Gen 10 PCIe/NVMe Boot

[typod 10]

Hi,

 

Just got my Gen10 Plus today, I put it all together including a PCIe/NVMe adapter with a 1TB drive.  The system sees the drive in the bios and when I load Windows setup it appears as a drive, however when I try to install Windows on it I  get the message

 

"windows cannot be installed to this disk. this computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk.  Ensure that the disk controller is  enabled in the computers BIOS menu"

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Cheers

[typod 10]

Sorted it.  I created a UEFI boot USB and it worked. 

[johnnyCupcake 1]

@typod Do you mind posting more info on how you managed to get it to work?

- What PCIe/NVMe adapter are you using?

- what do you mean you created a "UEFI boot USB" - a setting in UEFI Bios? or some special USB?

 

I am installing via USB windows installation tool - no problems getting it to start.

Bu, the pcie/NVMe adapter doesn't get recognised by the windows install. I am trying to get the QNAP QM2-2S-220A adapter to work and the windows install won't even recognise the drives. I have two M.2 Evo 970's installed and bifurication turned on in the UEFI Bios.

 

Thanks for any input.

[unclebiba 0]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:15 PM, johnnyCupcake said:

QNAP QM2-2S-220A

It's not some stupid nvme riser card, it needs drivers to work. So get some drivers for Asmedia controller (used in this board): https://www.usbdev.ru/files/asmedia/asm106xdriver/ (use google translate), sideload this drivers into your winserver iso or supply it by usb.

Maybe you will need to make some work to extract the drivers from it's installers, I don't know. Not needed in any pcie expansion options for this server.

[schoondoggy 896]

On 8/12/2020 at 2:15 PM, johnnyCupcake said:

@typod Do you mind posting more info on how you managed to get it to work?

- What PCIe/NVMe adapter are you using?

- what do you mean you created a "UEFI boot USB" - a setting in UEFI Bios? or some special USB?

 

I am installing via USB windows installation tool - no problems getting it to start.

Bu, the pcie/NVMe adapter doesn't get recognised by the windows install. I am trying to get the QNAP QM2-2S-220A adapter to work and the windows install won't even recognise the drives. I have two M.2 Evo 970's installed and bifurication turned on in the UEFI Bios.

 

Thanks for any input.

 

The QM2-2S-220A supports SATA M.2 devices, not NVMe. If your EVO 970's are NVMe they are not going to work.

As this card is for SATA devices, you should not be using bifurcation on the PCIe slot.

[typod 10]

@johnnyCupcake Really sorry I only just noticed this question.

 

I am using an ADATA 1TB SSD (ADATA SSD) and a M.2 Riser Card (Riser Card).  Nothing fancy about that riser card either.

 

I used Rufus and a smaller size USB stick so I could format it as FAT32 and set the partition type to GPT.

 

* - It was a while ago so I might not have the info 100% correct but it should be close enough to assist if you still need it.

 

[GarethC 29]

That looks like a good solution, its a shame there doesn't appear to be a dual port card without a switch which seems to make them a lot more expensive.  

[Jason 84]

Are there any confirmed dual m.NVMe pci-e riser cards that allow you to boot from one of the 2 drives; but will also detect both drives on the card?  I had to use a single m.NVMe pci-e riser card in mine.

[GarethC 29]

Lycom DT-130 potentially, but no-one seems to have tested it (although it was suggested by STH, Startech is the same card). 

Edited August 24, 2020 by GarethC

[typod 10]

I looked for a dual NVMe card but couldn't find one easily.  Most of the ones I saw had SATA + NVMe which is no good to me.  I went for a 1TB drive which should be fine as an OS drive (+ a VM or two) for a while.