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HP Recommended

as i have previously stated the z820 is a UEFI enabled bios, for those who are curious the uefi revision is v2.3.1

 

i spent some time trying again to get a intel 750 series pci-e ssd to boot from a z820 without success

 

and again reviewed the intel documentation for this device

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000006027/memory-and-storage/legacy-client-...

 

in the docs was this section: (i added the pci-2 2.0 note)

 

What are the hardware requirements for using the Intel® SSD 750 Series as a boot drive?

The required configuration is:

  • UEFI 2.3.1 system BIOS with NVMe support (check you have UEFI boot enabled, CSM enabled)
  • GPT* drive format
  • PCIe 3.0 (for performance) <--------but will work at reduced speed on pcie 2.0
  • A system based on the Intel® Z97 Chipset, Intel® X99 Chipset, or newer chipset

the failure that causes the intel 750 ssd to not boot is because the z820 does not have the necessary nvme boot code in it's bios

 

and currently the micron P9200/9300 series ssd's are way too expensive to be considered for home/hobbyist use

 

as for booting the later DC p3xxx ssd models i will not make a comment on their booting/not booting since i have not actually tried them.

 

i will however point you to the intel documentation on these models and ask that you read section 2 which covers the requirements to boot from these ssd's

 

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/memory-and-storage/enthusiast-ssds/PCIe-NV...

 

HP Recommended

I guess you also tried the 750 with CSM disabled ? ...and Windows 10?

The P3700 only works with the Mass Storage Option ROMs set to EFI (not legacy)  - I think this is the only relevant setting, although I have AMT and Boot and Wake on LAN disabled.

 

Also probably best not to use and slots attached to the C602 controller (PCIe slots 5 or 7), as these will depend on the C602 driver.

 

The EFI HDD Boot order then shows 'Windows boot manager' at the top of the list

 

I had seen that 2020 intel guide to NVM before, but seems more relevant to newer machines with mouse-operated EFI BIOS.

 

The P3700 was the first drive that I tried and I bought it based on report that the 750 works, as it's of the same lineage, if not family. The Kingston drive that I subsequently tried on the same settings, didn't work.

 

My P3700 is installed in Slot-1 and in HP Performance Advisor, it is reported as a 'Intel (R) Solid-State Drive P3700/P3600/P3500/750 series'. Note the 750 is in the same list.

 

Also see this:

https://support.hp.com/sg-en/document/c03465686

 

'...The Zx20 firmware is capable of booting in UEFI mode by enabling the storage controller’s EFI driver in Computer Setup. These instructions assume that you are starting from a blank disk drive, or single- or a multiple-drive RAID volume, or one that contains a BIOS-based operating system (OS). To simplify the installation, you should unplug all disk drives except for the one you intend to use to install Windows. Note that installing from an optical drive connected to the Intel C602 SCU controller is not supported...

.Z820 BIOS settings (as displayed in HP Advisor)Z820 BIOS settings (as displayed in HP Advisor)

 

 

It is probably important to set the machine to EFI mode BEFORE trying to install Windows on the drive to ensure windows creates a GPT partition and not an MBR one, which will then not boot.

 

 

HP Recommended

Regards the Intel 750 booting in a Z820, there are plenty of posts similar to this (Win7,  in this case, requiring OS NVMe driver to be added)):

 

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/NVMe-PCIe-SSD-boot-support-in-Z820/td-p/505...

 

"....I can confirm that it boots.

 

It was a bit tricky though. Couple of things to remember ,

  • even the DVD-ROM has to be in the EFI Mode.
  • The flashdrive with the NVME driver has to be in the USB 2.0 slot.

I am very happy with the Intel 750 PCIE 400GB SSD. I have never seen Windows 7 so snappy.

 

Message me if you need further information.

 

HP Recommended

hmmmm. the original HP optical failed and was replaced with a 3rd party one.

 

i'll try to dig up a HP model, or simply remove the optical when i get time to look at this again

 

i have seen some 3rd party optical drives cause weird things over the years, but it a very uncommon occurrence

HP Recommended

I think the comment on the optical drive may only be relevant if trying to Install windows from the same (to ensure that it remains usable in EFI mode). I think if you use Windows Media Creator to set up an 8GB (min) USB pen drive as the installation medium, then the CD-ROM should be irrelevant.

 

The key is to have the BIOS Mass Storage set to EFI mode, as far as I can gather.

 

I have done a bit of reading on OpROMS and it seems that the BIOS requires the the basic UEFI foundation, but the PCI bus is then scanned to find and load OpROMS from any hardware installed on the bus. I am coming to the conclusion that the updated BIOS revison may be UEFI 2.3.1 compliant (secure-boot and other features), but may not necessarily include generic NVMe drivers, which it expects to load from the actual NVMe drive as an OpROM.  Therefore, an expensive enterprise drive might include this OpROM firmware, whereas a cheaper, M2-type, consumer NVMe probably doesn't and the BIOS on newer systems may have have generic drivers within the BIOS, so they will work.

