[HowTo] Get full NVMe Support for all Systems with an AMI UEFI BIOS

Fernando · April 3, 2015, 10:00am

@ all:
Please read this before posting into this thread:

This thread has been designed by me for users, who want to do the required BIOS modification themselves by following this guide.
Users, who want to get an already modded BIOS, may search for it within >this< Sub-Forum or post their request into >this< one.
The main topic of this thread is the procedure of the NVMe specific BIOS modification and the support in case of appearing problems.
Users, who don’t know how to flash a modded BIOS or how to avoid a clean OS installation, should search for a guide/solution by using the Forum’s “Search” box and post their request into the related specific thread.

What is NVMe?

Wikipedia Info: (open/hide by a click)

Comparison AHCI - NVMe.png

Who can benefit from an NVMe SSD?

Answer: (open/hide by a click)

The latest Windows Operating Systems from Win8.1 up natively do support NVMe. For Win7 and Server 2008 R2 users I recommend to read the start post of >this< thread.
Nearly all mainboard manufacturers are meanwhile offering new BIOS versions with full NVMe support for their mainboards with an Intel 9-Series or X99 Chipset.
Many consumer SSDs with NVMe support are already available or will be available soon.

There is no doubt, that users with an up-to-date mainboard, whose BIOS contains the required NVMe module(s), will benefit from the performance boost initiated by an NVMe supporting SSD.

What about MBs with an UEFI BIOS, but w/o NVMe Support?

Answer: (open/hide by a click)

Is it possible to give natively not supported systems the option to boot off an NVMe SSD by modding the BIOS?
If yes, which modules have to be inserted and how has it to be done?

After having done the related test with my old Intel Z68 system I found in June 2015 the first time answers to the questions. My success report can be found here: https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/howto-get-full-nvme-support-for-all-systems-with-an-ami-uefi-bios/30901/117.
After this first success the method has been optimized and successfully tested with nearly all existing mainboard models.
Since February 2017 we know for sure, that the insertion of the natively missing NVMe module into the UEFI BIOS enables the ability to boot off an NVMe SSD for all natively not supported Intel and AMD Chipset systems.
You can find the well approved latest version of my Guide within the next chapter.

Guide about how to get full NVMe support
(valid for all Intel/AMD chipset systems with an AMI UEFI BIOS)

(last updated: 12/04/2022)
Changelog:
Guide structure optimized (as good as possible)

This is what you should know:

Details: (open/hide by a click)

storage

and

but the usage of such SSD as bootable system drive C: (incl. the boot sector) usually requires a special mainboard BIOS EFI module, which has to be loaded while booting.

Note:

These are the best pre-conditions for a successful implementation and configuration of an NVMe SSD as bootable system drive:

The desired OS should be Win10 or Win11 (due to their native NVMe support).
The mainboard BIOS should offer the required UEFI boot settings.
It should be possible to get a modded BIOS successfully flashed into the system’s BIOS chip.
The on-board SATA Controller should not been set to “RAID” mode within the BIOS.
Tip: Before you start with the preparations, I recommend to read >this< report written by our Forum member Paulos7.

Alternative methods to use an NVMe SSD as bootable drive with older systems (no BIOS modding required):

“Clover-EFI Bootloader Method” (the related guide written by our Forum member Nyctophilia can be found >here<)
“DUET-USB Boot Method” (the related guides written by our Forum members noInk resp. mireque can be found >here<, >here< and >here<.

This is what you will need:

Details: (open/hide by a click)

1. A modern unzip tool like WinRAR v6.xx or 7-Zip v2xxx

2. A mainboard with an AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS

3. The desired BIOS version for the related mainboard model

4. An appropriate UEFI BIOS modding tool

a) An Aptio IV compatible AMI UEFI MMTool

Important:

Tip:

b) CodeRush’s UEFITool

>UEFITool v0.28.0<

>MIRROR<

Advantage:

all

Attention:

5. An appropriate EFI NVME BIOS module

a) NvmExpressDxe_5.ffs

>Download link (MEGA)<

>Mirror link (OneDrive)<

b) NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs

>Download Link (MEGA)<

>Mirror Link (OneDrive)<

>here<

Notes:

