Z620 boot from SSD

[Alistair80]

Hi all,

Looking to get some help with getting my Z620 to boot from SSD. The system originally came with a 3TB HDD in one of the three drive drawers, I opted to buy a caddy / adapter that goes into the spare 5.25 inch slot and attempted to move the SATA cables from the existing DVD to the SSD.

Now when I'm in BIOS the SSD can be seen in drive configuration but it's not there at all in the boot order menu. I've tried AHCI and IDE modes but no luck, the SSD works in another system so don't think that's the issue.

My BIOS is on J61 v3.96 so assume that's fairly recent, if someone can please help as baffled now as to what the issue could be.

Thanks 

[BeemerBiker]

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@Alistair80 wrote:

Hi all,

Looking to get some help with getting my Z620 to boot from SSD. The system originally came with a 3TB HDD in one of the three drive drawers, I opted to buy a caddy / adapter that goes into the spare 5.25 inch slot and attempted to move the SATA cables from the existing DVD to the SSD.

Now when I'm in BIOS the SSD can be seen in drive configuration but it's not there at all in the boot order menu.

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You have the latest bios and what you did above is correct.  The latest bios support 10 and I assume it has the secure boot option.

I assume you have have a 2.5"  SSD like this and not an enclosure / adapter with an M.2 drive inside it.

The following is what I would do to Install Windows 10.  Make sure the 3TB is not connected and ...

Using an 8gb flash drive install windows 10 professional using the installation media tool.  You will download the tool, run it and create the install on that flash drive.

I do not have a Z620 so am guessing on what the BIOS options are.  You may have to take a picture of the bios settings and post them for me to see if the following does not work.  I was unable to find a bios simulator for the z620.

Select secure boot and "windows boot manager" or "OS boot manager"  and enable TPM 1.2  and AHCI or raid) but NOT ide.  I assume that was the setup for the 3TB drive.

Put the USB in and power up the Z620.  Press F9 to force the system to boot the USB

If there is no F9 or the USB does not boot then go back into bios and select "legacy boot" and specify sata0 or whatever slot the SSD is in.  You may have to turn off TPM 1.2 to set legacy boot.

Run the windows 10 install, deleting any existing partitions on the SSD and specify GPT

Skip over any request for windows serial or key.

After installation go back into bios and select Secure boot and Windows boot manage if you want secure boot.  TPM 1.2 must be turned on.

There is a discussion here about win 11 running fine on Z620 with TPM 1.2

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-Z620-works-well...

How to do it https://www.howtogeek.com/759925/how-to-install-windows-11-on-an-unsupported-pc/

[SDH]

The Z420/Z620 motherboards are almost identical, and both have only two SATA III type ports. Those are the two gray ones at the bottom front motherboard corner. The one to the far right (most frontward) is SATA port 0 and the second one (towards the rear of the case) is SATA port 1. Plug your SATA data cable into SATA0 port.

The Z620 workstations came with a "drawer" type of drve carriers made for 3.5" drives, but you SSD is a 2.5" form factor. There is a great inexpensive HP adapter to convert a SSD over to exactly the 3.5" form factor and you can buy those for about 10.00 from eBay. Go find this part number: 654540-001

If you have time to wait you can get it cheapest from China, but I'd order it from US seller. Sort price and shipping lowest first and wade through the China sellers. These are made by Foxconn to HP specs and are very high quality. 4 short M3 screws will also be needed and usually are included.

Those drawer bays are made of metal and prewired inside to accept the sliding plastic drawer which carry the adapter/SSD and mesh in perfectly with that adapter is installed. The bay's number is stamped in the metal, there are 3 bays, and you should put your boot drive in the bay stamped "1" because HP has that wired to SATA port 0 by default.

I usually use a Q tip to swab in a very small amount of silicone lubricant in the metal receiver so things slide more easily.

You don't want to run a fast SSD from a wrong/slow port. I have my boot SSD via the drawer to port 0 and my "documents" SSD or 6Gbps HDD plugged into SATA port 1 (via drawer 2). Regarding storage controller settings: Never have it on IDE when you're loading an OS because then you'll get a very limited set of drivers and lose benefit of the faster technology AHCI gives. HP and Intel recommend you have that set to RAID (which actually means RAID + AHCI). That way when you load the OS you'll get all the drivers for all options. That is how BIOS factory settings are. It would not hurt to set it to AHCI only but that's not the advice for reasons I don't fully understand.

