NVMe SSD via PCIe not Booting Windows 10 64 Bit

Hi.

I wish to replace my old HDD with an SSD so have bought an NVMe. It is this one: Seagate 512GB BarraCuda 510 SSD (Up to 3400MB/s, 3D TLC NAND, PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe 1.3 Solid State Drive): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

I have bought an adaptor card to go with it: SupaGeek M.2 SSD to PCIe Express 3.0 x4 Adapter Card, Supports M-Key M2 NGFF NVMe or AHCI SSDs 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230, Upgrades Desktop Solid State Drives: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

This has been fitted into the PCIe 3.0 slot and Windows 10 recognises it with no problems and I can use the drive.

However, I have cloned my HDD onto the new SSD using the Seagate Diskwizard but my PC will not boot from the new drive.

I have changed all available BIOS settings but it's the same error: "no bootable devices found".

Motherboard is this one: GA-H61M-S2PV (rev. 2.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global and I'm using the latest stable BIOS (FH).

Is my BIOS/motherboard too old perhaps?

I did try briefly using a freeware bootloader to no avail. Could this be the way to go if it gets setup properly?

Thanks.

I think that motherboard is socket 1155 and at least 8 years old.

I wouldn't expect it to be compatible with NVMe drives.

I am using a card similar to your SupaGeek without issues----on a much more recent motherboard.

As an experiment, you could try other methods (such as imaging) to transfer your system to the new drive, but I wouldn't expect a different result.

The newest BIOS available is from 2014-----I wouldn't expect that to provide any relief.

Lance1 said:

I think you have the card pluged into the PCIEX1 and your card is PCIEX4. plug it into the PCIEX16 slot and try again.

Hi.

I can confirm it is plugged into the PCIEX16 slot.

otronics said:

(snip)

Is my BIOS/motherboard too old perhaps?

(snip)

I pretty sure that the answer is yes.

Booting from an NVME drive requires BIOS support. I doubt that it's available on any motherboard with an H61 chipset.

You may be able to use a non-NVME M.2 drive that is still PCI-E. I've done that with an old Plextor M.2 drive. (It's just X2, though. Current drives are usually NVME and use 4 lanes.)

A SATA SSD would be the practical option. I see that the motherboard doesn't support 6Gbps SATA, though.

There is a bios update with nvme support for gigabyte B75 which is an lga1155 machine. There are also nvme updated bios for many other mobos of similar vintage, such as H77,Z77,P67 and Z68.

Those mobos can often be picked up quite cheap second hand


Not sure there are any nvme supporting bios for H61 machines.

SIW2 said:

There is a bios update with nvme support for gigabyte B75 which is an lga1155 machine. There are also nvme updated bios for many other mobos of similar vintage, such as H77,Z77,P67 and Z68.

Those mobos can often be picked up quite cheap second hand


Not sure there are any nvme supporting bios for H61 machines.

Are you referring to official support or hacks?

Intel, from 2015: Booting with NVMe* PCI Express*

No mention of chipsets older than Z97 and X99.

The bios I have is apparently made as a result of a customer request to gigabyte. There are some other official ones.

In addition, there are also enthusiast mods, which you seem to imagine are "hacks"

I've tried disabling Secure Boot. No change.

Not keen on getting another motherboard as the current one is still serviceable.

Time to experiment more with a bootloader perhaps?