The “Small” variant should be taken, if the BIOS tool gives you the message “File size exceeds the BIOS volume size” while trying to insert one of the above mentioned uncompressed modules.
After having successfully inserted any of the above offered NVMe modules the related name “NvmExpressDxe_5” resp. “NvmExpressDxe_Small” will be shown by the related BIOS tool.
Credits go to
- a) the EDK2 Team resp. the Clover Team at InsanelyMac
  (>LINK<) for the source file UDK2018,
- b) our Forum member davidm71 for his efforts to make the source file usable as additionally insertable EFI NVMe BIOS module, which is loaded while booting off an NVMe SSD in UEFI mode and
- c) to our Forum member Ethaniel for having completely re-structured, optimized, shrinked and re-compiled the NVMe modules.

all

This is what you should do:

Step 1 - Preparation:

Open Guide: (open/hide by a click)

Create a separate folder within the root of any PC partition, name it anyhow (here: D:\Source BIOS) and copy the "pure" (completely extracted) source BIOS file into that folder.

Additionally you should create another, but currently empty folder for the later created modded BIOS (example: D:\Mod BIOS).

Only for ASUS BIOSes with the suffix *.CAP:
To avoid problems while trying to flash later on the modded *.CAP file, it is recommended to extract the "Body" of the original *.CAP BIOS. This can easily be done with the UEFITool by opening the *.CAP file, doing a right-click onto the "AMI Aptio Capsule", choosing the "Extract body..." option and saving it as *.ROM file.
>Here< you can find the complete instructions layed down by Lost_N_BIOS.

Unzip the downloaded AMI Aptio MMTool resp. the UEFITool and the chosen NvmExpressDxE module into the "Source BIOS" folder.

Step 2 - BIOS modification (2 alternative Methods):

A. Guide for the usage of AMI’s Aptio MMTool:
(easiest and usually successful method for AMI Aptio IV BIOSes)

Open Guide: (open/hide by a click)

a) Opening the BIOS file and finding the target DXE Volume:

Double-click onto the file named MMTool.exe.

Click onto the "Load Image" button and navigate to the folder, where the source BIOS is located. If it should not yet been shown within the pop-up window, choose the file type option "All files (*)", which is located at the bottom of the "MM Open" window.

After having double-clicked onto the BIOS file, which you want to get modified, you will see a picture similar to this one:
MMTool Guide Pic1.png616×550 13.3 KB
Scroll down within the great MMTool window until you find the module with the FileName “CSMCORE”.

Click onto the line with the FileName “CSMCORE”. After having done that, the number of the Volume will be shown within the box named “Vol. Index” in the upper part of the MMTool GUI.
Here is the related picture of my test BIOS:

MMTool Guide Pic2.png616×550 13.7 KB

In my test BIOS it was the Volume “01”, but this is just an example. In other BIOSes the CSMCORE module may be within a Volume with another number (e.g. “04” or “02:01.00”).
Since the CSMCORE module is present within nearly all AMI UEFI BIOSes and always located within the DXE Volume, where the NVMe module has to be inserted, you are now within the target Volume.
Note: In the very rare case, that the MMTool doesn’t show any module named “CSMCORE”, you should scroll down the MMTool window with the listed modules until you find the first ones with the letters “DXE” within its name. This way you can be sure, that you are within the correct “DXe Driver Volume”, where the NVMe module has to be inserted.

b) Insertion of the NVMe module

Make sure, that the correct DXE Driver Volume number (usually with the CSMCORE module within it) has been written into the Vol. Index box.

Click onto the "Insert" tab on the on-top MMTool menu bar.
Here is the related picture:
MMTool Guide Pic3.png616×550 13.8 KB

Click onto the “Browse” button and navigate the folder, where your desired NVMe module as “pure” *.ffs file is located.

Double-click onto the *.ffs file you want to get inserted.
Now you will see a picture like this:

MMTool Guide Pic4.png616×550 15 KB

You can choose within the “Insert FFS Options” area of the MMTool GUI, whether you want to get the previously chosen module inserted “as it is” (normal option) or in “compressed” form (option in case of limited space within the DXE Volume).
Note: Don’t touch the “For Option ROM only” area of the MMTool GUI!

Now you can click onto the “Insert” button, which is on the upper right hand side below the “Browse” button (see above picture).

After having done that, the insertion of the desired NVMe module should be done automaticly and correctly by the MMTool.

