@agentx007
Well, technically you can boot even without an GPT partition or use custom type.
For WIN7 one can use the official Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.
Manually copy the content of [WIN7|USB]\efi\microsoft\boot directory to a new [WIN7|USB]\efi\boot directory and extract\copy\rename the [WIN7|ISO]\sources\install.wim\1\Windows\Boot\EFI<b>bootmgfw.efi to the [WIN7|USB]\efi\boot<b>bootx64.efi new folder.
Since the version on the first page doesn’t support proprietary filesystem one must download the binary package of refind and unpack the NTFS.DXE to the [DUET|USB]\EFI\Boot\drivers folder to get it WIN7 UEFI installer (renamed bootmgfw.efi) to work.
Using the media creation tool for WIN10 eliminate lot’s of issue, it work.
If somebody want to customize their installation media obliviously they should but in that case I can’t oversee where the error.
@techami
Can you give some context about the "Win 10 just freeze" where does it freeze? during the pre-installation phase? checking on device, installing the driver, the software, the desktop?
Is this a CLEAN install? are there any left-over hidden or active partition? are you using other bootloader? is this happening in RAID|IDE|AHCI?
Are there other USB connected? PoE device on LAN? xcross-cable? LPT device? PS2 stuff?
Did you try to disable everything not essential on the bios? sound\USB\etc etc
Is the board branded and you running latest available bios? name? did you reset it to default? removed the battery and the power cord and pushed the power button in the last decade? is the battery good?
Can you install WIN10 x64 without EFI support? (without DUET)
Did you used the Media Creation Tool or third party software or manually changed some file on the installer?
@noInk
I tested new installation iso files from MS page 2 times downloaded(win10x64 ver 1909). First time stacked at “getting files ready at 7%” after this i waited around 20mins and restarted pc. And this created new problem very slow installation from usb or dvd drive but when booted old windows (installed before) all was fine and transfer normal for USB2. But if reboot and try installation again very very slow and stucking or maybe need 2-3days at this speed… So i found old iso with windows 10240(2015 year) and this installed fine. But when start updating to ver 1809 when pc restarted to install stucked at 0%.
And this slow installation bug fixed only re-flesh bios. For now all is fine at windows 7 but somday i will upgrade graphic card so would be nice to have support of dx12 so need win10. All this was with nvme disk disconnected just with old raid 0.
I downloaded this lspci/setpci but i don’t know how write scripts for this.
lspci shows for nvme this:
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 8GT/s, Width x4, ASPM L1, Exit Latency L1 <64us
ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot- ASPMOptComp+
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- CommClk-
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x4, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive
- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
@techami
Dunno, mine time is limited. Can’t you just make the USB directly from the Media Creation Tool?
If it stuck at that “getting files ready” it mean something is corrupted or begin corrupted during the copy.
Download the windows 10 media creation tool and redo the WIN10 ESD-USB directly from the media creation tool.
Before installing the OS delete all partition from the drive you are trying to install.
Parameter like device BLW are specific for your system, you should try to read the documentation or use a search engine about how to use setpci or lspci.
Both issue are not related to DUET.
If the WIN10 installer is not complaining about error or incompatibility chance are the media you are trying to install is simply not valid or something is omitted.
Just wanted to say thanks yet again to @noInk and anyone involved, was reminded to do so as I accidentally erased my Duet stick and just rebuilt it worried it wouldn’t boot up. No issue and the newer GUI for setting up the stick was nice!
Coming up on one full year running an NVME on my X58 Machine (with a Xeon X5680) Hard for me to let go of this machine apparently, as I’ve still yet to upgrade to Ryzen and my machine in April will be 10 years old. Many, many thanks for giving this platform extra life, it’s been good to me.
Thank you so much for the information, I really feel like I am super close to succeeding now.
I have an Asrock Z77 Pro 4 Board, and recently bought myself a M.2 Samsung 970 EVO 500gb. I have managed to connect it to the motherboard with an M.2 NVMe converter and I have since followed all the advice in the main thread, I have made a bootable USB, and gone through the steps to set it as the initial boot device. I have also installed windows onto the NVMe. However, when I start up the machine and get into the GUI there is no NVMe picked up, even though it definitely has windows installed upon it. I’ve disabled the CSM through the BIOS as well, just unsure what to try next? Any help would be greatly appreciated. My CPU is a i3 7700k
@Trucker
DUET doesn’t add anything to the BIOS.
