Windows 10 won't boot from nvme

I installed windows 10 on a Western digital black SN750 NVMe drive. It installed successfully and was partitioned. I installed windows via DVD. BIOS created a boot option for the NVMe. However, despite all this, windows will not boot without the optical drive connected. It will boot if I remove it from boot order and change the secure boot to 'other OS'. It seems to have something to do with the drive being physically connected. I even booted it with the DVD removed from the drive once. I'm assuming I need to somehow set the NVMe as the uefi, but I've tried every combination in BIOS and am at a lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My fellow members might want to know what the motherboard is.

More than likely you booted from the DVD in legacy BIOS mode. This caused Windows 10 to be installed onto the NVMe drive in legacy BIOS mode. NVMe drives require UEFI mode to boot from. I would recommend you create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive instead of DVD, boot from the flash drive in UEFI mode, reinstall Windows to the NVMe SSD.

Right-click on the Start button --> Windows PowerShell (Admin).
Run the following command to see whether it is UEFI or Legacy.

CMD /C "BCDEdit|Find ""path"""

Okay, I will try this.

The mobo is an Asus ROG strix b550i

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums

Did you do a clean Win 10 install or did you cloned a drive to it? Is it a 64 bits version?
Did you detach all the other drives before the installation?
What version did you install? New versions only fit on a DL DVD.

On BIOS, disable fast boot and secure boot (you can turn it on after installation)

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

As you have a new MB, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F8(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name).

You can also use a DVD. Launch the boot menu and select UEFI option.

Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the SSD till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.
If you don't want to use MS account, don't enable updates or connect to the internet during installation.

NavyLCDR said:

More than likely you booted from the DVD in legacy BIOS mode. This caused Windows 10 to be installed onto the NVMe drive in legacy BIOS mode. NVMe drives require UEFI mode to boot from. I would recommend you create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive instead of DVD, boot from the flash drive in UEFI mode, reinstall Windows to the NVMe SSD.

I'm completely in agreement with this. I just experienced this recently where I installed from a USB key that was showing up in the F10 boot menu as a legacy device and it installed on my SSD as an MBR versus GPT.

I reinstalled the OS, ensuring that I selected the UEFI option for the USB key and it installed correctly and was fine thereafter.

Under the boot tab, it lists boot option 1 as Windows Boot Manager (M.2_1: WDS 100T3X0C_00SJG0)(1000.2GB)

Followed by

UEFI: ASUS BC-12B1ST b(4.0GB)

So it's recognizing the drive as UEFI instead of the NVMe. Still unclear if I can set NVMe as UEFI when using the DVD. My friend has a flash drive but is unavailable tonight. So I'll try to use the disk in the meantime. I'll delete the partitions and see about any option to change NVMe to UEFI mode.

- - - Updated - - -

Entered the command line exactly as written in PowerShell, but no response

- - - Updated - - -

System specs:
Windows 10 64bit Build date: 05/22/16
AMD Ryzen 7 3800x
ASUS rog strix b550i
Crucial ballistix 32gb GDDR4 - 3200
Radeon RX 6700 XT
WD_Black SN750 1TB NVMe
Rosewill Hive 1000S
ASUS BC - 12B1ST optical drive

- - - Updated - - -

If I disable the Asus drive under boot tab, windows will boot normally, but if I unplug it, it will remain a blank screen when attempting to boot from the NVMe. If I boot from the drive, it gives me the option to reinstall windows. If I reinstall windows, it will probably keep the optical drive as the UEFI like it did originally. I can't disconnect the drive obviously, because then I can't run the CD.

What I meant was, I need to boot from the UEFI optical drive in order to reinstall windows, which of course puts it in the boot order.

Yes, you can use the DVD, as long as you use the Boot menu to choose the UEFI - DVD