Note: If the MMTool should not be able to insert the desired module properly, the MMTool will give you a meaningful error message (e.g. “Not enough space within the Volume”). In this case you should try to get the “small” variant of the NVMe module in “compressed” form inserted. If there should not even be enough space for this small sized module, I recommend to follow the advices given by MeatWar within the first post of >this< thread.

As final step you have to store the modded BIOS:
Click onto the button "Save Image as...", navigate to the previously created folder for the modded BIOS (e.g. D:\Mod BIOS) and give the modded BIOS a meaningful name (with the same extension as the original BIOS).

Now you have stored your modded BIOS within the related folder.

c) Verification of the successful insertion

Open the modded BIOS as written above by running the MMTool.

Scroll down the content of the MMTool window showing the various modules of the DXE Volume (where the CSMCORE is located) until you come to bottom of that Volume.

The last (undermost) "DXE Driver" module of the related Volume Number should now be new and named either "NvmExpressDxe_5" or "NvmExpressDxe_small" (depending on the module variant you had previously inserted.

A picture like this is the proof, that the NVMe module has been successfully inserted:
MMTool Guide Pic5.png616×550 14 KB

Warning:

“Pad-file”

>here<

If you should realize, that a natively present Pad-file module is missing within the modded BIOS or a natively not present Pad-file has been added within the modded BIOS, post a report into this thread, but don’t flash this modded BIOS!

If everything looks fine, you can be sure, that the related module has been properly inserted into the correct GUID section, and you can save the modded BIOS and give it an appropriate name and suffix (usually similar to the original BIOS).

Only for ASUS BIOSes, whose capsule had been removed by extracting the “Body”, but shall be flashed by using the ASUS USB Flashback feature:
Don’t forget to re-insert the original capsule and to save the modded BIOS as *.CAP file according to >this< guide written by MeatWar.

B. Guide for the usage of the UEFITool:

Open Guide: (open/hide by a click)

a) Opening the BIOS file and finding the target DXE Volume:

Double-click onto the file named UEFITool.exe.

Use the full size option to see the complete content of the UEFITool GUI.

Click onto "File" from the UEFITool menu bar, choose the option "Open image file..." and navigate to the folder, where the source BIOS is located. If it should not yet been shown within the pop-up window, choose the file type option "All files (*)", which is located just above the "Open" button.

After having double-clicked onto the BIOS file, which you want to get modified, you will see a picture similar to one of these:
UEFITool Guide Pic1.png1486×789 20.1 KB

UEFITool Guide Pic2.png1487×789 20.2 KB

Expand the shown image resp. capsule by clicking onto the right-direction arrow in front of them. Now you should see the main contents of the BIOS inclusive the most important "BIOS region".

After having expanded the "BIOS region" by hitting onto the right-direction arrow in front of it, you will see a picture like one of these:
UEFITool Guide Pic3.png1486×789 33.2 KB

UEFITool Guide Pic4.png1487×789 31.4 KB

Due to the complicated and mainboard specific internal structure of the "BIOS region", it may be rather time consuming to find the DXE Volume, where all the EFI modules are located and where an additional EFI module like the NVMe one has to be inserted. The easiest way to find it, is to use the "Search" option of the UEFITool.
This is what I recommend to do after having opened the source BIOS with the UEFITool:
- Click onto the menu tab "File" and choose the option "Search...". Now you will get access to the UEFITool "Search" pop-up window.
- Click onto the tab "Text" and enter the word "DXE" into the Text box (the "Unicode" option will be checked by default). This is the related picture:
- Once you have hit the "OK" button, you will get a picture like this:
  UEFITool Guide Pic6.png1486×789 44.1 KB
- Double click onto any line of the "Messages" you can see at the bottom of the UEFITool GUI. The result is a picture like this one:
  UEFITool Guide Pic7.png1486×789 56.2 KB
- As you can see, you are now within the "Compressed section" of a "DXE driver" (which one doesn't matter).
  This verifies, that you are now within the DXE Volume of the BIOS (= location, where the EFI modules are stored and can be inserted).

