Problem with M2 drive startup and boot sequence Issues loading or recognizing the M2 drive during initialization
Problem with M2 drive startup and boot sequence Issues loading or recognizing the M2 drive during initialization
I've just completed assembling my first high-end system. It's a 9800X3D processor, powered by an X870e Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 board with a 5080 chipset, a 1000W PSU from Seasonic, and a Noctua cooler. The RAM is DDR5 CL36 at 6000MHz, everything is connected and functioning properly. I also installed a 4TB Samsung NVMe SSD, but initially couldn't install Windows 11 because another similar drive was present. After removing it, the installation succeeded. Once set up, I restarted and landed on the BIOS menu, but my boot options were empty since the USB drive was removed post-install. The drive is still visible in the BIOS, TPM 2.0 is active, UEFI is enabled, and Secure Boot is set. I'm stuck and need some guidance.
I assume you did the usual like deleting partitions and formatting since you got some experience. My best guess would be that the SSD is defective in some way. If you have an USB enclosure for NVMe drives or another computer with a free NVMe slot, you can try testing your SSD to see if it works perfectly there. There is also a slight chance that your drive is from the batch of SSDs with a firmware bug that caused premature degradation. You should be able to upgrade the SSDs firmware with Samsung Magician software. Lastly, in case tpm is the issue (you never know with those new fancy gadgets), you can normally go to the BIOS and erase TPM keys. Then you install Windows on your new SSD. Just a note, you better remove all storage drives because Windows has a bad tendency to install the UEFI partition on a different drive if other drives are present. Once you installed and confirmed that Windows is running properly, you can plug back your drives without issues. Another note, if you already have a Windows installation on a drive and you want to keep that drive in your system afterwards, it may conflict with the new Windows installation. I recommend erasing that drive and partition as a data disk to avoid such conflicts. Hope that helps.
Initially I also had concerns about the SSD being faulty. I actually replaced the TPM keys, removed every drive I owned, and installed a Windows 10 USB key that I was certain would work. After updating to Windows 10, I simply updated the firmware of the M2 just to confirm, then tried upgrading to Windows 11, but it failed completely. So I reinstalled Windows 11 from an USB drive, and it has been functioning properly since then.
I fixed the installation by myself, but it was strange since I couldn't upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. Eventually, I got Windows 11 with just one drive, which had firmware already set up because I managed to install Windows 10 first. No boot partition was created; it was installed on another drive as you suggested. Thanks for the assistance!