If your board is UEFI capable your board will make an NVRAM entry for the boot location.
In that case see the HOW to MAKE THE USB flash drive (non-bootable) for REFIND.
Booting the NVME drive from older-UEFI capable board - REFIND mass-storage without DUET - with USBSetup:
• 1) Connect a USB flash drive and start the USBSetup application
• 2) Select the USB flash drive letter from the drop-down combo box
Warning.
The following step will completely remove all information and partitions on the selected USB flash drive
• 3) Remove all information and partitions from the drive by clicking on: CLEAN
• 4) Optional format the selected drive by clicking on: FORMAT
• 5) Copy the graphical boot manager REFIND by clicking on: REFIND
• 6) Once done remove the USB flash drive.
• 7) Connect the USB on the target system and set Boot from USB as the first option in your system BIOS Boot order
Make sure there an NvmExpressDxe.efi within the [USB]\EFI\Boot\drivers and evaluate when ready to add the NVME support directly on the main firmware volume.
You are a saint sir, and should be applauded as such. I really appreciate your reply. It is my first PC build and am glad to have gotten it working!
@CelsiuS
Since I got new hardware with I’ve re-checked on the NEC Renesas uPD720200.
To get the uPD720200 USB 3.0 device to work properly you need to update its ROM with at least the FW Version 3.0.3.4
- board work.
The DX58SO2 uPD720200 [SubSystemVendorID] 8086 [SubSystemID] 5332 came with the 3.0.2.5 FW version and didn’t worked.
- board would likely stuck during the memory check.
If you plan to update the onboard uPD720200 be sure to use your board uPD720200 [SubSystemVendorID] & [SubSystemID] and make and save a backup before anything.
These are the configuration file I used for mine DX58SO2 your might differ.
Use “W200FW36 /srom 0” command to know the uPD720200 [SubSystemVendorID] & [SubSystemID] of your board and adjust accordingly the [SubSystemVendorID] & [SubSystemID] value within the INI file.
DO NOT USE blindly. See the warning and search about.
If you brick something I won’t be able to help.
( Adjust accordingly both INI )
DEFAULT.ini is configured as auto-sense for 8086&5332
DX58SO2.ini is configured as on-board device for 8086&5332
In mine case I used the following command:
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[INFO] W200FW36 /srom ?
[GETID] W200FW36 /srom 0
[BACKUP] W200FW36 /srom 0 /dump backup.bin
[FLASH] W200FW36 /srom 0 /write F303408.MEM DX58SO2.ini
[VERIFY] W200FW36 /srom 0 /verify F303408.MEM DX58SO2.ini
Using a wrong hardware ID or wrong FW could render the device inoperable.
Hi, possible for Gigabyte X38-DS5 + Q9400 CPU? if it can work I will buy pci nvme adaptor and NvME M.2 SSD right?
Thanks regards.
@murat0606
I cannot guarantee any specific compatibility with anything.
If you want to see if there are chance to get UEFI with your board and CPU make the USB with DUET-REFIND and see if you can reach the graphical manager.
If you see something like in the below image then try to install WINDOWS 10 on some spare drive\disk\device in UEFI mode to check on board and CPU incompatibility with the OS.
OK thanks, I’ll try.
Hi I’m new to the forum!
Maybe someone can help me over here… Pulling my f*ck hair and smashed USB sticks… I have a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 and have bought an Akasa M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 Adapter and a Samsung 970 evo plus NVME (500GB) in hope of greater speeds.
I put the Akasa in a x4 slot and the NVME drive showed up in Windows 10 64-bit which made me smile a lot. Benchmark were superb on NTFS aswell, very well acceptable 1600mb/sek read and write for this setup and old mobo… so I finally cloned my original Samsung SSD 850 to the NVME and have since tried booting from it. The original SSD is disconnected just to make sure.
I tried both Clover and Duet on a Cruzer USB stick. I’ve tried Duet 2017 and 2019 and different versions of NvmExpressDxe.efi. I don’t find anything with “64” as people write about however, anywhere? I haven’t seen NvmExpressDxe-x64.efi in these packages? I’ve downloaded the latest Duet and Clover aswell as BDU.
