Samsung SM951-NVMe boot problem

[reliqui4e]

Hey anandtech community, I got a problem.

I can't get windows to boot from my new M.2 SSD. I had problems installing Windows first but I managed to install it in both RAID or AHCI. For RAID I used Intel Rapid Storage drivers and for AHCI I used Disk Part commands and Intel Rapid Storage drivers. Both installations create a couple of partitions and both have to be booted with UEFI only in the BIOS settings or else it won't install.

So after the initial installation from the USB drive (until it restarts) it doesn't have any device to boot up other then the USB drive. Also in BIOS itself it won't detect the M.2 drive in UEFI mode. It will only show up when it's set to UEFI+Legacy and it doesn't have the "UEFI: " in front of the name.
The installed files look alright when booting from my old SSD.

Relevant specs:
CPU: Xeon 1245v5
Motherboard: MSI C236A
BIOS Version: 2.2

 

[mnewsham]

Well I have a slightly different setup I have the Samssung 950 pro, and I have an MSI board as well, but X99A, not C236A. My board has some PCI options relating to the M.2 SSD, but mine was automatically detected and installing windows was dead simple, just like any normal SSD install really. I had heard reports it was a pain in the ass for some boards though.

 

[reliqui4e]

Alright I used a non UEFI USB boot drive which limited the windows installation but that's fixed now. I can install Windows on UEFI+Legacy boot now but I'm still unable to boot from the M.2 SSD. I tried both GPT and MBR formats with all disks unplugged but still no luck. I'm sure it created a EFI boot partition but it simply doesn't work.

I also tried cloning but apparently the sector byte size is different to a regular SSD.

I'm going to try and install Ubuntu 16.04 today. I hope it's just a Windows error and not Motherboard related.

Update: Alright Ubuntu is working fine without any problems. I installed it and it straight booted my M.2 SDD.

Should I try a 3rd party boot manager for windows if there is one or maybe my old windows .iso is lacking some new files?

 

[mnewsham]

Should I try a 3rd party boot manager for windows if there is one or maybe my old windows .iso is lacking some new files?

I will say I installed windows 10 via UEFI USB. So if you're installing windows 7 or windows 8 I don't know if they would recognize an m.2 drive on install or not.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I installed my SM951 128GB M.2 PCI-E AHCI model SSD with Win7 64-bit SP1, using a UEFI mode boot using a DVD, on my ASRock Z170 Pro4S ATX mobo.

Didn't have any issues.

 

[Elixer]

OP, yeah, what OS version you trying to install?
I see they have a 2.3 BIOS version out, but, they only list audio fixes. https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/C236A-WORKSTATION.html

Could be a compatibility issue with the M2 you got.
You should be able to ask MSI, they are usually pretty good in getting back to you quickly on workstation mobos.

 

[reliqui4e]

Okay I'm back with good news. I fixed it

I guess it was the old Windows version that messed everything up. I downloaded the latest version of Windows 10 with Microsofts MediaCreationTool and it worked with it.

But in case that isn't the solution and someone is having the same issue I'll describe what else I did.

First I installed Ubuntu 16.04 with no other drives attached and it booted without problems. Then I Downloaded the latest Windows version with Microsofts MediaCreationTool and installed it on my USB drive using Rufus. After that I shut down my computer and reset my BIOS by removing cmos battery for a minute. Still no other drives attached I booted from my USB drive and installed Windows on the primary partition by deleting the old linux data on it but I left all other linux partitions intact. Once installed I checked boot options and voilà "Windows Boot: (My M.2 SDD)" appeared.