Booting of Z820 with NVMe Sumsung 961 SSD

[dongmei]

Dear every one. 

I can not boot HP Z820 with NVMe Sumsung 961.

I could install windows 10(64bit) on Sumsung 961 SSD using Windows CD or USB.

But I could not find this SSD in boot menu.

How to fix this problem?

Best

Dognmei

[DGroves]

the z820 can not boot from "ANY" nvme based ssd, you must use a SATA based SSD such as the samsung SM951 which is available in both NVME and SATA interfaces

the HP "Turbo G" uses the SATA sm951 on the pci-e x4 card and is the generally fastest ssd  available

the HP turbo G2 uses the NVME sm951 and will not work as a bootable SSD, but will work as a DATA Drive (non boot)

you can keep the sm961 as a data drive and install a SATA based SSD for the boot drive

[BambiBoomZ]

Dongmei,

On Passmark Performance Test results, there are nine z820's using the Samsung SM961 NVMe as boot drives.

These drives must be using the Samsung "Legacy Boot" feature, which installs an NVMe BIOS module.  The Samsung 950 Pro NVMe had this capability also.

Consider studying the user manual for Legacy Boot.

Also, consider that there may also be an incorrect secure boot setting.

BambiBoomZ 

[DGroves]

the statement: These drives must be using the Samsung "Legacy Boot" feature is incorrect

only the sm950 pro ssd has the required oprom included in it's bios................the sm961 and pm961 ssd's do not have this legacy nvme oprom as such the pasmark listings you refer to are most likely using a 3rd party pre boot loader method such as clover which allows a uefi pre bios to be merged with the z820 bios

  setting up a clover boot system is not a beginner's task and requires modifying the clover preboot scripts each time you add/remove drives to the system in most cases

[roison]

PM963 will be work, because it has a UEFI option rom.

See this link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/A-bootable-NVME-ss...

 (I guess you're Chinese. At the end of that article, you can find the link of my original Chinese article, with more details)

[DGroves]

the pm963 is the "OEM" version of the enterprise sm963,.... both of these ssd's are not commonly seen for sale

note that only the SM963 is supported by Samsung magician utility the pm963 is not

i,ve read the description of this model and nowhere does it mention it will boot from a legacy bios, this is not to say that will not only that i can't find confirmation that it does, so if trying this on a legacy system as a boot device make sure you can return the item if it fails to work on your system.

[roison]

You're right. In that Chinese article, I have confirmed that PM963 can boot from UEFI bios, but can't boot from legacy bios. Maybe its option rom only support UEFI, like intel 750 series. 

BTW, there are some other optional nvme ssds with legacy option rom: 

1. SAMSUNG PM953, someone tested it on an older P45 platform (Sorry it's Chinese): https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/41163225

2. SAMSUNG 950 pro: https://www.overclock.net/forum/355-ssd/1579581-official-samsung-950-pro-owners-club-160.html

3. Plextor M8Pe / M8Se: https://www.win-raid.com/t3081f16-Poor-Write-Speed-Plextor-M-PE-Y-on-Intel-Series-Chipset.html

Thank you for your reply.

[DGroves]

again the pm953 is a enterprise 2.5 nvme drive, and this one i know for a fact will not boot on legacy systems as it does not have embedded Oprom support for the missing nvme boot code that a legacy bios lacks 

last, the intel 750 DOES NOT have the necessary Oprom code in it's onboard firmware so it also will not boot on legacy systems 

the plextor m85e does not show any support for legacy systems on it's website for supported motherboards IE- x79 or earlier

so i suspect it also lacks Oprom nvme code in it's firmware

https://www.goplextor.com/Support/FaqContent/8d57fd3aeeae4ef8a411e573ff221191

not to nicpick,........ but you seem to be just throwing out ssd models without doing much research confirming legacy boot compatibility,..... this can cause a reader of this thread to buy a nvme ssd model that will not work on x79 or earlier systems as a boot drive

the only known nvme based ssd that can boot on a legacy system (pre x99 chipset) was the samsung sm950 pro 

the plextor M6e was a pci-e x2 based SSD and is no longer in production, but could also boot on legacy/uefi based systems but was slower than the sm950 pro by a noticeable amount

the only commonly available SSD that is one of the fastest ssd's which will boot on legacy systems is/was the AHCI version of the Samsung sm951 (make sure you buy a AHCI version, not the nvme one if using a legacy system)

[SDH]

Thanks DGroves for those insights, and I'd like to add one thing about the AHCI version of the SM951 M.2 drive:  

Even with those there is no guarantee they will work as a boot drive in a legacy system.  There is firmware on those M.2 form factor SSDs, and some will show up as bootable and some will not.  I have a Lenovo AHCI version SM951 M.2 drive that will show up just fine as a non-boot drive in my home Z620, but it will not show in the bootable list of drives no matter what I have tried over the last couple of years.

The Z Turbo Drive (first generation, not the G2) has been the one easily installed reliable M.2 drive for us in our ZX20 workstations....  and all those "G1" versions we have contain the AHCI version of the SM951 M.2 drive (with the HP firmware, of course).  I have never seen a Lenovo or HP firmware updater for the AHCI SM951 drives.

[roison]

Thank you for reply. Here are some information.

For PM953, there are two kinds of pm953/pm963: M.2 nvme and 2.5 U.2 nvme.

This guy test M.2 nvme edition:https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/41163225

It works well on older P45 platform with option rom.

Others reported that it works fine with both AMI and Award BIOS. This guy even put it on QX9770 + NVIDIA nForce 790i platform, and it works...(http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5937318496)

However, recently, some guys reported that their PM953 doesn't has option rom.

It seem that not all pm953 ssds have option rom. 

As for m8pe/m8se, many instances could be found on Chinese network.

For example, this guy put it on X58 platform:http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4951442608

This taiwan guy(sunboy8290) reported that it can work on X79 platform. and this guy (peter_yu) showed m8pe option rom booting scene: https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=490&t=4878528

And on this link(http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4976370249), one guy (qiaopeng1231) reported that M8PeG works well with DELL T620(E5-26XX V1) and Dell T5610(E5-26XX V2).

So I guess it will also works fine with HP Z420/Z620/Z820, and someone report that this option rom do support AMI BIOS, which is used on HP Zx20. (This guy also reported M8Pe/M8Se doesn't support award bios. http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5931336332).

However, I didn't find instance of HP Zx20 with M8pe/M8se, even on Chinese network.