Intel 750 boot OS boot manager from different storage device.

[gveld]

I've recently ordered an Intel 750 Pcie NVME SSD and noticed that it wouldn't boot up properly when used as boot drive (because the bios doesn't seem to support this)

Instead I decided to install Windows Server 2012 R2 to a local SATA SSD and then install it to my Intel 750 SSD (so that the boot loader is on the SATA SSD)

This works, but when I try to boot into my installation on the 750 I get this error message:

file: \windows\system32\winload.efi

status 0xc0000225

Any idea how I can fix this?

Update: I've tried using Vmware ESXI and use the 750 SSD as pass trough device on my VM.

Although I'm able to install to the VM I still can't boot from it.

I'm really surprised that Intel doesn't provide some piece of software that acts like a lightweight hyper visor and that can be installed on a bootable drive which then initiates the boot of an OS on the NVME ssd.

[jbenavides]

Hello gijs007,

Your computer must meet some requirements to use the Intel® SSD 750 Series as a bootable drive:

- PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 slot or 8639 connector.

- Platform supporting UEFI* 2.3.1 BIOS

- A system based on an Intel® Z97 Chipset or an Intel® X99 Chipset

- Supported operating system: 64-bit versions of Windows* 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows® 10

- uEFI BIOS settings enabled with NVMe support (latest BIOS updates)

- NVMe driver installed.

If the system does not meet the requirements, or if the BIOS is not configured correctly, then the PC will not be able to boot from the new drive.

For more information about required configuration and installation instructions, you can check the following documents:

http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-035481.htm Intel® High Performance Solid-State Drives — Booting an NVMe* PCI Express* Solid State Drive

http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/ssd-750/sb/CS-035483.htm Intel® SSD 750 Series — Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23929/eng/Intel%20SSD%20Data%20Center%20Family%20for%20PCIe%20Instal... Intel® Solid-State Drive Data Center Family for PCIe* P3700, P3600 and P3500 Series – Installation Guide

[gveld]

Yes, it seems like my Dell server doesn't have support for this after all.. (despite them telling me otherwise..)

Anyway, this doesn't explain why I can't boot when using a hyper visor like ESXI 6.0, which should have support for the NVMe SSD.Am I doing something wrong here? I'm using the pass trough mode to have the drive accessible to my VM.

[jbenavides]

Hello gijs007,

If the computer does not support booting from an NVMe drive, then this will not be possible regardless of the Operating System you use.

Regarding VMWare* ESXi, we advise you to contact http://www.vmware.com/support.html VMware Support so they can let you know the best way to use the Intel® SSD 750 Series as boot drive for you Virtual machines. The Virtual Machines have their own virtualized Motherboard and BIOS, so they may not be able use the NVMe drive in pass-through mode.

I think you should be able to provision the space from the 750 data store as a regular hard disk to the Virtual Machine, however, it would be better to confirm with VMWare* what would be the best method to use in this case.

[AP16]

You cannot achieve this, the article http://news.saferbytes.it/analisi/2013/10/windows-uefi-startup-a-technical-overview/ http://news.saferbytes.it/analisi/2013/10/windows-uefi-startup-a-technical-overview/ can explain why. Windows Boot Manager fully depends on BIOS UEFI drivers for work with storage, so if your MB UEFI BIOS do not contain the NVMe EFI driver inside, Windows Boot Manager will not see 750 like the BIOS itself. There are some possible attack vectors to the trouble for geeks through:

1. Insert an NVMe EFI module from other BIOS into your one. The utility https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool is involved in process and the thread http://www.win-raid.com/t871f13-Discussion-NVMe-BIOS-Modules-and-NVMe-Support.html http://www.win-raid.com/t871f13-Discussion-NVMe-BIOS-Modules-and-NVMe-Support.html contain some clues and success stories. That solution (in case of success) make your BIOS fully NVMe-aware, with direct boot support.

2. Compile one of open-source implementations of NVMe support as user-space loadable EFI driver and use it together with http://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/ . That is a complete 'terra incognita' for now.