I never use RAID but always load OS with BIOS set that way. Always wise to load OS only with the optical drive and the single boot drive attached to the proper gray SATA port 0. Your SSD needs to be formatted before the OS can fully see/use it. I choose MBR partitioning, and do NTFS formatting, long type, because that maps out any bad sectors.

[Alistair80]

Ok so changed the settings to RAID, rebooted and still the same - SSD there in device configuration but not listed under boot options / order. Regardless of formatting and partitions I think the drive should still show in BIOS under both menus.

The SSD is a 2.5 is installed using the the ICY box caddy (ICY BOX IB-5251 3-Way Mounting Frame for 2x 2.5 Inch HDD/SSD and 1x 3.5 Inch HDD in 1x 5.25 Inch Bay...) shown just below the DVD drive.

I've basically disconnected the SATA and power cables from the DVD and reconnected to the SSD. I'm not sure what port the SATA terminates into as it's quite difficult to trace the cabling due to the large plastic covering inside and the cables being tied down.

I suspect I may need to remove the plastic covering (not sure how difficult that will be) and connect the SSD to another SATA port to see if that makes a difference.

[BeemerBiker]

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@Alistair80 wrote:

Ok so changed the settings to RAID, rebooted and still the same - SSD there in device configuration but not listed under boot options / order. Regardless of formatting and partitions I think the drive should still show in BIOS under both menus.

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If the SSD had a Windows OS installed then the boot would mention "WIndows Boot Manager"

If the OS was (or had been Ubuntu) then the BIOS would mention "Ubuntu boot manager"  or at least that is what I have seen on my systems.  Did the USB "restore" drive containing Windows 10 show up when pressings F9?  If you select the USB did you see the LED (if any) on the USB flash as the OS is being read from the USB?  I assume your win10 install from the USB deleted any existing partitions on the SSD and you selected GPT and not MBR during installation.

If the SSD does not have a bootable OS then no mention of windows or ubuntu or anything will show up in boot selection.

[edit] I do not have Z620 and possibly your bios behaves differently than my systems.

[Alistair80]

Did some further testing, through process of elimination by disconnecting the SATA cables one by one I managed to find out that the SSD is connected to the front 3Gbps port. I then moved this to the 6Gbps one and also tried the ports on the bottom but still no luck.

I'm able to see the 90 GB SSD (plan to upgrade later) below 

But it's not available as a boot option...

The SSD already had Ubuntu installed on it. If I use my Ubuntu live USB to boot then I can see the SSD and open it from the desktop.

I've even gone as far as to remove my other Gigabyte 480 GB SSD (Win 10 install) from my main desktop but I still have the same problem - no matter what I do the SSDs are shown in device config but aren't available as a boot devices.

I'm beginning to think that the only option left is to purchase the adapter user SDH mentioned but not really keen on taking the risk...

Is there anything else I could be missing maybe on the BIOS settings? 

[BeemerBiker]

If you are trying to dual boot windows + ubuntu then I cannot help other to recommend a 3rd party boot manager.

The last time I looked into this each OS had to be UEFI or Legacy.

[DGroves]

is the ssd a SATA or NVME drive?

just checked, the ssd in question is a low performance (by todays standards) model here's review of it

https://www.storagereview.com/review/corsair-force-series-3-review

you might want to see if corsair has newer firmware for the drive

https://www.storagereview.com/review/corsair-force-series-3-review

for all readers of this model line workstations:

the zx20 workstations can only boot from a SATA or a AHCI/pci-e drive

nvme drives are not bootable on this line of workstations, but can be used by the OS as a DATA drive

while it is possible to boot from a nvme drive using a uefi loader, doing so has some limitations

[Alistair80]

There is no dual boot. Win 10 is on my Gigabyte SSD which I only used for testing, Ubuntu is on the Corsair SSD. Neither are listed in the boot order but are in device config.

Both of the SSDs are 2.5 not nvme. 

[SDH]

Consider going into BIOS and changing your settings to "Factory Defaults". Save properly on the way out of BIOS>

You pics show you have your 3TB documents HDD plugged into one of the two fast SATA III ports... which is your preferred boot drive's port... SATA0.

You also have your test SSD plugged into a slow SATA II technology port... SATA3

Take a look at this post related to "Z620 cabling", HERE .

Do it this way: