kojack Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 I tried everything in bios to get this card to be recognized as the main boot drive. Any ideas on how to make this work? Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron44126 Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 If you have the SSD installed with an "adapter" in a slot that you normally wouldn't use for a drive, you possibly won't be able to boot it directly from the BIOS. Windows doesn't technically require that the boot/EFI partition and the OS partition be on the same drive. You will need to install the Windows boot loader on a drive that the BIOS can boot, and have it boot the OS partition on your desired SSD. This will probably take a manual install of the bootloader using bcdboot, and possibly some mucking with bcdedit. You can run both of these tools from the command prompt that you can access by booting install media and opening the recovery tools. You could also probably use GRUB (Linux boot loader) installed on a BIOS-bootable drive to chainload to the Windows boot loader on a different drive. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) • Dell Precision 7560 (work) • Full specs in spoiler block below Info posts (Windows) — Turbo boost toggle • The problem with Windows 11 • About Windows 10/11 LTSC Spoiler Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) M2 Max 4 efficiency cores 8 performance cores 38-core Apple GPU 96GB LPDDR5-6400 8TB SSD macOS 15 "Sequoia" 16.2" 3456×2234 120 Hz mini-LED ProMotion display Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3 99.6Wh battery 1080p webcam Fingerprint reader Also — iPhone 12 Pro 512GB, Apple Watch Series 8 Dell Precision 7560 (work) Intel Xeon W-11955M ("Tiger Lake") 8×2.6 GHz base, 5.0 GHz turbo, hyperthreading ("Willow Cove") 64GB DDR4-3200 ECC NVIDIA RTX A2000 4GB Storage: 512GB system drive (Micron 2300) 4TB additional storage (Sabrent Rocket Q4) Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 15.6" 3940×2160 IPS display Intel Wi-Fi AX210 (Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3) 95Wh battery 720p IR webcam Fingerprint reader Previous Dell Precision 7770, 7530, 7510, M4800, M6700 Dell Latitude E6520 Dell Inspiron 1720, 5150 Dell Latitude CPi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted November 28, 2023 Author Share Posted November 28, 2023 It is not windows, but TrueNAS that I am trying to install. Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciever Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 What kind of SSD? Bifurcation support? Telegram / TS3 / Twitter 2700X to 5800X3D upgrade! With a 10850K cameo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted November 28, 2023 Author Share Posted November 28, 2023 Just a regular 2280 512gb NVME ssd on a PCI-E expansion card. The server is the acer AC100 Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciever Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 21 minutes ago, kojack said: Just a regular 2280 512gb NVME ssd on a PCI-E expansion card. The server is the acer AC100 Does it show up in the BIOS at all ? Those older systems have issues trying to boot from pcie Telegram / TS3 / Twitter 2700X to 5800X3D upgrade! With a 10850K cameo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted November 28, 2023 Author Share Posted November 28, 2023 No, it doesn't. When I open up the loader for the software, it shows there but not in boot. Could I use a eSata drive pluged into the back of the unit to run the OS? I am trying to keep the 4 drives for storage only. Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron44126 Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 If the system came with an eSATA port (i.e. it is not being added by an expansion card), something attached there "should" show up like any other SATA drive and be bootable. (This is bringing me back to the days of trying to boot off of SATA expansion cards in like 2005. I had to select the BIOS option to boot a RAID card in order to boot a drive attached to a SATA expansion card.) You might also be able to boot off of just a USB drive, like a flash drive or USB hard drive. Most BIOS allow this, and while Windows doesn't like to do it, Linux-type OS's typically have no problem. 1 Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) • Dell Precision 7560 (work) • Full specs in spoiler block below Info posts (Windows) — Turbo boost toggle • The problem with Windows 11 • About Windows 10/11 LTSC Spoiler Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) M2 Max 4 efficiency cores 8 performance cores 38-core Apple GPU 96GB LPDDR5-6400 8TB SSD macOS 15 "Sequoia" 16.2" 3456×2234 120 Hz mini-LED ProMotion display Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3 99.6Wh battery 1080p webcam Fingerprint reader Also — iPhone 12 Pro 512GB, Apple Watch Series 8 Dell Precision 7560 (work) Intel Xeon W-11955M ("Tiger Lake") 8×2.6 GHz base, 5.0 GHz turbo, hyperthreading ("Willow Cove") 64GB DDR4-3200 ECC NVIDIA RTX A2000 4GB Storage: 512GB system drive (Micron 2300) 4TB additional storage (Sabrent Rocket Q4) Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 15.6" 3940×2160 IPS display Intel Wi-Fi AX210 (Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3) 95Wh battery 720p IR webcam Fingerprint reader Previous Dell Precision 7770, 7530, 7510, M4800, M6700 Dell Latitude E6520 Dell Inspiron 1720, 5150 Dell Latitude CPi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciever Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 57 minutes ago, kojack said: No, it doesn't. When I open up the loader for the software, it shows there but not in boot. Could I use a eSata drive pluged into the back of the unit to run the OS? I am trying to keep the 4 drives for storage only. NVME ? likely not, wrong protocol 1 Telegram / TS3 / Twitter 2700X to 5800X3D upgrade! With a 10850K cameo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted November 29, 2023 Author Share Posted November 29, 2023 14 hours ago, Reciever said: NVME ? likely not, wrong protocol Sorry, I am posing two completely different setups. 1. the drive on the PCI-E card is the small SSD that came in my dell notebook. I bought the card to install the ssd in the open PCI slot on the motherboard. 2. the Esata port on the back of the system is showing in the bios. So if I get a hard drive/ssd in an external case and plug in there, can I run the OS off that? There are 4 hotswap HDD in my server and that's what I want to use for storage only, no OS if at all possible. Sorry for the confusion. Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom90gt Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Ahh can you post the model numbers for the SSD and the PCIE adapter? 1 Desktop | Intel i9-12900k | ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F | 2x16GB Oloy DDR5 @ 6400mhz CL32 | EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra | AW3821DW| 980 Pro 1TB PCIe 4.0 | All under water | Server | SM846 | Unraid 6.12.0-rc4.1 | AMD Epyc 7F52 | Supermicro H12SSL-I | Tesla P40 24GB | 256GB 3200MHz ECC 8-channel | 100+TB ZFS | Backup Server | SM826 | Unraid 6.12.0-rc4.1 | AMD Epyc 7302 | Supermicro H11SSL-I | Tesla P4 8GB | 256GB 2133MHz ECC 8-channel | 100+TB ZFS | Dell XPS 9510 | Intel i7-11800H | RTX 3050 Ti | 16GB 3200mhz | 1TB SX8200 | 1080P | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted December 4, 2023 Author Share Posted December 4, 2023 On 12/1/2023 at 3:38 PM, Custom90gt said: Ahh can you post the model numbers for the SSD and the PCIE adapter? I will get them this morning after we get straightened away for the day. I have to pull the case off the system. Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Fox Posted December 4, 2023 Share Posted December 4, 2023 I read through all of the posts and I'm still not clear. Let me know if this is accurate. You have an NVMe M.2 that was pulled from a Dell laptop. You are attempting to use it on an Acer AC100 server and it is not recognized in the Acer's BIOS. The NMVe M.2 is installed in a PCIe expansion card designed to accommodate an M.2 PCIe (not M.2 SATA) SSD. Correct? Have you already tried using DIskpart to run a clean command on the NVMe? If you boot from a Windows installation USB media and run Diskpart from a command prompt (Shift+F10) and run the list disk command does Diskpart identify it? Sometimes running a clean command will make an NVMe that is not visible in the BIOS become visible. I'm not sure exactly why. If the drive is not visible using Diskpart then either the PCIe M.2 SSD, the PCIe card or the PCIe slot is having an issue. Do you have another PCIe M.2 you can test in the expansion card to see if it is visible in the BIOS? You cannot select a data drive in the BIOS as a boot drive or choose it from a boot priority menu until is has an OS boot sector or a bootable EFI partition installed on it because it is not a bootable drive (yet). But, if TrueNAS setup sees it and allows you to install to it, it should then become available to select as the boot drive at that point because it has become a bootable drive. If it is the only bootable drive installed, then the BIOS will most likely configure itself to boot from it without any need for manual configuration. Can you post a photo of the PCIe M.2 expansion card? Or, a link to the product listing from when you purchased it? 2 Wraith // Z790 Apex | 14900KS | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | Toughpower GF3 1650W | MO-RA3 360 | Hailea HC-500A || O11D XL EVO Banshee // Z790 Apex Encore | 14900KF | 4090 Gaming OC+Alphacool Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Antec C8 Spectre // Z790i Edge | 13900KS | 3090 Ti FTW3 | 32GB DDR5-8200 | RM1000e | EK Nucleus CR360 Direct Die || Prime A21 Raptor // Z690 PG Velocita | 13900KS | 2080 Ti | 32GB DDR5-6400 | RM1200x SHIFT | EK Nucleus CR360 Dark || Praxis Wetbench Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | 4K Display | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About Mr. Fox YouTube Channel | Mr. Fox @ HWBOT The average response time for a 911 call is 10 minutes. The response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 On 12/4/2023 at 3:50 PM, Mr. Fox said: I read through all of the posts and I'm still not clear. Let me know if this is accurate. You have an NVMe M.2 that was pulled from a Dell laptop. You are attempting to use it on an Acer AC100 server and it is not recognized in the Acer's BIOS. The NMVe M.2 is installed in a PCIe expansion card designed to accommodate an M.2 PCIe (not M.2 SATA) SSD. Correct? Have you already tried using DIskpart to run a clean command on the NVMe? If you boot from a Windows installation USB media and run Diskpart from a command prompt (Shift+F10) and run the list disk command does Diskpart identify it? Sometimes running a clean command will make an NVMe that is not visible in the BIOS become visible. I'm not sure exactly why. If the drive is not visible using Diskpart then either the PCIe M.2 SSD, the PCIe card or the PCIe slot is having an issue. Do you have another PCIe M.2 you can test in the expansion card to see if it is visible in the BIOS? You cannot select a data drive in the BIOS as a boot drive or choose it from a boot priority menu until is has an OS boot sector or a bootable EFI partition installed on it because it is not a bootable drive (yet). But, if TrueNAS setup sees it and allows you to install to it, it should then become available to select as the boot drive at that point because it has become a bootable drive. If it is the only bootable drive installed, then the BIOS will most likely configure itself to boot from it without any need for manual configuration. Can you post a photo of the PCIe M.2 expansion card? Or, a link to the product listing from when you purchased it? I have not tried diskpart (I don't think). I basically formatted the drive, created the boot usb from TrueNAS website, and then did the "installation" on the ssd. This is the Card I am using. Thanks for the help! GLOTRENDS M.2 PCIe NVMe 4.0/3.0 Adapter with M.2 Heatsink for M.2 PCIe SSD (NVMe and AHCI), PCIE X 4 Full Speed, Desktop PC Installation (PA09-HS) : Amazon.ca: Electronics 1 Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Fox Posted December 7, 2023 Share Posted December 7, 2023 On 11/28/2023 at 11:45 AM, kojack said: No, it doesn't. When I open up the loader for the software, it shows there but not in boot. Could I use a eSata drive pluged into the back of the unit to run the OS? I am trying to keep the 4 drives for storage only. I'm not familiar with the options available in your BIOS, but what you describe sounds as if the PCIE slot itself is not being initialized during POST. Have you already poked around for options to designate the slot the card is installed in as being bootable? You may have to choose between that slot or eSATA, for example. 4 hours ago, kojack said: I have not tried diskpart (I don't think). I basically formatted the drive, created the boot usb from TrueNAS website, and then did the "installation" on the ssd. This is the Card I am using. Thanks for the help! GLOTRENDS M.2 PCIe NVMe 4.0/3.0 Adapter with M.2 Heatsink for M.2 PCIe SSD (NVMe and AHCI), PCIE X 4 Full Speed, Desktop PC Installation (PA09-HS) : Amazon.ca: Electronics That card should work nicely. I have several like it. The fact that the drive is visible once you load windows and you can install TrueNAS to it, but it does not show during POST suggests a BIOS configuration option is either missing or not toggled for it to become bootable. If you have Secure Boot enabled that could also be complicating matters. You would need to register it in Secure Boot as a boot device if the device supports it. I do not know if TrueNAS supports it. You can try disabling Secure Boot if it is enabled. At least for troubleshooting. Secure Boot introduces numerous functionality complications and this may be a manifestation of one of them. Everything works out better for me and there are fewer headaches to deal with it when it is disabled. 