Downloaded MSI BIOS Missing Installer

I have 2 PC's: MSI Z77 Mpower & Z97 and the keys for those are the same. Your MB Manual also indicates that F11 is one time boot, DEL is to access the BIOS.

1. Unlike other MB's. MSI has an option either UEFI or UEFI+Legacy from boot option. Click on it or <ENTER>, you should have a popup to set it to UEFI+Legacy
2. How did you reset the CMOS ? did you reset while Windows is running ? If so you might have bricked the BIOS.
3. I also have the m.2 SSD connected to a PCIeX and did not have to set to RAID to install Windows, just ACHI.
4. Make sure you set USB Option in BIOS to support Legacy. Also try another USB stick and connect to USB2 port.

Unlike other MB's. MSI has an option either UEFI or UEFI+Legacy from boot option. Click on it or <ENTER>, you should have a popup to set it to UEFI+LegacyNo legacy support, I've check & tried.

How did you reset the CMOS ? did you reset while Windows is running ? If so you might have bricked the BIOS.
I have a BIOS reset button under my Power button, it shuts down the system then resets CMOS then boots into BIOS.

I also have the m.2 SSD connected to a PCIeX and did not have to set to RAID to install Windows, just ACHI.
I have an M.2 slot, so a clean install is a bit trickier to get WinPE to see the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, even BIOS doesn't have a listing for it under the disks until you set it to RAID first. It communicates with Windows SCSI


Make sure you set USB Option in BIOS to support Legacy. Also try another USB stick and connect to USB2 port.
You cannot change my BIOS to Legacy, it is UEFI only, And I have tried a few USB sticks and different ports, USB2, USB3, USB3.1gen 2.
Thanks though.
The USB shows up, in M-Flash, just not the BIOS file. If I create a folder and place the file in it, the folder shows, but when you click it to open, it looks empty. So the USB is read, just not the .AD0(in this case) file.

Also as I said above, I found the boot override, but then the USB drive does not show, just my boot drive and go to setup(BIOS).

Cliff S said:

Unlike other MB's. MSI has an option either UEFI or UEFI+Legacy from boot option. Click on it or <ENTER>, you should have a popup to set it to UEFI+LegacyNo legacy support, I've check & tried.

How did you reset the CMOS ? did you reset while Windows is running ? If so you might have bricked the BIOS.
I have a BIOS reset button under my Power button, it shuts down the system then resets CMOS then boots into BIOS.

I also have the m.2 SSD connected to a PCIeX and did not have to set to RAID to install Windows, just ACHI.
I have an M.2 slot, so a clean install is a bit trickier to get WinPE to see the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, even BIOS doesn't have a listing for it under the disks until you set it to RAID first. It communicates with Windows SCSI


Make sure you set USB Option in BIOS to support Legacy. Also try another USB stick and connect to USB2 port.
You cannot change my BIOS to Legacy, it is UEFI only, And I have tried a few USB sticks and different ports, USB2, USB3, USB3.1gen 2.
Thanks though.
The USB shows up, in M-Flash, just not the BIOS file. If I create a folder and place the file in it, the folder shows, but when you click it to open, it looks empty. So the USB is read, just not the .AD0(in this case) file.

Also as I said above, I found the boot override, but then the USB drive does not show, just my boot drive and go to setup(BIOS).

Cliff, under Boot options, page 48 of your MB manual shows Legacy+UEFI



If you have W8/10 features enabled in your BIOS, turn that off so it will show

Dude said:

Cliff, under Boot options, page 48 of your MB manual shows Legacy+UEFI



If you have W8/10 features enabled in your BIOS, turn that off so it will show

That was it @Dude!!!

I was able to boot into F11 boot override, and run the BIOS flash from my USB stick, now I an updated to AD0.


