Setting BIOS to boot from M.2 SSD on MSI Z170A Gaming M7

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
I have built a new PC based on a MSI Z170A Gaming M7 board. I have a Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD which has a clone of my old computer Windows 7 setup. The SSD appears on SATA5 in the BIOS. How do I set the Boot priority to boot from the SSD? - in the BIOS setup it has USB or UEFI Hard drives, but these seem to be the other HDD I have in the system - no apparent means or relating any of these to the SSD by nameor by SATA port
 
Solution
I found I had to enable the SSD in the HDD BBS settings menu - so now booting OK into windows withe the other 2 HDDs and DVD all connected. thanks for everyone help :)

Now having problems getting the drivers inst to actually do something, but that another story ;)

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
Yes there are two hdd and one dvd rewriter attached.

Which setting is it - the bios has a line of icons which can be slid along to set the boot order - I don't know which icon is the SDD (obviously I know which are CD and network etc)
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Since I don't know what the other drives may have or how they are listed, why don't you just unplug them for the first boot. Then whatever is left is your Samsung, set that to first and then you can shut down and plug the other drives back in.
 

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
OK I've disconnected all drives except the SSD (it's in M.2-1 socket) - the boot order is Hard Disk then UEFI Hard Disk, then DVD, then UEFI DVD - nowhere does it say that any of the Hard Drives are the SSD. If I let the boot process continue,then the PC just enters a EFI Shell (no idea what THAT is)
 

doownek1

Reputable
Jan 26, 2016
21
0
4,520


Try disconnecting all of the other drives, leaving only the M.2, then, once the computer is booted up and is operating normally you can re-connect the other drives.
 

doownek1

Reputable
Jan 26, 2016
21
0
4,520
Try disconnecting all of the other drives, leaving only the M.2, then, once the computer is booted up and is operating normally you can re-connect the other drives.
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


How did you clone your old drive? It sounds like its not set up as a bootable drive. Did you try setting UEFI hard disk as first (doubtful this will work unless you formatted your M.2 as GPT).
 

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
As I said above, I've already done that (post getting out of synch :) ), and if i let the boot continue it goes into EFI shell - I have no idea what that is and what to do now
 
See in attached picture:
Hard Disk Drive BBS boot priorities
UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS boot priorities

MSI%20Z87I%20BIOS%2018%20-%20Boot%20Config.png
 

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
no, source was Samsung EVO 850 SATA ssd. I used Samsung Data Migration too. I did a similar operation on my laptop, Samsung 120gb m.2 to a 500gb m.2 (but that was Win 10) and didn't do any formatting
 

leosuth

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2011
46
0
18,540
I found I had to enable the SSD in the HDD BBS settings menu - so now booting OK into windows withe the other 2 HDDs and DVD all connected. thanks for everyone help :)

Now having problems getting the drivers inst to actually do something, but that another story ;)
 
Solution