1 Wraith // Z790 Apex | 14900KS | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | Toughpower GF3 1650W | MO-RA3 360 | Hailea HC-500A || O11D XL EVO Banshee // Z790 Apex Encore | 14900KF | 4090 Gaming OC+Alphacool Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Antec C8 Spectre // Z790i Edge | 13900KS | 3090 Ti FTW3 | 32GB DDR5-8200 | RM1000e | EK Nucleus CR360 Direct Die || Prime A21 Raptor // Z690 PG Velocita | 13900KS | 2080 Ti | 32GB DDR5-6400 | RM1200x SHIFT | EK Nucleus CR360 Dark || Praxis Wetbench Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | 4K Display | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About Mr. Fox YouTube Channel | Mr. Fox @ HWBOT The average response time for a 911 call is 10 minutes. The response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 4 hours ago, Mr. Fox said: I'm not familiar with the options available in your BIOS, but what you describe sounds as if the PCIE slot itself is not being initialized during POST. Have you already poked around for options to designate the slot the card is installed in as being bootable? You may have to choose between that slot or eSATA, for example. That card should work nicely. I have several like it. The fact that the drive is visible once you load windows and you can install TrueNAS to it, but it does not show during POST suggests a BIOS configuration option is either missing or not toggled for it to become bootable. If you have Secure Boot enabled that could also be complicating matters. You would need to register it in Secure Boot as a boot device if the device supports it. I do not know if TrueNAS supports it. You can try disabling Secure Boot if it is enabled. At least for troubleshooting. Secure Boot introduces numerous functionality complications and this may be a manifestation of one of them. Everything works out better for me and there are fewer headaches to deal with it when it is disabled. When the wife is at work tomorrow, I will crack open the system again and see what I can come up with UEFI and secure boot is enabled I do believe. 1 Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Fox Posted December 7, 2023 Share Posted December 7, 2023 1 hour ago, kojack said: When the wife is at work tomorrow, I will crack open the system again and see what I can come up with UEFI and secure boot is enabled I do believe. If may be as simple as needing to register it in Secure Boot or disabling Secure Boot so it will work. I hope so. You can run in UEFI mode with no CSM support with Secure Boot disabled just fine. I do that on all of my system because Secure Boot will prevent certain types of Windows software from functioning and often does not play nice with Linux. It also was not supported by Windows 7 and I was still using Windows 7 until I could no longer get working drivers (4090 and Arc A770 have no drivers). 1 Wraith // Z790 Apex | 14900KS | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | Toughpower GF3 1650W | MO-RA3 360 | Hailea HC-500A || O11D XL EVO Banshee // Z790 Apex Encore | 14900KF | 4090 Gaming OC+Alphacool Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Antec C8 Spectre // Z790i Edge | 13900KS | 3090 Ti FTW3 | 32GB DDR5-8200 | RM1000e | EK Nucleus CR360 Direct Die || Prime A21 Raptor // Z690 PG Velocita | 13900KS | 2080 Ti | 32GB DDR5-6400 | RM1200x SHIFT | EK Nucleus CR360 Dark || Praxis Wetbench Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | 4K Display | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About Mr. Fox YouTube Channel | Mr. Fox @ HWBOT The average response time for a 911 call is 10 minutes. The response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom90gt Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Did you ever figure this out? Desktop | Intel i9-12900k | ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F | 2x16GB Oloy DDR5 @ 6400mhz CL32 | EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra | AW3821DW| 980 Pro 1TB PCIe 4.0 | All under water | Server | SM846 | Unraid 6.12.0-rc4.1 | AMD Epyc 7F52 | Supermicro H12SSL-I | Tesla P40 24GB | 256GB 3200MHz ECC 8-channel | 100+TB ZFS | Backup Server | SM826 | Unraid 6.12.0-rc4.1 | AMD Epyc 7302 | Supermicro H11SSL-I | Tesla P4 8GB | 256GB 2133MHz ECC 8-channel | 100+TB ZFS | Dell XPS 9510 | Intel i7-11800H | RTX 3050 Ti | 16GB 3200mhz | 1TB SX8200 | 1080P | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojack Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 On 12/11/2023 at 5:59 PM, Custom90gt said: Did you ever figure this out? Not yet. I have been super busy with other things in life. I am hoping to get the little job I have to today, and get at it and see if I can get working. I will report back when I get the system back on the kitchen island and setup ha ha. 1 Workstation - Dell XPS 8940 - desktop creative powerhouse Mobile Workstation - Dell inspiron 5406 2 in 1 - mobile creative beast Wifey's Notebook - Dell inspiron 3169 - Little gem for our businesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now