I have spent the last half hour re-setting my BIOS, found out my saved OC profiles are no good any more as they are for the prior BIOS version, so had to recreate and test them too.
Now I am up and running though, one funny thing, MSI Live Update 6 now finds the .AD0 BIOS as an update after I installed it. I think that piece of crap, will have to go. I can always check out MSI once a month, and the programs I wan installed, will tell me if there is an update anyhow when I check using "Info".

You should make a step for step tutorial & video on updating MSI BIOS in this section

In case anyone is interested, this is why I wanted the BIOS update to get M2 Genie:

Glad you are good now Cliff

Hi Cliff S, Glad to hear you got your issue resolved. Anyway I was curious about this statement...

Cliff S said:

M.2s need to be set to RAID to install Windows, then later switched to AHCI, or you clean install on another disk, then then install the M.2 and reimage to it.

Maybe it's motherboard/vendor specific, but on my Gigabyte Z170X motherboard (GA-Z170X-Gaming GT), I simply installed my Samsung 950 Pro into the M.2 slot, had the BIOS set to AHCI, had no other drives connected, and did a Windows 10 clean install. That’s it. Didn’t have to toggle back from RAID to AHCI. Nor did I have to reimage the drive to another drive. A simple clean install of Windows 10 Pro x64 on the installed M.2 drive under AHCI, that's it.

Was curious why you did what you did?

sygnus21 said:

Hi Cliff S, Glad to hear you got your issue resolved. Anyway I was curious about this statement...


Maybe it's motherboard/vendor specific, but on my Gigabyte Z170X motherboard (GA-Z170X-Gaming GT), I simply installed my Samsung 950 Pro into the M.2 slot, had the BIOS set to AHCI, had no other drives connected, and did a Windows 10 clean install. That’s it. Didn’t have to toggle back from RAID to AHCI. Nor did I have to reimage the drive to another drive. A simple clean install of Windows 10 Pro x64 on the installed M.2 drive under AHCI, that's it.

Was curious why you did what you did?

NVMe running SCSI?
RAID is turned on so IRST can see it in BIOS.
(and inside of Windows)
When AHCI is turned on, you can't see the disk in BIOS.
NOTE: If you switch to RAID after you have set up Windows with your Samsung NVMe driver, the driver will be uninstalled, but the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD will run just as fast, just using the RAID controller(even though you don't build a RAID just turn it on.
Here is my IRST inside of Windows, AHCI mode turned on, it only shows my two 2.5" SSDs and the one HDD, but not my M.2:

Cliff S said:

NVMe running SCSI? - Not sure what you mean here, but it's running as a standard NVMe drive installed on an m.2 slot.
RAID is turned on so IRST can see it in BIOS (and inside of Windows). - Why do you need to see it is BIOS??? Mine isn't shown per se, but it if it wasn't there, you couldn't boot to it. Speaking of booting, it's listed as Windows Boot Manager for booting purposes...



And I do have the BIOS (UEFI) set to AHCI mode...



When AHCI is turned on, you can't see the disk in BIOS. - True, but see above.

NOTE: If you switch to RAID after you have set up Windows with your Samsung NVMe driver, the driver will be uninstalled, but the M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD will run just as fast, just using the RAID controller(even though you don't build a RAID just turn it on. - I've never tested this so I can't say. I've also not seen an data showing this for a single drive.

Here is my IRST inside of Windows, AHCI mode turned on, it only shows my two 2.5" SSDs and the one HDD, but not my M.2:


The current versions of Intel Rapid Storage Technology, even up to IRST 15.0.0.1039 can’t see NVMe drives. Why, I’m not sure, but it could be because it doesn’t use a SATA port. Regardless, the bottom line is current versions of IRST can’t see them. So that’s non-issue in this discussion. Anyway mine isn't shown either. BUT it is shown in Windows Disk Management...

Disk 3 is the Samsung 950 Pro NVME drive. Disk 1 is my Samsung 850 Pro SSD drive. Again, this is with AHCI enabled.

At any rate I was just curious about your comment about having to use RAID to install Windows. I didn't and things have been working fine since day I built the system.

Thanks.