If you close the sub-folders of the related DXE driver GUID by clicking onto the downside arrow in front of it, you will get a picture like this, where all the GUIDs are listed, which are inside the DXE Volume:
UEFITool Guide Pic8.png1486×789 47.7 KB
Important: Make sure, that the target DXE Volume contains a module named “CSMCORE”.
Reason: Some BIOSes contain more than 1 DXE Volume, but only the one with the CSMCORE module is suitable for the insertion of a natively not present EFI module.
Note: In the very rare case, that no module named CSMCORE is listed, you have to search for the upmost Volume, which contains modules with the letters “DXE” within their name.

b) Insertion of the NVMe module

Once you have expanded the DXE Volume, scroll down to the undermost module, which is listed within the DXE Volume and has a GUID (no matter, whether its Subtype is "DXE driver" or "Freeform" and whether it is listed at the rightmost column with a "text").
Here is the related picture (in this example it is the DXE File named "PcieLaneDXE", but - depending on the specific BIOS - it may have any other or even no name):
UEFITool Guide Pic9.png946×421 26.1 KB

Right-click onto the GUID of the undermost listed "DXE driver" or "Freeform" module, choose the option "Insert after...", navigate to the EFI NVMe module file you want to insert (must have the suffix *.ffs!), and double-click onto it.
After having done that, you hopefully will see a picture like this:
UEFITool Guide Pic10.png946×421 27.3 KB

Note: If the UEFITool should not be able to insert the desired module properly, it will give you the message “Not enough space within the Volume”. In this case you should try to get the “small” variant of the NVMe module inserted. If there should not even be enough space for this small sized module, I recommend to follow the advices given by MeatWar within the first post of >this< thread.

Don't forget to save the modded BIOS as final step of the modding procedure. You can start it either by clicking onto "File" > "Save image file..." or by hitting CTRL+S. Then you can navigate to the folder, which has been designed for the modded BIOS (e.g. D:\Mod BIOS), choose a meaningful BIOS file name with an appropriate suffix (you can use any suffix, if you choose the "All files" option) and click onto the "Save" button.

c) Verification of the successful insertion

Immediately after you have saved the modded BIOS the UEFITool will offer you the option to open the reconstructed file. Click onto "Yes".
If you had already closed the UEFITool, you will have to re-run the tool as written above.

Expand the content of the "BIOS region" and its GUIDs until you have found the specific GUID again, which contains the modules of the Subtype "DXE driver".

Scroll down and search for the "DXE driver" with the right hand text "NvmExpressDxE_5" resp. "NvmExpressDxe_small" (depending on what you had inserted).

Expand the sub-sections of the freshly inserted NVMe module by clicking onto the downside arrows.
This is, what you should see:
UEFITool Guide Pic11.png946×421 26.4 KB

Warning:
In some cases the UEFITool may remove an existing “Pad-file” of the BIOS or create a natively not present Pad-file while executing its NVMe module insertion task (trying to “repair” a supposedly wrong BIOS structure). To avoid later problems after having flashed the modded BIOS, I recommend insistently to compare the entire “DXE Driver Volume” of the original and the just modified BIOS regarding the presence and location of Pad-files by using the UEFITool (the MMTool doesn’t show the “Pad-files”). The best visual way for such comparison is to open the original and modded BIOS side by side. For details look >here<. The only difference between the original and the modded BIOS should be, that a new DXE driver named “NvmExpressDxe_5” resp. “NvmExpressDxe_small” has been added. All other listed modules should be untouched by the BIOS modification.
If you should realize, that within the modded BIOS a natively present Pad-file module is missing resp. has been moved or a natively not present Pad-file has been added by the UEFITool, post a report into this thread, but don’t flash this modded BIOS!
If everything looks fine, you can be sure, that the related module has been properly inserted into the correct GUID section, and you can save the modded BIOS and give it an appropriate name and suffix (usually similar to the original BIOS).

Only for ASUS BIOSes, whose capsule had been removed by extracting the “Body”, but shall be flashed by using the ASUS USB Flashback feature:
Don’t forget to re-insert the original capsule and to save the modded BIOS as *.CAP file according to >this< guide written by MeatWar.

Step 3 - Flashing of the modded BIOS:

The related detailed Guide can be found >here<. If you have a question regarding the BIOS flashing procedure or if you should run into a problem while trying to flash your modded BIOS, please post into >this< thread and not here.

Warning:
Please keep in mind, that this is the only really risky part of this Guide.
For BIOS modding beginners it is strictly recommended
a) to double-check the integrity of their modded BIOS and
b) to read carefully >this< Guide
before flashing any modified BIOS

Additional Notes: (open/hide by a click)

The preparation and the exact BIOS Flashing procedure depends on the mainboard's manufacturer and maybe even on the mainboard model (for details look into the manual of your mainboard).

