Cannot boot from NMVe SSD drive

VWEthan · ‎05-20-2017

I have an HP Phoenix 860-160se and attempted to install an NVMe SSD drive (Samsung 960 EVO M.2) into the M.2 slot to make my boot drive. I did a drive image copy using the Samsung utilities to the new drive and attempted to boot off the new NVMe SSD, but this system refuses to recognize the new drive as a bootable drive. Further, the BIOS never shows the drive, but Windows 10 sees it after boot. More system specs:

Product Number: N0X16AV#ABA

System board: 2B3A 1.04

Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X CPU @ 3.00GHz

Steps I've tried:

1. Using the system restore USB drive I created when I received the PC - boots up into a blue screen then the system shuts down completely.

2. Unplugging all other drives from the system.

3. Disabling SATA 0 and 1

4. Disable Secure Boot

5. Disable Fast Boot

Nothing seems to help. Does this board have the ability to boot off the NVMe drive?

Grzwacz · ‎05-20-2017

Hi VWEthan

Your motherboard has an Intel X99 chipset. This board supports using the M.2 Key M slot as a bootable device.

Some M.2 slots can only run in SATA mode. This is where you would disable SATA0 to enable the M.2 slot. Some M.2 slots can run in SATA and PCIe 3x4 mode.

The Samsung 960 is PCIe mode only.

HP would have to code the BIOS so the motherboard can boot to the 960.

Please see this article on various configurations.

Not seeing the 960 in the boot menu may not be a good sign unless there is a Storage Device, Slot, or Security setting in the BIOS.

I would contact HP to verify or maybe someone in the forum has a better answer. Did notice there is no option to order your PC with a PCIe 3x4 M.2 drive at purchase.

Grzy