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Can XPS 8920 boot from M.2 NVMe?
Hi,
I have inserted a Samsung 250GB 960 EVO NVMe M.2 Internal SSD in the M.2 slot of a XPS 8920 (XPS8920-7666BLK ) and then tried to install another win 10 or ubuntu 16.04 on it for dual boot. I was able to install the OS but could not boot with them. I tried many different BIOS/UEFI configurations but none of them allowed me to boot.
My question is whether it is possible to boot from a M.2 NVMe drive? If so, are there posted instructions?
Thanks!
okwon
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May 14th, 2017 06:00
I just went through the same thing with similar hardware. Here was what I found to work. The dell instructions needs to be updated for how to boot from m.2.
This works with the onboard m.2 slot or a card for the pcie x4 slot. Here are some of my other notes for you.
okwon
2 Posts
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June 6th, 2017 05:00
1. I am not sure if the link will come through here, but you need to download from Intel website -> downloadcenter.intel.com/.../Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-
Download the zip file and unzip to a USB
Optional: One of the following F6 Driver Diskettes (depending on your operating system):
f6flpy-x86.zip - For 32-bit versions of the operating system
f6flpy-x64.zip - For 64-bit versions of the operating system
2. Now when using the BIOS SATA option you will be able to load the driver from #1 and see your drive to install the OS.
I have a Samsung 960 Pro as well.
Other notes:
- If you buy a M2 PCIe card these steps will apply for it as well if you want to boot from the drive.
- Do I think this is an issue with Dell's BIOS? Yes, but I found this to work pretty. No issues so far and I am getting full speed from both drives on the motherboard M2 slot and my storage M2 drive using a PCIe card.
- My OS (Windows 10 pro) is currently installed on the motherboard M2 slot.
LittleBear84
26 Posts
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October 22nd, 2017 17:00
Please update BIOS to ver. 1.10. My XPS 8920 can now boot from my Samsung SSD 960 1TB in AHCI mode with BIOS 1.10.
Note that there is no need for a fresh Windows 10 installation. Previously, with BIOS ver. 1.09, I could only boot from SSD 960 in RAID mode. But I wanted to go with AHCI. So I decided to have the SSD 960 as a back up drive, while the system was booted from SSD 850. I just updated to BIOS ver. 1.10, and cloned Windows 10 from SSD 850 to SSD 960. Everything works great now in AHCI.
Robert Willis
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June 3rd, 2017 22:00
I am struggling trying to get a SAMSUNG 960 Pro M.2 installed in a Dell XPS 8920.
1. What specific Intel RST driver are you using.
2. In the BIOS I only have AHCI and RAID as options for the M.2 disk. The Dell technical support person had me try AHCI which resulted in the Drive not found error on boot. If I leave is set to RAID it will not use the INTEL RST driver that I downloaded from the Dell site. The file name was Serial-ATA_Driver_F2JN7_WN32_15.2.2.1030_A02.exe. I extracted the files to a USB drive and point the Windows 10 install to the 64 bit folder.
vtoy116
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June 4th, 2017 06:00
I am curious. Intel Rapid Storage Technology seems like something that is optional (improves data reliability and delivers greater levels of performance, responsiveness, and expandability). Why is the RST driver necessary to make a M.2 NVMe bootable? RST is not required for a normal SSD (non M.2 NVMe SSD). There have been other posts here of folks having problems getting the Samsung 960 EV) M.2 NVMe to boot..
Also I don't understand what you mean by "Make sure in the BIOS that you are still set to use SATA (not AHCI)"? Do you mean SATA Operation to RAID or AHCI? There is only one disk controller/disk interface type and it is SATA.
Robert Willis
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June 5th, 2017 19:00
Can you go to Device Manger and post the driver filename, version number and date for the Samsung SSD.
According to Samsung the proper setting for the SATA port is AHCI.
I tried both RAID and AHCI and could not get it to work.
raymond91105
3 Posts
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June 5th, 2017 22:00
I just want to say that I never got a chance to try what @okwon suggested before returning both XPS 8920 and Samsung 960 EVO. IMHO Dell is to be avoided like a plaque if you want flexibility. Their support is a joke.
vtoy116
307 Posts
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June 6th, 2017 05:00
Since Dell sells the XPS 8920 with an M.2 NVMe SSD the XPX 8920 can obviously boot from an M.2 NVMe SSD just not the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe which leads me to believe there is a compatibility issue between the XPS 8920 and the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe. Since the Samsung is one of the most popular M.2 NVMe SSDs you would think that Dell is working to solve the problem or at least acknowledge it.
Robert Willis
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June 6th, 2017 06:00
Thank you for the update. You may have provided the missing information that I needed. I just download the "F6 Driver Diskettes" and this should provide the ability to add the drivers during the OS loading.
What Dell hardware did you install the SSD's on?
I may re-purchase the Samsung 960 Pro SSD and five this is a try.
vtoy116
307 Posts
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June 6th, 2017 06:00
Could you please explain what you mean by the the BIOS SATA option to lead the driver? What is the exact name of the BIOS option you are using and what is the BIOS entry for it? Thanks.
vtoy116
307 Posts
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June 10th, 2017 09:00
According to en.community.dell.com/.../20013527 the BIOS SATA Operation should be set to RAID (not AHCI). This is not clear in the instructions above.
rdunnill
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June 10th, 2017 16:00
I have an OptiPlex 7040 SFF: it was super easy to set up my 960 EVO M.2 for booting. First, I set RAID in the BIOS, and then imaged over a Windows installation from another machine using Acronis TrueImage. Windows 10 automatically installed core drivers during the first bootup, and then I installed Dell System Detect and downloaded the rest, including RST.
I have not tried clean-installing Windows 10 to the M.2.
vtoy116
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June 10th, 2017 17:00
While setting SATA Operation in the BIOS to RAID may be the only way to get the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD to boot it seems this is not what Samsung Magician wants because it complains that AHCI is disabled. I am glad the issue is resolved although it seems that setting up an SSD should not have been so complicated and for my Samsumg 850 EVO SSD it was much simpler,
rdunnill
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June 11th, 2017 15:00
I used Pen Drive Linux's dd utility for an experimental migration. It made a bitwise copy of the partitions on the NVMe device, after which I booted to the device, and Windows 10 reconfigured the drivers and booted. I was then able to use Dell System Detect to install all the missing drivers. The only problem I encountered was activating the install: I had to use a Windows 7 product key, even though this particular Dell (7040 SFF) had a Windows 10 Professional license embedded in its BIOS.
Afterwards, I backed up this image, repartitioned the device and imaged over two other images. The second one had an issue installing the Management Engine software, which I found out (after several hours tinkering) was due to this image having a newer version of the Visual C++ 2015 runtime installed. I uninstalled the runtime and ran the ME software install again, and it completed without issue.
rh310
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June 14th, 2017 09:00
okwon,
I'm confused why you needed to use this Intel driver to begin with. My 1 year old Win10 Pro (MS built) USB drive boots, sees, and installs to the 960 EVO just fine. You just can't boot from it until switching SATA to RAID.
Ah, now I think I understand why. Everyone's been booting in the "shipped" mode of RAID. Booting in ACHI will let you install Win10 without the need for any other drivers. But you have to switch back to RAID in order to boot Windows.