As medium for the modded BIOS during the flashing procedure you should take a 100% working and freshly FAT32 formatted USB 2.0 Flash Drive. It should contain just the modded "pure" BIOS file and nothing else.

It is not recommended to flash a modded BIOS from within the OS.

After having successfully flashed the modded BIOS, don't forget to re-enter the BIOS, to redo your personal BIOS settings and to make sure, that your system will be able to boot in UEFI mode.

Users, who don't know where to find the specific BIOS settings, which are mentioned within this Guide, should set the BIOS language to "English".

Verification of the successful BIOS Modding/Flashing:
(this test requires temporarily the BIOS option to Boot in LEGACY mode)
- Make sure, that the NVMe SSD is connected to the mainboard.
- Enter the BIOS and choose the "BOOT" section.
- Set "CSM" to "Enabled". The "Boot Mode" setting - if applicable - should be "LEGACY" or "AUTO", but not "UEFI".
- Look for the listed bootable Disk Drives.
  If you now can see a new disk drive named "PATA" or "PATA_SS", you can be sure,
- Don't forget to reset the BIOS settings, which had been altered for this test.

Don't try to boot off the listed disk drive named "PATA" or "PATA_SS"! You will not succeed, because the required Option ROM is usually missing within the NVMe SSD. Nobody (except the user of a Samsung 950 PRO) is able to boot off an NVMe SSD in LEGACY mode.

Step 4 - Installation of Win10/11 onto the NVMe SSD:

Open Guide: (open/hide by a click)

A. Preparation/Notes:
- If not already done, you can now insert the NVMe SSD resp. its M.2>PCIe adapter into the M.2 port resp. PCIe slot, which offers the best possible performance and doesn’t share the PCI lanes with other devices (please look into your mainboard manual):
- Enter the BIOS and look for the changes, which were caused by the BIOS modification (insertion of the NVMe EFI module). Don't be afraid about the fact, that the NVMe SSD's manufacturer and model will not be shown there (it will be bootable nevertheless later on). The only difference should be, that within the "BOOT" section now a new "Legacy Mode" device named "PATA" or "PATA_SS" is listed (only visible, when CSM has been temporarily set to "Enabled"). That is your NVMe SSD, but don't try to boot off it - only Samsung 950 Pro SSDs can boot in Legacy mode, because it has the required NVMe Option ROM in-the-box. All other NVMe SSDs can only boot in "UEFI Mode", but this requires the creation of an EFI Boot Sector named "Windows Boot Manager", which will be done during the installation of the OS (see next step).

B. Best/safest procedure to get Win10/11 properly installed onto an NVMe SSD:
1. Save the important data, which are currently on the NVMe SSD.
2. Create an UEFI mode bootable USB Flash drive containing the desired Win10 image by using the latest version of the tool Rufus (important: choose the UEFI mode partition table = GPT).
  Here is a picture, which shows the most important Rufus settings:
  Rufus 3.17 Settings.png490×580 16.5 KB
  
  Important note: Usually the USB Flash Drive has to be FAT32 formatted to be bootable in UEFI mode, but this file system cannot be created, if any file within the ISO file (e.g. the install.wim) is bigger sized than 4 GB. In this case the tool Rufus will automaticly format the USB Flash Drive by using the NTFS file system, but nevertheless makes it possible to boot the USB Flash Drive in UEFI mode (provided, that the “Secure Boot” option within the BIOS has been set to “Disabled”).
3. Enter the BIOS and navigate to the "BOOT" section and - if applicable - the "SECURITY" or "Keys" section.
  Make sure, that the "Secure Boot" and "Fast Boot" options have been set to Disabled. The "Compatibility Support Module" (CSM) can either be set to "Disabled" as well (better option, but requires full UEFI compatibility of the graphics adapter) or to "Enabled" with the ability/preference to load EFI BIOS modules for the Storage Disk Drives. If you see BIOS options for the "OS type", choose "other OS". This will disable the Secure Boot setting.
  Tip to avoid SATA/NVMe interferences during the OS installation:
  It is recommended to temporarily unplug all SATA connected devices and additionally to disable the on-board SATA Controller(s) within the "Storage Configuration" section of the BIOS before starting the OS installation.
  These measures of precaution can/should be reversed once the OS installation onto the NVMe SSD has been successfully completed.
4. Insert the prepared USB Flash drive and boot off it in UEFI mode (the related bootable USB drive should be shown by the Boot Manager with the prefix "[UEFI]").
5. When you come to the point, where you have to decide onto which Drive and which partition the OS shall be installed, delete all existing partitions from your NVME supporting SSD.
  After having done that, let the Win10/11 Setup create a new partition for your future drive C: on the related SSD.
  Then point to this just created partition as the desired future OS location.
6. The rest should be done by the Setup automaticly.
  You will get a message, that some additional partitions have to be created. Accept that and follow the advice of the Setup where to install the OS.
7. Once the OS is up and running, shut down the computer, remove the bootable USB Flash driver and reconnect all your previously used storage drives.
8. Before you restart cour computer, make sure, that the NVMe SSD resp. its listed "Windows Boot Manager" is on top of the bootable storage drives.