Clover finally showed the NVME drive when I had NvmExpressDxe.efi loaded (when I read instructions enough to put the file where it belong in the folder), but when clicking the OS it just went to a blinking black screen.
Duet 2019 version sometimes gives me “MD5 Error Mismatch” though I use the -disablemd5 switch running as administrator. Very very strange.
So my question: Is it even possible to get a NVME Samsung 970 Plus to boot on a GA-EX58-UD5 in any way or form? Anyone have done this? This is a legacy non-UEFI mainboard for those that now know - I’m running it on a 3.8GHz CPU and 24GB RAM and mainly doing music.
Or will I have to go back to the original SSD and use the M2 970 as a secondary disk?
Thanks!!
Bankas85
@Bankas85
On the first page download the 2015 version and follow it’s tutorial, if it work you can try to use newer 2019 version, if doesn’t try to change USB or make it again from the beginning.
HOW to MAKE THE USB flash drive ( bootable ) for DUET.
Booting the NVME drive from non-UEFI legacy board - DUET with optional REFIND - with USBSetup:
• 1) Connect a USB flash drive and start the USBSetup application
• 2) Select the USB flash drive letter from the drop-down combo box
Warning.
The following step will completely remove all information and partitions on the selected USB flash drive
• 3) Remove all information and partitions from the drive by clicking on: CLEAN
• 4) Format the selected drive by clicking on: FORMAT
• 5) Make the selected drive bootable: BOOT
• 6) Disconnect and plug back the USB flash drive.
• 7) Copy the required DUET files by clicking on: DUET
• 8) Copy the optional graphical boot manager REFIND by clicking on: REFIND
• 9) Once done remove the USB flash drive.
• 10) Connect the USB on the target system and set Boot from USB as the first option in your system BIOS Boot order
To install WINDOWS 10
• Download the windows 10 media creation tool and make the WIN10 ESD-USB directly from the media creation tool.
A clean (all partition removed from the target disk) install is a better install, upgraded older OS’s would retain the MBR partition structure and lot’s of unnecessary reference to drivers\issue, path’s and junk in general.
To convert a pre-existent WINDOWS 10 MBR to WINDOWS 10 GPT you must run it’s MBR2GPT utility.
About the “MD5 Error Mismatch” the non-bootable USB without DUET method will auto copy the “NvmExpressDxe.efi” on the non-bootable USB.
Unless you are trying to add something, you don’t need to modify the working directory of DUET.
Thanks for replying!
I’m sorry but I simply cannot install Windows 10 64-bit once again.
This disk is full with music applications, licenses and configuration that I use for my work as Spotify artist and Youtuber.
The music libraries are also linked to a larger 2TB drive with sampling applications, plugins (VST, VST3:s) and more.
So this might be the problem, I may need to convert the 500GB disk?
Is there any perticular reason for using the 2015 version of DUET over the 2019 one?
I have followed the USB flash drive guide very intensely 
Thanks again!
@Bankas85
After successfully launching DUET you should be able to convert or repair the cloned NVME by using the WIN10 ESD-USB installer CMD\troubleshooter\recovery environment - see the “repair your computer” option under the big “install now” button.
Some board will auto-boot the legacy installer and require to attach the WIN10 ESD-USB installer after the UEFI environment is loaded, you’ll notice the environment once within the REFIND graphical menu.
Within the REFIND graphical menu attach the WIN10 ESD-USB and refresh the USB list by hitting the ESC keyboard KEY to make the “Boot Fallbcak boot loader from ESD-USB” option appear.
I’m unable to guide you further since your data is your issue and I won’t be responsible for any losses, if all of this is too difficult see @docdude post about cloning directly in GPT
Once you done with the MBR-to-GPT utility probably you can “install-in-place” anytime over by keeping the application and files.
The 2015 version might be more compatible but slower.
I’ve removed the 2017 link from the first page since anything should has been back-ported to the 2015 or included in the 2019 version.
I’ll leave it here:
• OLD download link for DUET (UDK2017) with REFIND included - it was for an X58 ASrock.
Thanks alot for all info!
However:
I converted the disk to GPT using Easeus Partition Master and did the WIN-EBD installation to another USB stick. And it worked as expected. The NVME disk was listed as GPT under Disk Management afterwards.