 

relevant articles:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2899351/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nvme.html

https://blog.westerndigital.com/nvme-important-data-driven-businesses/

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_ROM

 

'...The PCI spec allows multiple option ROM images on the same device. These option ROMs could be Legacy x86 & UEFI. If the Option ROM format is set to "UEFI Compatible" in the UEFI Setup, the DXE stage will load the newer UEFI Option ROM if one is present and the legacy Option ROM if one is not. UEFI can use legacy option ROMs when a Compatibility Support Module (CSM) is enabled. Note that when Secure Boot is enabled, execution of the Compatibility Support Module and legacy Option ROMs is prohibited because legacy firmware drivers do not support authentication, which is a security threat.[4]

 

 

https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-support-for-all-Systems-with-an-AMI-UEFI...

 

'...NVMe already works on all systems with PCIe for extra storage, but on our legacy BIOS in order to boot to it you need it in the BIOS, just like AHCI is in the BIOS. Intel's bootable NVMe 750 SSD is bootable just like any other storage device, the only difference is it uses NVMe instead of AHCI or RAID to do the communication. If you replace the AHCI OROM with a NVMe OROM, then you just select NVMe in the BIOS instead of AHCI. Then install as the OS usual. Windows and Linux already have the drivers for NVMe built in, just like they have drivers for AHCI. The OS will see the device instantly. All we need is the NVMe orom bits placed in our BIOS files.

Intel already confirmed all of this Fernando, NVMe is compatible with legacy BIOS and its bootable. Its now up to the manufacturers to write the NVMe oroms for our bios (which wont be done), or have 3rd parties figure out how to include it, like was done with the Intel OROMs which were also not made for our aging systems. It shouldn't be that difficult to figure out.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1003397-use-nvme-on-boards-that-does-not-have-native-support/

 

'...Currently as my best knowledge, the following models of NVMe drives has a built-in BIOS Option ROM, allowing any machine to boot from that NVMe drive if 1) they have a PCIe slot and 2) they allow execution of Option ROM in BIOS CSM.

  • Intel SSD 750 series
  • Samsung 950 Pro

Those are the first ever NVMe drives of their respective manufacturers, and almost anything subsequent to them lacked that Option ROM.

 

Seems there is confusion as to whether the Intel 750 contains a Legacy OpROM or an EFI OpROM, or both. If the 750 contains an EFI OpROM, then probably you want CMS disabled if the BIOS is set to EFI mode?

 

HP Recommended

reading your links,.... and i also tend to agree with your observations on the OPROM/NVME Driver sequence as it explains why the z820 will boot from some enterprise pci-e based nvme ssd's even though the z820 bios lacks the necessary nvme code which users of a few retail intel  x58/x79 based boards with unprotected bios's  are able to add the missing nvme code to their bios's

 

BTW, many of these enterprise ssd's consume  large chunks of option rom space. depending on your installed cards you may get a out of option rom space message on boot. disabling the LSI SAS/SATA  controllers rom will usually fix this and as a bonus allow the system to boot faster, and the OS will still see attached drives as only the controllers BOOTING feature fas been disabled (same for the onboard Network Boot roms)

HP Recommended

the seagate nytro warpdrive and the OCZ RevoDrive x3 PCI-E ssd's are bootable on both the Z800 and the z820  i've personally tested/used these two ssd models 

 

the z800 is a non UEFI based bios, and these SSD's  seem to use something similar to the 950 pro's method of booting as it also will boot on the z800 which is a non UEFI bios

 

the apple SSUAX/SSUBX based ssd's which are AHCI based controllers will also boot on the z820

(but not the z800 for some reason)

 

the intel 750 series, per the documentation requires a UEFI enabled bios so the z800 is unable to boot from it

 

HP Recommended

Interesting information. I was thinking to add an HP SAS controller with the 2GB cache to my Z820 (these are now cheap on eBay as well as used SAS 7200 rpm drives) for bulk storage. I hope this won't case the drive to over-fill the OpROM space.

 

One thing might be to ensure that the NVMe drive has the latest Firmware. You can check and update (for Intel drives) with the freely available 'Intel Memory and Storage Tool'. My drive works without the latest firmware, but I am thinking if it ain't broke don't fix it  in case the current compatibility is lost. However, if the drive is currently not recognised for booting, updating its Firmware can't hurt.

 

When looking at the DRIVE DETAILS in the management tool, one can see an entry for BOOTLOADER REVISION

 

 

HP Recommended

I have checked the Intel site for Firmware revisions and it seems that the Intel 750 and the P3x00 series of drives share the same main Firmware and even the same Bootloader Firmware. The Bootloader Firmware remains the same version number as I currently have on my drive, but I see that I am not up to date on the main firmware. It might be worth checking your 750 drive has the 8B1B0133 boot loader, which works on my drive.

 

Intel 750 FirmwareIntel 750 FirmwareIntel P3x00 FirmwareIntel P3x00 Firmware

HP Recommended

rather than the HP SAS card(s) i recommend using a adaptec 7xxxx/8xxxx series card as they support native JBOD and Raid at the same time and do not use batteries, they use a super capacitor

 

most of the HP enterprise raid cards can not have their firmware updated unless it's in the original server due to how the firmware updater checks for required hardware/software defaults, this does not apply to the rebadged LSI raid cards only the HP specific server raid cards

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.