Question Can certain SSD not be compatible with UEFI?

[taisingera]

I am selling off an old laptop, i5 3317u and have an Adata SP920 SSD laying around to put in. I made the Windows 10 USB two ways, with Media Creation Tool and with Rufus and .iso, making sure it was GPT and UEFI. I made sure UEFI only was selected in the laptop, a Lenovo U310, and it installs fine, but when it restarts I get the BlInitializeLibrary failed error. When I change back to Legacy boot mode with UEFI boot first, it boots to Win10. Am I missing something here?

Come to think of it, I don't think I ever had this SSD in a pure UEFI (non-CSM) system booting up. Had it as a boot drive on a Haswell system with CSM enabled for graphics, and on a Sandy Bridge laptop without UEFI. Back in 2016 I bought this SSD to put in a Dell XPS L702X but it showed the same symptoms, able to install windows but wouldn't boot, but there were no UEFI options on that laptop.

BTW, the laptop was working in UEFI mode in Windows 10 on both a hard drive and recently on an MX500 256GB that I had to transfer to the new laptop.

 

[Shmee]

That is a weird issue, and I am not certain of the cause, but I have seen some weird behavior before from certain SSDs. According to the AT review here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/7908/adata-sp920-128gb-256gb-512gb-1tb-review the SP920 has a Marvell based controller. So it is not a sandforce drive, but there still could be issues, and a firmware update might help that. Next, have you checked the SMART data on the drive? Make sure it is in good health. You could also try doing a secure erase, if you have not already.

Also, you might want to double check your install media, and make sure the installer files aren't corrupt, and that the USB drive itself isn't failing or problematic.

 

[taisingera]

I used two different flash drives when I installed Windows10. SMART data on the drive looks good, and is still at 99% health, but I have no way to secure erase the SSD as Adata and many other programs don't let you Secure erase in windows.

 

[Tech Junky]

Use a Linux boot drive and you can do it pretty quickly w/ DD.

Odd though that it won't boot in UEFI. I just rebuilt my server and newer MOBO's won't boot unless it's UEFI or maybe it's just me. CSM didn't like the drives I'm using for some reason. I moved the partition and added a 50MB URFI partition and life was back to normal. There's always that 1 off scenario though where something doesn't work as expected.

I also had a quad OTA tuner I'd been using for a few years that Linux / ADL didn't like for some reason though it ran fine on the 8700K system it had been in w/ the same configuration. Also, my 5GE NIC sporadically doesn't like certain kernel releases but, seems to have been ironed out in 5.17.x.

 

[OlyAR15]

Sounds like the SSD is formatted as MBR rather than GPT. Have you verified the format?

 

[taisingera]

I found out what the problem was, it was the SSD. I took an Adata SU800 128GB I also had laying around, I imaged the problem drive and put it on the SU800 with pure UEFI mode and it booted right away into the Windows setup screen. So it was the Adata SP920 drive that couldn't boot with UEFI (non-legacy) mode. The SU800 will stay in the laptop I am selling. Next thing I will try with the SP920 is install Linux on it and try booting on my desktop which is in UEFI only, and see if it boots.

 

[taisingera]

Update, I installed Feren OS Linux on the SP920 in a USB enclosure with a GPT/UEFI flash drive and it boots right into Linux on my desktop. I guess that SSD had an issue with Win10 and the Lenovo laptop booting UEFI mode.

 

[OlyAR15]

Update, I installed Feren OS Linux on the SP920 in a USB enclosure with a GPT/UEFI flash drive and it boots right into Linux on my desktop. I guess that SSD had an issue with Win10 and the Lenovo laptop booting UEFI mode.

You still haven't confirmed that the SSD is in GPT format.

 

[Shmee]

You still haven't confirmed that the SSD is in GPT format.

Now this would be a problem, but it was mentioned in the OP that GPT was assured, unless I was reading that wrong and he was talking about the USB flashdrive?

Also, as mentioned the drive can be secure erased in a Linux boot environment, such as parted magic. There are tutorials on how to do this for free in many distros. I would avoid DD though, that is more for mechanical HDDs, for an SSD you could use the secure erase or sanitize function, if supported.

 

[taisingera]

If the SSD wasnt in GPT, then I certainly converted it to GPT before putting it into the laptop.

 

[OlyAR15]

If the SSD wasnt in GPT, then I certainly converted it to GPT before putting it into the laptop.

And how did you do that? You are not answering the question, merely giving a supposition. Is the ssd in gpt format? Dis you check that it is so?

 

[OlyAR15]

Now this would be a problem, but it was mentioned in the OP that GPT was assured, unless I was reading that wrong and he was talking about the USB flashdrive?

I don't see anywhere in the original post that the SSD was either verified or converted to GPT. Only this line talking about the USB drive:

I made the Windows 10 USB two ways, with Media Creation Tool and with Rufus and .iso, making sure it was GPT and UEFI.

 

[taisingera]

In windows, I use diskpart to check if it is in GPT, and if it isn't, then I convert to GPT while it is empty.