Problem installing SSD on a DQ67EW Motherboard

[Punkerwhizz]

Hi

I'm a novice when it comes to hardware really, learning as I go so apologies in advance if this is a daft question. My hard drive died recently so I have tried to update with an SSD. Installed an SSD port in a PCI 4 slot, connected the SSD and installed Windows OK  (partitioned and formatted the SSD)- but, BIOS does not detect the SSD so I can't set the SSD as the primary/ boot drive. I have UEFI boot enabled and have tried all suggested solutions, except updating the BIOS. This I don't seem able to do because Intel no longer provide bios update downloads for the DQ67EW board I have. I don't really want to go back to HDD if I can help it. Any suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.

[n_scott_pearson]

I am sorry to have to tell you this, but your motherboard does not have support for booting from this SSD. Its BIOS has no support for NVMe drives at all. In fact, it wasn't for almost three years after this board was released - and long after the final feature sets of the 6 Series Desktop Board BIOSs were all locked down - that support for booting from NVMe drives regularly appeared in motherboard BIOS releases. Your best bet to get around this is to find an NVMe to PCIe carrier board that also includes a Boot ROM (which adds this support to the BIOS).

Hope this helps,

...S

[Punkerwhizz]

Thanks that's very useful (and info I couldn't find elsewhere!). Is there an easy way to identify if a carrier board includes a boot rom, as a quick search on google/amazon produces plenty of carrier boards but no clear info on whether they include a boot rom or not?

[n_scott_pearson]

This is a toughie. I looked on Amazon (2.5 hours I will never get back), but could not find one that I could say for-sure provided this capability (and I know exactly what I am looking for). It may be that these cards have gone the way of the dodo bird since the demand for them is getting lower and lower all the time.

Let's go back to the beginning. Your motherboard has a 6 Series chipset, which only supports PCIe 2.0. This means that data transfers to and from the SSD can only occur at roughly half of the normally-expected speeds (2.0 GB/s vs. 3.98 GB/s for PCIe 3.0). This, in my mind, makes it problematic already - especially with the lack of NVMe support. Still, it is going to be faster than a SATA SSD.

Your alternatives are to,

1. Find this elusive card that (also) adds NVMe support.
2. Use a SATA SSD/HDD for your boot/system drive and this M.2 SSD only for data/game storage.
3. Use a SATA SSD/HDD as your boot drive but use this M.2 SSD as your system drive (for better OS performance).
4. Just go with a SATA SSD (they are usually cheaper, per gigabyte, than M.2 SSDs).

I like #3, but I am not sure if it is even possible and, if it is, I have never done it so could not competently explain how to do it.

Sorry,

...S

P.S. I actually still have 6 and 8 Series PCs alive and finding a way to add NVMe support intrigues me as well. I will continue to look into it as well.

[Punkerwhizz]

Thanks for the effort, appreciated! As a stop gap I took a SATA SSD out of an old laptop and have used that to get back up and running with no real issues. Just means I am sat with an expensive M.2 SSD that I can't use for the time being! It's a very interesting, although frustrating learning curve. 

[n_scott_pearson]

Well, remember that you can use that SSD for data storage. It also makes it a great place to install games for better performance.

...S

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Punkerwhizz. 

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.  

Due to this product being discontinued, Intel Customer Service no longer supports inquiries for it, I am glad to see that fellow community members have the knowledge and they jumped in and helped. You may also find the Discontinued Products website, helping to address your request.   

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel. Thank you for your understanding. 

Best regards, 

Jocelyn M.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.