Greetings. I am on:
4,1 MP flashed to 5,1
Radeon RX 580
64 GB RAM
2x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Catalina (10.15.7)
Boot ROM MP51.0089.B00
SATA SSD as boot disk
2x NVME M.2 blades via PCIe adapters on my two PCIe 4x lanes remaining after putting in the GPU (which covers my two 16x lanes)
All works perfectly, except I cannot boot from the NVMEs on the PCIe lanes, only from the SATA SSD
The GPU isn't boot-compatible, but I've still been able to get into Recovery in the past
After Installing the two NVMEs, Recovery would still load for about 2 days.
But then stopped letting me get in. Recovery no longer loads at all ever, it just goes straight to regular desktop on boot
This is the case even trying Option, Command, Cmd-Shift-I, Cmd-Shift-R, Cmd-R, etc. etc. when starting up
I have done the PRAM reset twice
Just no way to get to any kind of pre-startup interface anymore.
I've installed the kernel extensions that make the computer recognize the NVMEs as internal rather than the default external.
That works, it now labels them as internal.
But still no boot capability.
I have tried cloning my SSD over to my NVMEs, also tried Dosdude's Catalina Installer
All copies over fine, but I cannot boot from the NVMEs even if I remove the SSD from the machine before booting
I've tried to pull out everything from the machine except one of the NVMEs and boot from a USB to install MacOS. Doesn't work.
I've also tried just designating the NVME as the boot disk through System Preferences. Lets me select the NVME as the boot, but still boots from the SATA SSD.
Additionally, something I did notice in the past when I was able to get into Recovery was that I couldn't get Into Startup Security Utility ... it would say that my firmware doesn't support it
It would let me select the startup disk from the Apple menu in Recovery, though, but that still wouldn't boot from anything other than the SSD on the SATA
The only things I can still think of are:
Is there an issue because I'm running Catalina on a non-Metal-native machine? Should I downgrade to Mojave, and if so what would I be losing vs Catalina?
And I thought the question when it comes to bootable disks on PCIe is more around the Boot ROM version. Which, I believe mine is a later version than the minimum requirement (MP51.0089.B00)...
Is it possible that an NVME to PCIe adapter (Sabrent) is non-bootable? I searched MacRumors and Reddit, and have found accounts of other people in my exact situation with the Sabrent adapters working just fine as boot. So I have mostly ruled this out.
What am I missing here?
I've read countless accounts of people with a 5,1 flashed from 4,1 who are able to boot from the PCIe slots without a problem.
When being used as storage disks, the NVMEs are getting 1,300 mb/s read & write speeds through those Sabrent adapters. My boot SSD is getting 250 through the SATA port. That's a big difference, and it's noticeable if I run a more resource-intensive program like Lightroom on the NVMEs vs the SATA SSD.
So, the allure of booting from one of those much faster drives is strong enough for me to keep trying things until I can get it to work. I assume those read & write speeds will also translate to faster overall performance with the OS running on them -- please correct me if I am wrong!
Thank you
4,1 MP flashed to 5,1
Radeon RX 580
64 GB RAM
2x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Catalina (10.15.7)
Boot ROM MP51.0089.B00
SATA SSD as boot disk
2x NVME M.2 blades via PCIe adapters on my two PCIe 4x lanes remaining after putting in the GPU (which covers my two 16x lanes)
All works perfectly, except I cannot boot from the NVMEs on the PCIe lanes, only from the SATA SSD
The GPU isn't boot-compatible, but I've still been able to get into Recovery in the past
After Installing the two NVMEs, Recovery would still load for about 2 days.
But then stopped letting me get in. Recovery no longer loads at all ever, it just goes straight to regular desktop on boot
This is the case even trying Option, Command, Cmd-Shift-I, Cmd-Shift-R, Cmd-R, etc. etc. when starting up
I have done the PRAM reset twice
Just no way to get to any kind of pre-startup interface anymore.
I've installed the kernel extensions that make the computer recognize the NVMEs as internal rather than the default external.
That works, it now labels them as internal.
But still no boot capability.
I have tried cloning my SSD over to my NVMEs, also tried Dosdude's Catalina Installer
All copies over fine, but I cannot boot from the NVMEs even if I remove the SSD from the machine before booting
I've tried to pull out everything from the machine except one of the NVMEs and boot from a USB to install MacOS. Doesn't work.
I've also tried just designating the NVME as the boot disk through System Preferences. Lets me select the NVME as the boot, but still boots from the SATA SSD.
Additionally, something I did notice in the past when I was able to get into Recovery was that I couldn't get Into Startup Security Utility ... it would say that my firmware doesn't support it
It would let me select the startup disk from the Apple menu in Recovery, though, but that still wouldn't boot from anything other than the SSD on the SATA
The only things I can still think of are:
Is there an issue because I'm running Catalina on a non-Metal-native machine? Should I downgrade to Mojave, and if so what would I be losing vs Catalina?
And I thought the question when it comes to bootable disks on PCIe is more around the Boot ROM version. Which, I believe mine is a later version than the minimum requirement (MP51.0089.B00)...
Is it possible that an NVME to PCIe adapter (Sabrent) is non-bootable? I searched MacRumors and Reddit, and have found accounts of other people in my exact situation with the Sabrent adapters working just fine as boot. So I have mostly ruled this out.
What am I missing here?
I've read countless accounts of people with a 5,1 flashed from 4,1 who are able to boot from the PCIe slots without a problem.
When being used as storage disks, the NVMEs are getting 1,300 mb/s read & write speeds through those Sabrent adapters. My boot SSD is getting 250 through the SATA port. That's a big difference, and it's noticeable if I run a more resource-intensive program like Lightroom on the NVMEs vs the SATA SSD.
So, the allure of booting from one of those much faster drives is strong enough for me to keep trying things until I can get it to work. I assume those read & write speeds will also translate to faster overall performance with the OS running on them -- please correct me if I am wrong!
Thank you
