M.2 Boot Help

Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Have an MSI Gaming 3 Z97 mobo (fairly basic board, but decent enough)

I have a Toshiba XG3 M.2 I pulled from another rig that I wanted to install into this board and, ideally, use it as a boot drive.

I wouldn't be using any other devices in the rig as far as storage...so the 6 or so sata ports will all be unoccupied.

--fast forward to today--

I installed windows on the M.2, as normal and checked in BIOS ,,its on ACHI mode but I don't see any M.2 mode or anything that would make sense to toggle to.

When I arttemt to boot it gives me 'install boot media..operating system..etc etc' along those lines.

So I'm wondering, is this board probably just too basic to support M.2 booting?

Is it a BIOS limitation? (Using most current already)

Or is there something I may be missing that someone here could enlighten me on?

One thing, if it matter?? is that this XG3 is an NVME gen3 capable drive and the slot on mobo is only a gen2 slot) Would this be reason for a boot issue?

Thanks
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
Laquer Head said:
but I don't see any M.2 mode or anything that would make sense to toggle to.
Click to expand...
What other options are available? Was the boot mode changed after installing Windows 10?

Laquer Head said:
When I arttemt to boot it gives me 'install boot media..operating system..etc etc' along those lines.
Click to expand...
Did you check which boot device is being used?

Laquer Head said:
So I'm wondering, is this board probably just too basic to support M.2 booting?
Click to expand...
It should support nvme.
Laquer Head said:
Is it a BIOS limitation? (Using most current already)
Click to expand...
Unlikely.
Laquer Head said:
is that this XG3 is an NVME gen3 capable drive and the slot on mobo is only a gen2 slot) Would this be reason for a boot issue?
Click to expand...
It shouldn't, it'll just run slower than what its capable of.
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
There is IDE mode, AHCI mode, RAID mode.. I was running 2 drives in RAID a long time ago on it, so then it was RAID mode.. but I changed it.

The BIOS for this board seems stripped down..but kinda expected as it was entry point in those boards lineup..

I know the board works, the cpu works, ram, and the m.2 device..I've tried them all on other rigs..

The M.2 worked as a boot drive in my MSI laptop prior, and it was briefly used as a regular storage device before I got this plan to try to make it the boot drive.

I got windows all loaded up on the drive but I'm clearly missing a step.. provided it can be done!
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
I know this video is for an Asus board, but you might have something similar on your MSI board.

Go to 3:46
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
So when you were installing Windows, it recognized the device? But when the installation's finished, it couldn't find the boot device?

Is your toshiba drive recognized in the BIOS at all?
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Intel_man said:
So when you were installing Windows, it recognized the device? But when the installation's finished, it couldn't find the boot device?

Is your toshiba drive recognized in the BIOS at all?
Click to expand...

Exactly..

and it doesn't appear as anything obvious.. this BIOS is kinda shit.
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
That's kinda odd...

You might want to dig around the MSI forums, or contact their support for any answers.


Did you unplug all the other drives in your computer and just have your m.2 in there?
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Intel_man said:
That's kinda odd...

You might want to dig around the MSI forums, or contact their support for any answers.


Did you unplug all the other drives in your computer and just have your m.2 in there?
Click to expand...

I didn't... but I'm getting a feeling this board just can't boot from M.2 ...The BIOS just doesn't have much for options.
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
The M.2 drive I have is a unit that is usually shipped with oem devices...in my case it was stock in my msi laptop.

I wonder if I need some sort of driver/software to make it viewable? I dont even know if that makes sense
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
I reconnected a RAID volume to the pc and the m.2 doesnt show in device mgr. forget what i had to do last time..

I'm also looking for firmware upgrade..maybe if Toshiba has one
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
Did you plug into sata port 0 & 1? Usually 2 Sata ports get disabled when using m.2... Or the m.2 won't work if the ports are used.
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Hmmm.. so where do I get this revision??? E7918IMS.260 It appears to be the revision that deals with NVME

Mine is most current on MSI site that I saw though...

11b77a555f37e1be216ebf4e1ef69910.jpg
 
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