Is HP Z Turbo Drive G2 compatible with the Z620 workstation?

[ShawnFoley]

I've "successfully" installed the HP Z Turbo Drive G2 in a Z620 workstation. I can read and write to the drive using an Ubuntu Live USB drive, and it successfully partitioned and copied the setup files for Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop, but it failed on reboot.

Windows 10 setup can see the drive as well, and can repartition it. It errors out saying it can't be booted from and Windows doesn't let setup proceed. It suggests setting it up in the BIOS so that the boot controller will allow it to boot, but I havent found that setting yet.

Also, I updated the BIOS to J61 V03.88 prior to installing the card into slot 4.

Am I overlooking how to enable it to boot from the drive?

Thanks,

-Shawn

[erico]

Are you using the workstation in EFI or MBR mode?

Is the version of Windows you are installing 32 or 64-bit?  

[soccer_dan · Accepted solution]

the z620 bios supports booting the turbo drive g1 pci-e drives, but not the g2, nvme controllers. Windows will see the drive as a data drive. The z640 generation added the ability to boot from the turbo drive g2 cards

[erico]

@soccer_dan

I believe you are correct. I have asked HP about nvme specifically, but have not yet received a response. The only difference I found between the two Z Turbo drives in the spec is that nvme is used as the interface on the G2 card itself with the outward connecting interface identical to the original Z Turbo card.. the previous Generation Z Turbo card uses M.2.  Both cards have MLC nand flash memory.

[ShawnFoley]

Thank for the reply, and for confirming what I had more or less concluded.

It's working great as a secondary drive, and for my purposes thats fine.

-Shawn