UEFI setting to boot from NVMe

[gospelmidi]

This system dates from 2012, I think.  Its UEFI menu may not have a setting with which to choose to boot from the NVMe M.2 SSD card.  If it does, where is it?

I inserted a card adapter with a 125 GB M.2 card in the PCIe x16 slot.  I installed Windows 10 from USB on the HDD (C:).  I was also able to install Windows 10 from USB on the M.2 card (E:), but I can't boot from it.

It takes up to 58 seconds to boot from the HDD.  I'd like to get some of those ~ 3 second boot times I've heard touted by NVMe users.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings gospelmidi,

Welcome back to the forum.

I am not an HP employee.

Sorry to tell you this but your PC (motherboard/chipset) does not support a UEFI BIOS. Nor does it support booting from any PCIe slot on the motherboard. You may be able use the M.2 NVME PCIe 3x4 device attached to the PCIe adapter as a data drive. Is the 125 GB card PCIe or SATA? 

There are no BIOS updates for your PC at this site. You are running W10 but HP only provides driver updates for W7.

The best you can do as far as improving boot time and system responsiveness is to upgrade to, and install W10 on, a 2.5 inch SATA SSD.

Regards

[gospelmidi]

Thank you for your reply, Grzwacz.

"your mobo/chipset does not support UEFI."

Well, the setup menu seems to reference it in a number of places, and the boot order menu distinguishes between legacy and whatever non-legacy devices might boot the PC (except for a PCIe card bearing an M.2 NVMe card).

I have considered editing the Windows Boot Manager (BCD?) file to point to the NVMe SSD.

"is the 125 GB card PCIe or SATA?"

PCIe, I suppose.  It is a MyDigitalSSD SBX Single Sided 80mm (2280) M.2 PCIe Gen3 x2 NVMe SSD (128GB) https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GY7R3D

It is mounted on a Mailiya M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N78XZCH

"install [Windows] on a 2.5 inch SATA SSD."

Yes, that's what I have used for a few years now, but I had hoped ;^( that I could boot more quickly from an M.2 NVMe PCIe card.  I have so far wasted a hundred times the amount of time I could ever save with a faster boot.

Yes, I can use the NVMe SSD as a data drive, but I'd rather thinker with the environment variables so as to switch the NVMe to be the root or OS drive after booting from my pre-existing SSD or the stock HDD in the HP 3405.  Hey, it's just $60; I guess I can bill that expense to "Experience".

And yes, there are no W10 drivers; W10 doesn't need additional drivers.  But the W7 drivers do work for W8 x64.  Once I get Windows 8 updated to Windows 8.1 and up to date, I hope to transfer that to the NVMe drive as my OS (not boot) drive.  I just don't want to access the Internet with W10; I don't know what I'm doing in W10, and I already have enough security breaches for one lifetime.

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

Please check your PC's specifications at this HP Support site.

Please check the available HP Vision Diagnostic update available for your pC.

The spec site indicates your PC does not support booting from an M.2 drive.

The diagnostic link indicates your PC does not have a UEFI BIOS.

Send some images of your BIOS which show UEFI options.

Regards