Can't get Z800 to see Samsung 950 Pro in Boot list

[Calidan777]

I recently finished putting together an Z800 after buying the desktop and parts all separatley online. I have dual X5650 CPUs, 32gb RAM, an Nvidia GTX 1060 SC and a Samsung 950 Pro connected via PCIe adaptor. I specifically bought the 950 Pro because of it's built in Option ROM for booting on legacy BIOS. Unfortunatly I have not been able to boot from it as the BIOS never even sees the drive as a bootable device. I used the samsung data migration utility to clone my SATA HDD that I'm currently booting off of to the 950 Pro. Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

[DGroves]

is the z800 bios at factory defaults, and the AHCI+ Raid option enabled in the bios?

the 950 pro may be like the intel 750 pci-e card which will not boot on a z800

(both nvme drives will work on the z820/z620 systems)

i suspect the reasion of it not booting on the z800/z600 is because they lack UEFI enabled bios's and are running bios's that are unique to these systems unlike generic consumer based motherboards/bios's

the fastest known to work ssd's in the z800  are the SM951 (AHCI Version) using either the HP pci-e carrier or a generic PCI-e x4 carrier the next fastest samsung was the xp941 (this model is AHCI only)

you can try making a clover usb boot key that will load the nessary UEFI extensions before allowing the HP bios to load

many people have had good results with their systems allowing a nvme ssd to boot and it should work on the z800

https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-without-modding-your-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootload...

let the forum know if you try this what the results were for you

Edit, as i recall the z800 has a internal usb header on the motherboard so you could use a adabler from ebay to convert the usb pins to a normal usb socket that the key can pluginto, this will place the key inside the case so it will not get lost or removed by someone

[SDH]

Our SATA emulation in our Z600 version 2 workstations is always set to RAID + AHCI before clean install of our W7Pro64 or W10Pro64 OS.

I always use my  DBAN technique of low level format of all Samsung SSDs with subsequent MBR type partitioning, and I always do a subsequent NTFS format, long type, as posted about here also.  Search for DBAN.

And, the Samsung 950 Pro SSD I happen to own works fine in my Z600 after this massage.  I do that all before the OS load, and we have seen strange things with Samsung SSDs if we don't do this for HP workstations earlier than the Z620 series.  Our theory is that there are things on deep sectors of the Samsung SSDs that are cleared by this DBAN technique.  It may have to do with the fact that these Samsung SSDs are SATA III and the workstations are SATA II.  Don't know, don't care, it works ever time for us.

You could always send me yours to do this to and I'll send it back on your dime, and you can then report back to the forum....

[DGroves]

hmmmmm,....if it works in a z600 v2  as "SDH" has said it should work in the z800 as they share the same base bios code

the z800 bios code only differs in that it includes support for the onboard LSI SAS/SATA controller

while i have a personal z800/z820 i only have experence with the sm951 (sata) and xp941 pci-e (sata) ssd's and several SATA based ssdd's connected via the SAS/SATA motherboard ports i have not tested/used the sm950 or intel 750 pci-e card

[SDH]

Apologies guys..... I was thinking 2.5" form factor but you are talking M.2 form factor.  Sorry......

[IFunghi]

Hi guys I'm new here.

SDH : your comment mean that you don't have SSD samsung 950 PRO M2 via PCIE on your Z600 ?

Like Calidan777  I try to install the SSD samsung 950 PRO M2 via PCIE on my Z800

[SDH]

Yes, you are correct..... I do not have a M.2 form factor Samsung SSD running in our Z600 workstations.  However, I have posted in this forum about getting the Kingston M.2 Predator running very well in a PCIe adapter in the Z600 by choosing a specific HP storage driver to use with that.  That is no longer available new from Kingston, but with searching you wil find used ones.

Here is the benefit:  The PCIe bus speeds in a ZX00 workstation are faster than the SATA Generation II bus that all the HP ZX00 workstations use for all of their SATA ports.  You only get into SATA Generation III native speeds in the ZX20 era workstations, for several of their SATA ports.  So, if you want the highest speed out of a ZX00 workstation that Predator M.2 drive is a good way to go.

Honestly, SATA Generation II speeds are mighty fine in the ZX00 workstations, but it was a fun project to work on.  It results in a noticable, but small, benefit and only if all your other components in that workstation are optimized fully.

[IFunghi]

Thanks, I already read your previous post and the « retrograding » of storage controller driver ( 9.6.0.1014 instead of 11.5.4.1001).

According to that, I have tried to install the good one storage controller driver with two different way :
-I install the driver booting on windows with my old HDD, my curent System .
-I also installed the driver during the beginning of windows installation, booting on usbdrive.
On both way same error as before, nothing changes for me (i can’t choose this drive to install windows)

Infact my issue, for now, isn’t about « booting on the ssd », after installing windows (clean install or clone). The problem is I can't install windows on the samsung ssd 950 PRO M2 :
-I launch the computer

-Windows boot from usbdrive

-the SSD is seeing by the installer

- Problem: I can't choose this drive
Error in french : ("check that the disk controller is enabled") "windows ne peut être installer sur ce disque. Le matériel de cet ordinateur peut ne pas prendre en charge le démarrage sur ce disque. Vérifier que le contrôleur de ce disque est activé dans le menu du BIOS de l'ordinateur"

I did not try with clone. According to various previous posts I havé read, I think that will not work for me.

PS : apologies for my english, I’m trying the best

[DGroves]

besides the intel rst driver try loading the samsung driver for ssd's during win 10 serup

the drivers on the link below are the extracted samsung SSD drivers in "inf" format

the samsung driver is normally a exe file that can not be used during windows setup

https://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

[IFunghi]

Thank you DGrove but that doesn’t work

I download the Samsung driver on winraid and load it during Windows setup, same error as before : windows can’t be install on this drive 

Any other idea ?