NVMe PCIe SSD boot support in Z820

[Silverlocks]

NVMe PCIe SSD boot support in Z820

I've been following the question and response in the forum but could not find where to add a reply, maybe its because I'm a newbie.

Varioius comments about how to get an NVMe M2 to work as a boot drive but mine does'nt seem to work correctly so asking here if the M2 adapter makes a difference?

Z820, twin CPU's, BIOS 3.91

Startech PEX4M2E1 M2 adapter.

Windows 10 64

I've cloned the boot drive, Windows 10 with the drivers (2.2) pre-installed,  onto the 950 Pro  but its not seen in the BIOS once I go for an EFI boot.

Has anyone done this or is it just a full re-install here?

Now the Fall creators update is here, I can go for a full re-install if required its just the faff of installing programs again.

Regards and thanks for any help,

Mike

[iedjie]

Hi, I have succesfully installed Windows 7 on a Samsung 950 Pro with the help of an adaptet in my HP Z820. Working rock solid and fast since 1 and a 1/2 year.
Check my posts in this forum, I explain how somewhere.

Good luck!

Iedjie

[Silverlocks]

Thanks for the comments- question is what adapter did you use?
Also what slot did you use, is it on the first cpu or the second?
It might be the reason my system doesn’t see the card during boot
Mike

[iedjie]

Hi Mike,
In the thread beneath I explain step for step how to boot a HP Z820 from a 950 Pro ssd in one of the pci 3.0 x4 slots with the help of the Addonics adapter. Trust me, it works. I had to find this out myself by searching the internet.
You will succeed.

Greetz,
Iedjie

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

[Silverlocks]

Hi Iedjie

Thanks for the link, update on my different way of getting this to work.

I found as you said, the 960 will not work.

Purchased a second hand 950 on Ebay and installed it.

My HP did not see it as an installable boot drive on first looks but as I was updating to the latest Windows 10  thought I'd wait until I got that sorted.

Unfortunately for me, the lastest Fall Creators stopped Vmware workstation and Aconis working so it was a rapid restore back to 1703.

I have Acronis True Image installed so tried out a disk clone from the original HP Z Turbo drive to the new Samsung Nvme 950 in a Startech adapater. It boots just fine.

I don't yet know if True Image is helping to sort the boot process out, it starts first here with an UEFI loader, but the disk copy version is working well for me.

Current benchmarks using Samsung Magician  test are 

Read 2566

Write 717

Random IOPS

Read 98765

Write 15175.

Probably could get better if I shut down the vm's first.

Really pleased with the result, although I had to buy another adapter card for the 960. 

Regards

Mike

[MtothaJ]

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@Silverlocks wrote:

Current benchmarks using Samsung Magician  test are 

Read 2566

Write 717

Random IOPS

Read 98765

Write 15175.

Probably could get better if I shut down the vm's first.

Really pleased with the result, although I had to buy another adapter card for the 960. 

Regards

Mike

---

Do you have the latest Samsung v2.2 NVMe drivers installed? You can check in Magician, it should say either 'Microsoft' or 'Samsung'.