Thank you very much for this great guide Fernando. I was able to use Bios Flashback to update to the modded bios. Removed all drives except the Samsung SM951 NVMe, turned off CSM and installed Windows 10 Pro from USB Media. As I have Sandy Bridge CPU I have PCIE 2.0 max on my Asus p8z77v-pro. Installed in a PCIE 16x slot (obviously running at x4).
So for anyone interested in PCIE 2.0 performance here are the benchmark results:
@Fernando I have checked my results above against yours in your first post, I notice that mine are slower, any idea what can be causing this? I have a PCIE Video Card, PCIE sound card and a PCIE WiFI AC card too, could I be saturating the bandwidth as there are only 16 v2.0 lanes for me to use with my Sandy Bridge CPU?
@skank :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your report.
I donāt know it. Maybe you forgot to do some performance settings (similar to the ones I recommend >here< for Intel AHCI systems).
To exclude the other PCIe connected devices, I recommend to unplug all of them and to redo the benchmark test.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
I checked all the configuration steps you mention in the other post, no significant change, well within margins of error. The performance is really good enough anyway and it is a lot of effort to remove all the PCIE cards to diagnose (my PC is rather inaccessible), the result of which will be moot as I need all of them and am stuck on Sandy Bridge anyway. So with that said, I will be happy to leave the performance as is now, it is a massive improvement on my old Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB, so thanks again for allowing me to use this wonderful NVMe SSD on my old Z77 system!
Hey guys, iām a bit new to modding a Bios but have been using PCās (building my own) for about 15 years. I have an older Asrock x79 extreme9 MB with a 3930k I7. Iāve just bought 2 Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe which I have plugged into 2 separate adapter (Lycom DT-129, PCIe 3.0 x4 3.3V5A Host Adapter for PCIe-NVMe M.2 110mm SSD) cards. Idealy I would like to create a bootable raid 0 array out of these two drives but I have followed the instructions here and have successfully modded and flashed the BIOS but I donāt see the Samsung SSDās in the BIOS (so un-able to create a bootable raid. Iām sure I must be missing something obvious but iām just grasping at straws at the moment. Sorry for the noob question, I hope someone can shed some light on this for meā¦ Have a good weekend all, much love 
@Daina :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
According to my knowledge only the latest Intel Chipsets from 100-Series up (e.g. Z170) do support the possibility to create a RAID array consisting of NVMe SSDs by using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Hi,
I saw this thread a few weeks ago and decided that my PC needs a new lease of life and a significantly faster SSD
I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, which i thought should be a fairly easy one to mod as there are good reports here about a GA-Z77X-UD3H (note the extra U in the model name), however, I am struggling as I keep getting errors about exceeding the module size.
I get that I need to take something(s) out to put the new modules in, but what is safe to take out? Is there a list of the modules and what they do somewhere, and which ones are linked in to others? Iām thinking that the āSuper IOā controller (for serial ports) can go, as can probably the ATA controller (AtaCtlrDriver, AtaCtlrDxe, AtaCtlrSmm), or the PXE boot because i donāt use those.
Also will the Dual BIOS save me if I mess it up? Or will it overwrite both BIOS?
I would be grateful if anyone has any advice?
Thank you for the quick response Fernando 
. I see, thatās a bummer. Never mind, Iāll use them as a software raid partition and boot Windows from my SSDās till I can afford to upgrade my processor, MB etc. Many thanks, have a nice weekend
I have an Asus G751JT and it has m.2 slot but no NVMe support.
I tried to mod it with this tool, but it always gives me an error saying "file size exceeds volume size"
I tried the compressed, uncompressed and module without header, but nothing is successful. Also tried both the Insert FFS Options (Insert As is and Insert Compressed).
I ran the program as Administrator.
