NVME + HP Z420

[mciancia]

Hi

I have hp z420 in which I want to install nvme SSD.

I bought samsung 950p for that purpouse, as it was supposed to work ok, but I while it's seen in boot menu, I can't install Win10 to it (installers says that this disk is not bootable), and when installing linux it just won't boot after install.

Any help what might be the issue?

Maybe only specifin pci-e ports will work or some bios change is required?

[Smeden]

First of all make sure you have an actual AHCI capable version of the ( Samsung 950 ).

The retail version: "black" labelled "Samsung 950 Pro" has onboard OPROM that supports AHCI over PCIe X4 / NVMe.

This version will be able to boot in Z420 / Z620 / Z820.

The SM951 is a bit more tricky since it comes in two flavours.

One of them is a pure NVMe, which means that it does not support AHCI over NVMe.

You can identify them by the third letter in the part number.

The NVMe model is designated by a V, while the AHCI model has an H.

As pointed out below, this topic has already been discussed at least a zillion times.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Nvme-SSD-Disk-on-Z...

[mciancia]

Well, that a thing - I have samsung 950 pro (black labeled and so on : ) ) but still can't get that to boot.

I saw other threads - that's why I bought this one, but I never saw anyone write anything about problems with that config.

Maybe I missed something since those threads were pretty long, but still.

[DGroves]

you posted the exact same question on  04/30/2019 at 6:54pm which i replied to

[mciancia]

Yes I know, that was supposed to be reply in another thread though, so not sure what happend there.

Anyway, I saw your reply and yes, I do have latest bios in z420, I also have latest firmware in my SSD and still I ahve problems with getting that to boot.

I wonder if anyone got it to work with latest software, maybe HP bricked something in latest bios

[DGroves]

HP has bricked nothing in their bios updates,..........................................the "z" models listed above simply do not, and will not support nvme drives as a bootable device unless the device itself includes the missing nvme boot code and no currently  available consumer ssd does this

you can however try the older model ssd's like the intel 750, or the samsung SM950 pro which can still be found as used or "NOS"  (New Old Stock) but as i noted above they may not work check previous posts on this board and on the internet to see if other got it to work

[mciancia]

But I _do_ have samsung 950 pro which is, as you said, supposed to be working and I still can't get it to work on this computer.

I did read other threads, that why I bought this ssd

[DGroves]

i have not said to you that the 950 pro works, only that it should work since it has the nessary boot code for the nvme

i have also had a report from a z800 user that the 950 pro AND the intel 750 is unable to boot from these devices, but as the z800 is not uefi based that's not suprising

the only posts on this forum that report sucess on the z820/950 pro used a startech pci-e adapter

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/NVMe-PCIe-SSD-boot...

[Smeden · Accepted solution]

You need to create and boot the Windows 10 install media in UEFI mode.

To do this you need to follow a special procedure. Use Google.

Also you should change settings in Bios to "EFI" instead of "Legacy".

Your target partition should be formatted as GPT and not MBR.

[mciancia]

Yes, looks like that solved my problem (though, I installed linux instead of Windows).

Thanks a lot 🙂