However I can’t see the disk identified in either DUET or CLOVER, only the Win-Ebd USB is the choice to boot and it doesn’t see the drive. I tried several different versions of NvmExpressDxe.efi aswell. I can see that it is loaded by the system by typing “drivers” and going through the list. There is also a list before which states a GPT-drive. But it’s not listed like the way a drive is listed in your picture.
I have looked for later versions of the NvmExpressDxe.efi aswell but haven’t found anyone later than a one dated dec 2017.
This is a Samsung 970 500GB NVME Plus. However I still think it would work booting from it somehow since Windows 10 can see it when I boot from the original SSD. I must be doing something wrong?
Thanks again for all help!
@Bankas85
First page doesn’t cover how to convert a pre-existent WIN10 installation from MBR to GPT for a reason.
With either diskpart or mbr2gpt if misused all your data could be lost.
See mine previous post directed at you and while there only the NVME drive attached boot the WIN10 ESD USB in DUET to the first full available CMD and type this:
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MBR2GPT /convert /disk:0 /AllowFullOS
Where disk 0 is the NVME drive (see the diskpart & list disk and volume command on the conversion example)
If for some reason you cannot do it within the preinstallation environment, you can run the command on a live system or an WindowsToGo USB drive. Just be sure to select the NVME disk.
Anyway you shouldn't mix the DUET USB with the CLOVER USB or vice versa or use third party tool's made in specific for one on the other, if there are any.
If you are using DUET and you are sure the NVME is already GPT download and make again the DUET USB by following the how-to and don't change it's file. DUET has it's own NvmExpressDxe EFI driver.
Many thanks!
I finally got it working. I had to do it the following way since MBR2GPT had some kind of issues with my current version of Windows 10 (v1903) when I tried converting the NVMe disk. MBR2GPT always said, no matter which version or WinPE loaded (v1903 or other version, either from USB WinPE or from within Win10 OS as Administrator):
MBR2GPT: Attempting to convert disk 0
MBR2GPT: Retrieving layout of disk
MBR2GPT: Validating layout, disk sector is: 512 bytes
Disk layout validation failed for disk 0
MBR2GPT: Conversion failed
And I also had “MD5 Some files are missing” errors on DUET 2019 when I tried running the USBSetup as Administrator. It was always the same with the DUET2019 by some reason, downloaded it several times - put it into other folders in case of UAC/security issues or such… I couldn’t use the CreateUSB CLEAN console command from DUET 2019.
So I ended up doing this.
First of all to got the disk converted from MBR to GPT properly and kept all the data (I cloned the old SSD to the Samsung NVMe using Macrium Reflect from within Windows 10 on the old SSD) I downloaded Easeus Partition Master and created a bootable WinPE EaseUS USB disk. Read more here if anyone feel the need to: https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager…on-manager.html.
I booted the Easeus USB PE with only the Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB NVMe attached and chose the whole disk in the list and selected “Convert to GPT”. I clicked “Apply” and it completed successfully within 10 seconds.
Since I got MD5 “some missing files are missing” errors when trying to run the USBSetup.exe of DUET2019 (while still using the -disablemd5 switch to ignore any md5 errors) - I went into the DUET2017 folder and performed the CLEAN from the USBSetup.exe (GUI) there and exited. I then opened up the command prompt as administrator and I went to the folder with DUET2019 and issued these commands:
CreateUSB FORMAT
(I then disconnected and connected the USB flash drive again as instructed by DUET)
CreateUSB DUET
CreateUSB REFIND
After this, I rebooted and the NVMe drive showed up for the first time in DUET and it booted up from DUET. No need for startup repair or anything.
Read/write speeds now from CrystalDiskMark 6.0.2 x64 are, Seq Q32T1: Read 1802.8 MB/s, Write 1614 MB/s (the old Samsung 860 EVO SSD was had read speed about 250 MB/s)
Hardware used if it helps anyone:
Gigabyte GA-EX58 UD5 (i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz, 24GB RAM)
Akasa M.2 SSD to PCIe Adapter card fitted at the PCIe x4 top slot of mainboard
Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe 500GB Drive
Old SSD: Samsung 860 EVO
Windows 10 64-bit v1903
Many thanks to noInk for help on this issue!