My BIOS can be downloaded at http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/G751JT/G751JTAS211.zip
@gethyn85 and @rcarlos243 :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
Here are my advices, if there should be not enough space within the BIOS for the insertion of any NVMe module:
- Provided, that your Intel SATA Controller has not been set to āRAIDā I recommend to remove the Intel EFI RAID module named āSataDriverā or āRaidDriverā according >this< guide. If your Intel SATA Controller should run in āRAIDā mode, you may remove any EFI LAN module (only disadvantage: You will not be able to use the āWake-On-LANā option with the related Ethernet Controller).
- Save the BIOS after having done the removal of any EFI module.
- Re-open the BIOS and insert just the already compressed NVMe module named āNvmeExpressDxE_compress.ffsā according my guide (= start post).
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
I was able to delete the Sata Driver and insert the compressed NVMe module.
The problem is I canāt flash the modded BIOS.
using Asus winflash with /nodate gives me an error āinvalid BIOS Fileā.
I tried finding the ASUS USB Flashback procedure, but there is no documentation or known method to do it (the previous ctrl+home with bios placed on root directory doesnāt seem to work on newer asus models).
I also tried the Flashing modified AMI Aptio UEFI using AFU. Tried AFU modified.rom /P /B /K but it gives me an error "ROM file size does not match existing BIOS size."
I also tried the command AFU modified.rom /GAN but I got an error unknown command.
I also tried the AFUWINGUI.exe with option Program All Bocks and Do not check ROM ID but I still get "ROM file size does not match existing BIOS size."
I also tried the uncompressed NVMe module and insert it both as is and compressed but it didnāt made any difference.
EDIT:
I also tried the FTK from ā>hardforum.com<ā but I get Error 280: Failed to disable write protection for the BIOS Space!
my BIOS is the oldest one.
Theoretically ~2GB/s. 2GB/s is just the beginning of NVMe.
Please do not forget, that PCIe 3.0 is requiered for NVMe.
PCIe 2.0 is not supported and will never be.
I didnāt want to insult you, Iām sorry. But If you want NVMe for Z77/Z87,
you really NEED PCIe 3.0. So you have to cut down GPU bandwidth or use the iGPU,
depending on your mainboard.
X79 is still a great platform. Itās outdated, youāre right.
But from this POV, Z77/Z87 are outdated, too.
BUT neither of them have reached EOL status.
Not true.
I have Gigabyte X99-SOC-Force that has m.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 and supports NVMe
I was now able to flash the modded BIOS with the NVMe module thanks to the advice I got from Asus ROG forum.
It turns out I have to dump the existing BIOS on the machine so it will remove the CAP header, I was successfully able to flash the modded BIOS.
The problem is this NVMe mod did not work with my Samsung SM951 NVMe.
I tried both the compressed and uncompressed NVMe module but it didnāt made any difference.
I also tried to remove the EFI LAN driver instead of SATA driver, but it also didnāt made any difference.
I also tried the newest BIOS for my machine and mod it to have the NVMe module, but that also didnāt made any difference.
I made sure to select the option to program all blocks when I flashed the modded BIOS.
I also dump the modded BIOS to verify that the NVMe module is present after I flashed it.
All I got was blackscreen after I power on the machine. I also tried to remove my SATA SSD and just leave my SM951 NVMe, but that didnāt made any difference.
In conclusion this NVMe mod doesnāt work with Asus G751JT
EDIT:
After flashing the modded BIOS with NVMe module, on the BIOS screen there is no NVMe setting like my desktop computer.
Hello to everybody.
Good news for all owners of Asus X79 Deluxe.
Today Asus has released bios 4805 with NVMe support for this motherboard. They use the three modules tested at the beginning of this thread. But for Sabertooth X79 there is not updated bios.
Good luck.
Hi Fernando, I could really use your help.
Had tonnes of problems.
I followed the instructions on the front page, as well as on various other pages in an attempt to get my Intel 750 400gb pci-e ssd to be bootable on my Asus P8Z68 and install win10, but I am having epic problems.
I was able to successfully insert the required FFS file, I was able to flash it, and once I did that, the sad finally showed up.
But only as "pata ss:"
Thatās it.
I tried to install win 10 using USB, and it says that the partition canāt be installed on and is not bootable, and asked me to ensure disk controller is enabled in bios.