C. Data Recovery from the previously used system drive: (not recommended)
- Since the required boot sector of an NVMe SSD is not compatible with the boot sector of a SATA SSD (although both boot partitions may be named "Windows Boot Manager"), you will not succeed by simply transfering the data of your previously used SATA SSD to the NVMe SSD.
  On the other hand a clean install of the currently latest OS version is a good opportunity to get rid of the complete data garbage, which has been accumulated in the past and decreased the performance of the system drive.
  That is why I strongly recommend to do a clean OS installation onto the NVMe SSD and not to try a recovery of the previous used drive C: data.

This is what you hopefully will get:

Benchmark Results: (open/hide by a click)

Here are some benchmark results I got with my Z68 system running 2 different NVMe supporting SSDs:

400 GB Intel 750 PCIe SSD:

256 GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD (connected via M.2>PCIe adapter card):

256 GB Samsung SM951 NVMe M.2 SSD (connected via M.2>PCIe adapter card):

Any feedback is much appreciated!
If you are satisfied with my work/support, you can send a donation to my personal Win-RAID CA PayPal account by clicking onto >this< link.

Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)

CodeRush · April 3, 2015, 10:46am

Speaking of NVMe integration: this is not just a DXE driver to add into the firmware and proper NVMe support often requires a platform code update, new storage initialization code, changed to BIOS setup, new PEI driver and so on. It’s not an easy task to get full NVMe support on previous Aptio4-based motherboards and I really doubt someone of 3rd parties can do it.

Hyperia · April 3, 2015, 10:58am

Ok bro

I’ll Try

Let’s start by noting the differences between the bios before this compatibility and those now ?

Fernando · April 3, 2015, 11:34am

Since my ASRock Z97 Extreme6 mainboard offers NVMe support, I have done a look into the latest BIOS 2.01 Beta dated 03/19/2015, but could only find 2 modules with "nvme" within their names (the other ones may be hidden and just listed with a GUID). Both "nvme" modules have been attached as uncompressed files, but - as CodeRush already stated - users will not get NVMe support by simply inserting them.

NVMe_modules_of_BIOS_201.rar (15.1 KB)

Hyperia · April 3, 2015, 12:28pm

Do not you have the tools to compare bit by bit the differences between these two bios ?
Someone to take the test using a motherboard with 2 bios ? (Gigabyte ?)

Fernando · April 3, 2015, 12:32pm

Yes, you can use an Hex Editor like HxD, if you want to compare the hex code of 2 different BIOS modules, but you will need 2 rather similar ones. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.

Hyperia · April 3, 2015, 12:43pm

Hmm … you just have to make the right version before right ?
it seems so obvious that subtlety in the translation must escape.

There must be a new bios for which the release notes do not indicate that the addition of NVMe compatibility

SkOrPn · April 5, 2015, 3:42am

I’m curious, since both Intel and the NVMe guys said that NVMe is compatible with older legacy BIOS systems. How would we go about starting the quest to see about pulling these NVMe parts out of EUFI BIOS files, and seeing if they fit/work on older legacy BIOS systems?

Just curious now that Intel introduced a NVMe PCIe card that seems affordable. Thanks

Fernando · April 5, 2015, 9:43am

AFAIK this wouldn’t make much sense, because you won’t get the NVMe supporting SSD bootable.
For details you may read >this< article.

