hp z820 pcie x4 adapter concerns

[mohammed-essam]

greetings,

I am interested in using an m.2 NVMe SSD via a PCIe x4 adapter, but I heard that is not possible to use as my boot drive, is that true? and is there any workarounds regarding this issue?

I'm using a Z820 workstation, my motherboard is 158B.

thank you in advance

[DGroves]

the z820 CANNOT boot from any currently available NVME device, as the bios lacks the necessary nvme boot code

(there were some ssd's like the intel 720 and the samsung 950 pro that included the necessary boot code)

you can however use a nvme device as a data drive (non booting) under windows 8.1/10  (and win 7 x64 with a hotfix)

the z80 can natively only boot from a SATA or a PCIE-E device using the AHCI protocol

there is a way however to preload the missing nvme code on a z820 to allow a nvme drive to boot

google for " winraid DUET + REFIND" and download the 2015 and the 2017 versions for my z800 i had to use the 2015 release

you will need a 16gb usb key to place the MS win 10 x64 (UEFI Version) install files on

and a 256mb/2gb usb key to install the duet/refind loader files on

last, the z820 requires the BOOT FROM USB option enabled, and set as the first bootable device

full details are on the win raid website or with the boot loader program