Can this motherboard boot from a PCIe SSD?

chctulc · Jun 6, 2020

I have this motherboard in one of my machines. It is now booting off a SATA 3.5" SSD in UEFI mode. I would like to use an M.2 expansion card like this to boot from a PCIe SSD instead. Is that possible? How would I know if I could boot from PCIe?

jaiq · Jun 6, 2020

I have an even older Asus board (ATX Z77-M), and it did work with Clover bootloader, which you can burn to a spare USB stick. In my case, MB's BIOS update was also needed.

Guide:
https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-G...r-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootloader-method.html

chctulc · Jun 6, 2020

jaiq said:
I have an even older Asus board (ATX Z77-M), and it did work with Clover bootloader, which you can burn to a spare USB stick. In my case, MB's BIOS update was also needed.

Guide:
https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-G...r-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootloader-method.html

Thank you for your reply. You have that same card? Is your board UEFI or (legacy) BIOS? I'm really not savvy enough to go too deep into the weeds technically. Pop it in and go...

Caring1 · Jun 6, 2020

Buy it and try it.
The worst that can happen is you end up with extra storage and not a boot drive.
From memory NVME was supported natively from 5th Gen CPU's and boards, yours is 4th Gen, but that doesn't mean it won't work.
Just remember to remove all other drives when installing Windows.

chctulc · Jun 7, 2020

Caring1 said:
Buy it and try it.
The worst that can happen is you end up with extra storage and not a boot drive.
From memory NVME was supported natively from 5th Gen CPU's and boards, yours is 4th Gen, but that doesn't mean it won't work.
Just remember to remove all other drives when installing Windows.

Ya know... at that price, you're right.

I have several other builds. Somewhere down the road it may find a home if it doesn't boot on this machine.

agent_x007 · Jun 7, 2020

I'm pretty sure (for B85), booting won't work unless you mod it into your BIOS...

chctulc · Jun 7, 2020

agent_x007 said:
I'm pretty sure (for B85), booting won't work unless you mod it into your BIOS...

Is there anything that is plug and play that would allow me to use an M.2 SSD with that board? PCIe or SATA, I don't care.

agent_x007 · Jun 7, 2020

Plug and play ?
This isn't Windows 98

You could simply ask someone to mod BIOS for you, you know ?
Also it can be used like any normal drive, you simply won't be able to boot from it.

And, like it was mentioned before, Clover and DUETwill be able to boot from it, once you set them up.

kapone32 · Jun 7, 2020

Though you won't get full throughput any PCIe based NVME adapter should work with that board. The board BIOS may not recognize it but Windows should have no issue importing it initializing it alllowing for a quick format and away you go.

chctulc · Jun 7, 2020

kapone32 said:
Though you won't get full throughput any PCIe based NVME adapter should work with that board. The board BIOS may not recognize it but Windows should have no issue importing it initializing it alllowing for a quick format and away you go.

The board has a UEFI (BIOS). Does that mean anything for booting from the NVME PCIe adapter? Just curious.

dont whant to set it"' · Jun 7, 2020

Maybe try installing without fast boot, that's what I did and only thereafter I turned Fastboot on.
Nvme drive in mb slot linked to CPU in my case.

dorsetknob · Jun 7, 2020

Install Nvme Drive into Adapter
install adapter into PC.
Remove/disable all other Drives
Boot PC into Bios
Check boot disk Boot order to see if its there.
if it is then you can install win10 and boot from it
if it dont show then it is recognized by win 10 after booting from a bootable Drive and then its just plain Storage.

jaiq · Jun 7, 2020

I don't know if I was lucky or what, but I did get full speed with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo in an Icy Box M2 card, coupled with MB's only Pcie gen 3 slot. I use it as my server, so I don't need a speedy dGPU anyways... I have used the same card on my MSI gaming laptop and benchmarks showed similiar results.
As someone pointed out, there is a possibility to modify BIOS permanently, but only for a driver being loaded, it's too much of a hassle. There's almost no way you could mess things up with a external bootloader.
I'd say it will work fine, but I can't remember which settings I chose in the BIOS, as It took some time for me tinkering. The main stumbling stone for me was to get the USB bootable correctly (EDIT: i believe it was because of an outdated BIOS).
Unfortunately, I can't reach the computer right now, but everything I needed back then is shown in the thread I linked.

chctulc · Jun 7, 2020

I'll report back on my results when I get the adapter. Thanks for all the wisdom imparted here. Maybe some of it will stick

chctulc · Jun 9, 2020

Just thought I'd check back and tell you folks the result. Looks like most of you all were right. UEFI BIOS doesn't see the drive, but once in Windows 10, it shows up like a normal drive. So I guess there was no NVMe logic even in the latest BIOS update for the board. Anyway, thank you all for helping me thru this. I learned a lot.

Processor	Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	Asrock B550M Pro4
Cooling	Cooler Master 212 EVO Black
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengance XPL
Video Card(s)	ROG Strix RTX 2070 Gaming
Storage	2 x Intel 660p 512GB SSD
Display(s)	32" LG
Case	Cooler Master HAF 912 (legacy)
Audio Device(s)	Altec Lansing 3-way (legacy)
Power Supply	850W XFX Black Edition
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Win10 Home 64bit

Processor	Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	Asrock B550M Pro4
Cooling	Cooler Master 212 EVO Black
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengance XPL
Video Card(s)	ROG Strix RTX 2070 Gaming
Storage	2 x Intel 660p 512GB SSD
Display(s)	32" LG
Case	Cooler Master HAF 912 (legacy)
Audio Device(s)	Altec Lansing 3-way (legacy)
Power Supply	850W XFX Black Edition
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Win10 Home 64bit

System Name	Black Box
Processor	Intel Xeon E3-1260L v5
Motherboard	MSI E3 KRAIT Gaming v5
Cooling	Tt tower + 120mm Tt fan
Memory	G.Skill 16GB 3600 C18
Video Card(s)	Asus GTX 970 Mini
Storage	Kingston A2000 512Gb NVME
Display(s)	AOC 24" Freesync 1m.s. 75Hz
Case	Corsair 450D High Air Flow.
Audio Device(s)	No need.
Power Supply	FSP Aurum 650W
Mouse	Yes
Keyboard	Of course
Software	W10 Pro 64 bit

Processor	Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	Asrock B550M Pro4
Cooling	Cooler Master 212 EVO Black
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengance XPL
Video Card(s)	ROG Strix RTX 2070 Gaming
Storage	2 x Intel 660p 512GB SSD
Display(s)	32" LG
Case	Cooler Master HAF 912 (legacy)
Audio Device(s)	Altec Lansing 3-way (legacy)
Power Supply	850W XFX Black Edition
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Win10 Home 64bit

System Name	BOX
Processor	Core i7 6950X @ 4,26GHz (1,28V)
Motherboard	X99 SOC Champion (BIOS F23c + bifurcation mod)
Cooling	Thermalright Venomous-X + 2x Delta 38mm PWM (Push-Pull)
Memory	Patriot Viper Steel 4000MHz CL16 4x8GB (@3240MHz CL12.12.12.24 CR2T @ 1,48V)
Video Card(s)	Titan V (~1650MHz @ 0.77V, HBM2 1GHz, Forced P2 state [OFF])
Storage	WD SN850X 2TB + Samsung EVO 2TB (SATA) + Seagate Exos X20 20TB (4Kn mode)
Display(s)	LG 27GP950-B
Case	Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL
Audio Device(s)	Motu M4 (audio interface) + ATH-A900Z + Behringer C-1
Power Supply	Seasonic X-760 (760W)
Mouse	Logitech RX-250
Keyboard	HP KB-9970
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Best AMD Computer
Processor	AMD 7900X3D
Motherboard	Asus X670E E Strix
Cooling	In Win SR36
Memory	GSKILL DDR5 32GB 5200 30
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 7900XT (Watercooled)
Storage	Corsair MP 700, Seagate 530 2Tb, Adata SX8200 2TBx2, Kingston 2 TBx2, Micron 8 TB, WD AN 1500
Display(s)	GIGABYTE FV43U
Case	Corsair 7000D Airflow
Audio Device(s)	Corsair Void Pro, Logitch Z523 5.1
Power Supply	Deepcool 1000M
Mouse	Logitech g7 gaming mouse
Keyboard	Logitech G510
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64 Steam. GOG, Uplay, Origin
Benchmark Scores	Firestrike: 46183 Time Spy: 25121

System Name	3 "rigs"-gaming/spare pc/cruncher
Processor	R7-5800X3D/i7-7700K/R9-7950X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Crosshair VI Extreme/Asus Ranger Z170/Asus ROG Crosshair X670E-GENE
Cooling	Bitspower monoblock ,custom open loop,both passive and active/air tower cooler/air tower cooler
Memory	32GB DDR4/32GB DDR4/64GB DDR5
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RX6900XT Alphacooled/AMD RX5700XT 50th Aniv./SOC(onboard)
Storage	mix of sata ssds/m.2 ssds/mix of sata ssds+an m.2 ssd
Display(s)	Dell UltraSharp U2410 , HP 24x
Case	mb box/Silverstone Raven RV-05/CoolerMaster Q300L
Audio Device(s)	onboard/onboard/onboard
Power Supply	3 Seasonics, a DeltaElectronics, a FractalDesing
Mouse	various/various/various
Keyboard	various wired and wireless
VR HMD	-
Software	W10.someting or another,all 3

Can this motherboard boot from a PCIe SSD?

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