Simplified Installation of M.2 NVMe Drives on HP z420, z620, z820

[LevelsAndMaps]

glad to be of service ^_^

what are your read / write speeds?

[rchris4941]

has anyone gotten a samsung 970 pro to work on their hp z420 as a bootable hard drive? i am running bios 3.94. i tried the bios modding but i still do not see the drive in the bios order for booting. a modded working bios would be nice but really i would be okay with any method of getting the drive to boot as an os drive.

[DGroves]

as far as i know these HP workstations use a checksumed bios which prevents any modded bios from being installed, the checksum appon detecting the modded bios, simply reports  a bios update sucess message even though nothing was actually written

also some HP bios's can not even be extracted due to their unique structure, all known tools to extract the bios fail

since this workstation line does not have the nessary nvme boot code in their bios's the only options to run nvme ssd's are the samsung M.2 950 pro, the intel 750 pci-e card . both of these ssd's have the missing nvme oprom code in their bios

the second option is to try using a UEFI based loader program that has the nvme ssd boot code and boot this code off a USB key

https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-without-modding-your-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootload...

https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-for-systems-with-legacy-BIOS-and-older-UEFI-DUET-R...

[LevelsAndMaps]

Spot on DGroves!

I created a new topic on how to boot Windows from NVMe with USB stick
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Booting-Windows-fr...

Awesome load speeds, I'm now thinking of upgrading to 1GB Samsung 😄

[LevelsAndMaps]

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@DGroves

the second option is to try using a UEFI based loader program that has the nvme ssd boot code and boot this code off a USB key

https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-without-modding-your-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootload...

https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-for-systems-with-legacy-BIOS-and-older-UEFI-DUET-R...

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I remember trying these 2017 EFI links and it didn't work on the Z620... it hanged after loading the NVMe drivers...

Maybe I had incompatible drivers (ex: not for 2017-based UEFI version) or I was messing something up.

[rchris4941]

so after trial an error for about 3 days i have finally figured out how to get the 970 pro m.2 pcie drive to work on windows 10. i have the drive set in slot PCIE slot 5.

1. install UEFI DUET Installer on a usb drive (8gb or more). follow all steps
2. copy NvmExpressDxe.efi and NvmExpressDxe-64.efi to the (usb drive letter):\EFI\Boot\drivers
3. repeat setups 1 & 2 for a 2nd usb drive
4. get an iso of windows 10. i used windows 10 enterprise
5. mount the windows 10 image and copy all of the files to the UEFI DUET usb. it will prompt to replace a file. say yes
6. set your bios to boot from UEFI in boot order options.
7. insert usb drive with UEFI DUET Installer & windows 10. boot the computer and hit F9 for boot menu options. here you should see the UEFI usb drive under UEFI bootable device. if not you didn't enable it in the bios. select the UEFI usb and boot from it. using this method will allow windows to properly partition the drive and allow you to install to it without the windows warning telling you that you can not boot from this drive or install to it.
8. follow windows install instructions.
9. when it prompts for the very first reboot. take out the UEFI DUET Installer & windows 10 usb and replace it with just the UEFI DUET Installer (the 2nd usb drive you made). if you set the bios to boot first from UEFI you wont need to make any modifications in the bios boot order. if you didnt set it right just do F9 and select the usb drive again.
10. it will reboot several times just make sure you have your bios set correctly to boot from EUFI first. after several reboots it will complete the install of windows 10

[rchris4941]

BIOS Settings

[Spyder30]

Hi Rchris4942,

Thanks for your clear instructions... but I still have a problem detecting my SSD 970Pro by the Duet boot drive... Can you post your EFI folder and/or your .efi drivers (x86 & x64).

Regards,

David

[LevelsAndMaps]

You will be able to boot OS from NVME (I'm using 970EVO) using the full UEFI 2015 build.

Steps required:
1. Get the UEFI 2015 build
2. Add the NVME Drivers to it (I made a folder named EFI\Drivers) and renamed the file to a shorter name - Nvm.efi
3. Customize your startup.nsh script to load the drivers and boot the OS (see below)
4. Put the cooked EFI on a bootable stick, which will always stay in the machine (I use a 512Mb one, really old 😛 )
5. Modify BIOS so it boots from USB

How I customize startup.nsh with the script:

echo step1
connect -r
set -v efishellmode 1.1.2
map -u
echo step 2
load fs0:\EFI\Drivers\Nvm.efi
echo step2
map -u
echo step3
fs1:\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

where fs0 = bootable stick
fs1 = Samsung 970 Evo 😉

Or, if you're in a rush:
Here's the final EFI build (you might need to change the fs** numbers, based on what you have going on in your machine)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1muN3k_eXJ2PcZfDWtWEmpG0ga-nUVNxv?usp=sharing

Tested on:
Z620 + 970Evo
z420 + XPG SX8200 (by Hmseb)

My numbers (z620 + 970EVO)

Regards,
LevelsAndMaps

[rchris4941]

here is the full content of my duet uefi drive

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0b6vb8hinuzuna/EfiLdr20.rar?dl=0

note the drivers are located here X:\EFI\Boot\drivers just copy those two into the same location of the eufi drive you made and then copy the full content of windows iso image to that same eufi drive to do an install. then the 2nd usb uefi drive is only need to boot off of once the install of windows is completed. this drive will remain in at all times going forward.