I used the āload driverā button and loaded the Intel drivers and it was able to load the initial setup of win10.
After reboot though, even if I press f8 and manually select the new pata ss option, it goes straight to a screen that says "
your pc/device needs to be repaired
The application or operating system couldnāt be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.
File:\windows\system32\winload.exe
Error code: 0x000000e
"
At one point you said that you put the bios into āoptimized defaultsā and āefi compatibleā.
Optimized defaults for me worked fine, but when i changed to efi compatible, my computer no longer booted. It would just sit at a black screen, and afte a few minutes would go to a black screen with a single blinking cursor line.
I had to reset my bios to factory defaults by using the pin method on the physical bios. Iāve had to do that twice now.
No matter what boot settings i use, bios settings, or drivers loaded during installation, i always run into that recovery image above.
When I do the first half of the install, it reboots, i donāt have a āwindows boot manager (Intel 750)ā option, I just have āPata SS:ā and when I select that, it doesnāt continue the install, it just goes straight to that error.
Iāve had to rebuild my BCD about 3 times also.
Can you please assist?
I feel like I must be so closeā¦
It would also be helpful if you wouldnāt mind telling me how you partitioned your drive, GPT/MBR etc, for when you finally got it to work.
Thanks so much!
@coloneljinx :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
Did you redo the previous BIOS settings after having flashed the modded BIOS?
I suspect, that you didnāt unplug all other storage devices except the NVMe supporting SSD and the USB Flash Drive containing the bootable OS image. That it is important, because only this way you can be sure, that the boot sector will be created within the NVMe SSD.
I installed the OS in UEFI mode, that means, that the OS Setup created a GUIMODE Partition Table.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
@Fernando :
Hi Dieter,
Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it.
I did redo the previous bios settings, but there wasnāt really anything to redo. Optimized defaults, and boot priority drive, that was about it. Was there any others I needed? I donāt think there was.
When I tried setting the option of "EFI Compatible", my machine decided to go black and never boot again. Is this right? How did you get yours to work when you did this? Or was this because you unplugged all your others?
I also have the Marvell storage settings as default, and the one that starts with J, but I donāt think they matter. They were default previously too.
Thanks, I will try this.
I remember when SSD drives first came out a decade ago (or whenever) this was the only way I could get the boot sector on that too, looks like weāve come full circle.
This is the one and only thing I have not understood in all the posts and threads iāve read in this. UEFI mode. I see no reference to UEFI mode anywhere in my entire bios for my ASUS p8z68-v pro gen 3.
I will try isolating the drive and see how I go.
I suspect once I plug the old SSD back in, which is active, with the previous boot sector on it, that i will have boot issues, but thatās fine, I will just edit the BCD and remove that entry.
Here goes!
Thank you kindly for your assistance.
Greatly appreciated.
-CJ
What about your graphics adapter? If you use a discrete graphics card, maybe the needed EFI GopDriver is missing within the BIOS.
In this case I recommend to remove the discrete graphics card and to use the CPU integrated Intel HD Graphics adapter.
Zitat von coloneljinx
This is the one and only thing I have not understood in all the posts and threads iāve read in this. UEFI mode. I see no reference to UEFI mode anywhere in my entire bios for my ASUS p8z68-v pro gen 3.
You should see the word "UEFI:" as prefix of the listed bootable USB Flash Drive name.
Precondition is, that you have
a) formatted the USB Flash Drive with the FAT32 file system and
b) have chosen the option to create a Guimode Partition Table, when you created the bootable USB drive (for example by using the tool named Rufus).
Thatās interestingā¦ unplugging my GPU, I had never considered that.
Then again, Iād never heard of Gop until reading this thread. At what point would I put the GPU back in?
Ar, there it is!
My usb flash disk had been formatted with MBR, not GPT.
wunderbar
Iāll give these a try shortly as it will require some unplugging. Iāll have to look into what Gop is too. I assume this is where the computer uses onboard graphics to display post/boot info.