partition that the Windows installation program put on the drive. That allows the installation to boot if CSM is Enabled.

I'll try your method, but I don't think the result is quite the same as the way I do it. I also do not think an AMD RAID driver for the SB950 chipset exists that can use the EFI bootloader.

I hope this makes sense to you, if you have questions about it, please ask.

Use imgur.com to upload the screenshot of AS-SSD you took and post the link here

Finnipinni wrote: After alot of coffe, little update to my earlier posts. First of all : There are no such word as "UEFI BIOS" It's either UEFI or BIOS. .....//////.......... So many words.... Simplest way to get success, is first to format OS-disk to GPT. In UEFI : Disable GSM. Set USB3 handling as suggested. Then no problem should occure.

Hello ! Congrats for your success, i'm glad i found a positive result for AMD & SM951 !

Can you post a screenshot of AS-SSD benchmark of your SM951 ?

Thank you in advance!

Thank you .

Edited by net2paul - 26 Sep 2015 at 2:06am