SkOrPn · April 5, 2015, 7:12pm

AFAIK this wouldn’t make much sense, because you won’t get the NVMe supporting SSD bootable.
For details you may read >this< article.

NVMe already works on all systems with PCIe for extra storage, but on our legacy BIOS in order to boot to it you need it in the BIOS, just like AHCI is in the BIOS. Intel’s bootable NVMe 750 SSD is bootable just like any other storage device, the only difference is it uses NVMe instead of AHCI or RAID to do the communication. If you replace the AHCI OROM with a NVMe OROM, then you just select NVMe in the BIOS instead of AHCI. Then install as the OS usual. Windows and Linux already have the drivers for NVMe built in, just like they have drivers for AHCI. The OS will see the device instantly. All we need is the NVMe orom bits placed in our BIOS files.

Intel already confirmed all of this Fernando, NVMe is compatible with legacy BIOS and its bootable. Its now up to the manufacturers to write the NVMe oroms for our bios (which wont be done), or have 3rd parties figure out how to include it, like was done with the Intel OROMs which were also not made for our aging systems. It shouldn’t be that difficult to figure out.

Someone, like me, has to start poking around somewhere… lol

Fernando · April 5, 2015, 8:07pm

Only the latest Windows Operating Systems from Win8.1 up do natively support NVMe.

I am not sure, whether the chipset manufacturers will develop special Option ROM modules for NVMe support. They are not interested in supporting old (= non-UEFI) systems.

SkOrPn · April 5, 2015, 10:43pm

Only the latest Windows Operating Systems from Win8.1 up do natively support NVMe.

I am not sure, whether the chipset manufacturers will develop special Option ROM modules for NVMe support. They are not interested in supporting old (= non-UEFI) systems.

No the manufacturers won’t be making new bios’s with NVMe support, that is obvious. But I have the Asus NVMe rom already, Asus released it on April 3rd for their current ROG series. I just need to know how to pull the option rom out of the UEFI bios, and then check its size. If its under 128 Kbytes maybe I can mod it into a legacy bios? I will contact Intel and see if they would be willing to write a NVMe OROM for one of their Legacy BIOS based Motherboards. It just needs to be under 128 Kbytes as far as I know. If I can get that built, then I can mod it into my BIOS myself.

NVMe has been used for years now, so chances are they were already built for specific BIOS systems in the server sector. Someone probably already has the code lying around somewhere.

Fernando, is their a tool that can edit UEFI? Can MMTOOL do it?

Fernando · April 5, 2015, 10:57pm

What lets you think, that it is an Option ROM and not an EFI module?

This is very easy by using AMI’s Aptio UEFI MMTool.

The NVMe module of my ASRock Z97 mainboard is very small (19 KB uncompressed).

What do you want to edit?

The AMI Aptio UEFI MMTool is able to extract any module off an UEFI BIOS.

SkOrPn · April 5, 2015, 11:12pm

Most excellent information. Thank you very much.

I do not know the differences from option rom and efi modules, which is why I created this thread to learn what is needed for this goal.

Fernando · April 5, 2015, 11:31pm

The EFI modules cannot be used, when the OS has been installed in LEGACY mode.
The Option ROM modules are usually all together within the UEFI BIOS module named CSMCORE. For details please look into the start post of >this< thread.

Hyperia · April 6, 2015, 11:12pm

Have you good news for me ?

Fernando · April 6, 2015, 11:31pm

If you should mean me, which good news do you expect from my side?
I am not able to create the code of an NVMe Option ROM module. The structure and the content of Option ROM and EFI "Driver" modules are completely different.

mr_nuub · April 11, 2015, 4:06pm

Here is an ASRock mainboard with support for NVMe in BIOS version 1.80: LINK
And here a user assumes, that RST OROM and EFI driver module 13.1 or above is enough to get NVMe working: LINK

plutomaniac · April 11, 2015, 4:31pm

From v13.2.0.1016 release notes & OEM documentation (Note 5):

mr_nuub · April 11, 2015, 4:51pm

So this means, that RST support for NVMe devices way delayed to version 13.7.
But the ASRock X99 Extreme3 hast NVMe support with RST 13.1 and 13.2 modules in BIOS.
Conflicting information OR RST support and general support are two totally different things…

Is the OEM documentation for RST 13.5 and 14.0 available online?
Maybe some documentation for RSTe 4.1?