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=== Install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 9020, 7020 or 3020 === | |||
Install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 9020, 7020 or 3020 | |||
December 25, 2021 by Paulie | December 25, 2021 by Paulie | ||
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Note: If you have a spare jumper you could leave the password jumper in place. | Note: If you have a spare jumper you could leave the password jumper in place. | ||
[[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-Service-Mode.jpg| | [[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-Service-Mode.jpg|700px]] | ||
Image of Dell Optiplex 7020 Motherboard Service mode pins. | Image of Dell Optiplex 7020 Motherboard Service mode pins. | ||
[[File:OptiPlex-3020-Service-Mode.jpg| | [[File:OptiPlex-3020-Service-Mode.jpg|700px]] | ||
Service Mode pins for Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF | Service Mode pins for Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF | ||
[[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-9020-Service-Mode.jpg| | [[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-9020-Service-Mode.jpg|700px]] | ||
Image of Dell Optiplex 3020 Motherboard Service mode pins. | Image of Dell Optiplex 3020 Motherboard Service mode pins. | ||
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When your machine is booted up again you can take a backup of your existing firmware. Open a command prompt as administrator: | When your machine is booted up again you can take a backup of your existing firmware. Open a command prompt as administrator: | ||
[[File:Run-Command-Prompt-Administrator.png| | [[File:Run-Command-Prompt-Administrator.png|600px]] | ||
Showing how to run a command prompt as an administrator | Showing how to run a command prompt as an administrator | ||
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cd "\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64" fptw64.exe -d backup.bin | cd "\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64" fptw64.exe -d backup.bin | ||
[[File:Optiplex-7020-3020-Backup-BIOS-Intel-FPT.png| | [[File:Optiplex-7020-3020-Backup-BIOS-Intel-FPT.png|700px]] | ||
Image of output from Intel Flash Programming Tool when taking a backup of a Dell OptiPlex BIOS | Image of output from Intel Flash Programming Tool when taking a backup of a Dell OptiPlex BIOS | ||
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Image of UEFI Tool with a Dell BIOS Image loaded. | Image of UEFI Tool with a Dell BIOS Image loaded. | ||
[[File:Optiplex-7020-UEFITool.png| | [[File:Optiplex-7020-UEFITool.png|700px]] | ||
Scroll to the bottom of this section and you should see an area that looks like this: | Scroll to the bottom of this section and you should see an area that looks like this: | ||
[[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-Location.png| | [[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-Location.png|700px]] | ||
Image of correct location to insert NVMe driver in Dell OptiPlex BIOS | Image of correct location to insert NVMe driver in Dell OptiPlex BIOS | ||
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Right click the item and choose Insert After: | Right click the item and choose Insert After: | ||
[[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-InsertAfter.png| | [[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-InsertAfter.png|700px]] | ||
Choose the file NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just downloaded and you will see it appear right after the item that you selected: | Choose the file NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just downloaded and you will see it appear right after the item that you selected: | ||
[[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-Inserted.png| | [[File:Insert-NVME-DXE-Inserted.png|700px]] | ||
Image of NVMe Driver being inserted into Dell Optiplex BIOS | Image of NVMe Driver being inserted into Dell Optiplex BIOS | ||
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You should get output like this: | You should get output like this: | ||
[[File:Optiplex-7020-Write-NVMe-BIOS-1.png| | [[File:Optiplex-7020-Write-NVMe-BIOS-1.png|500px]] | ||
Shut down the machine and take the jumper off the service pins and move it back to the password reset pins if you took it from there. | Shut down the machine and take the jumper off the service pins and move it back to the password reset pins if you took it from there. | ||
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You should be able to see the adapter in the BIOS: | You should be able to see the adapter in the BIOS: | ||
[[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-NVMe-Bios-System-Information-1024x576.png| | [[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-NVMe-Bios-System-Information-1024x576.png|600px]] | ||
Image of System Information screen from a Dell Optiplex 7020 BIOS. | Image of System Information screen from a Dell Optiplex 7020 BIOS. | ||
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If you are not going to have any SATA drives connected you need to disable them in the BIOS, here you can see I have disabled all of the ports that do not have a drive connected: | If you are not going to have any SATA drives connected you need to disable them in the BIOS, here you can see I have disabled all of the ports that do not have a drive connected: | ||
[[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-NVMe-Bios-SATA-Options-1024x576.png| | [[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-NVMe-Bios-SATA-Options-1024x576.png|600px]] | ||
Disabling the un-used ports prevents an error on startup. | Disabling the un-used ports prevents an error on startup. | ||
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Finally, if you want the maximum possible speed from your new drive, consider disabling C-States in the BIOS. This makes it marginally faster, but I doubt you would notice much difference: | Finally, if you want the maximum possible speed from your new drive, consider disabling C-States in the BIOS. This makes it marginally faster, but I doubt you would notice much difference: | ||
[[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-Disable-C-States-1024x576.png| | [[File:Dell-Optiplex-7020-Disable-C-States-1024x576.png|600px]] | ||
Now you should be bale to boot from an NVMe Drive natively using a PCIe adapter! | Now you should be bale to boot from an NVMe Drive natively using a PCIe adapter! | ||
Latest revision as of 04:37, 2 February 2025
Install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 9020, 7020 or 3020
December 25, 2021 by Paulie
In this post I will show you how you can modify the BIOS of your Dell OptiPlex 9020, 7020 or 3020 so that they can support an NVMe SSD drive as a boot device. These machines have a UEFI BIOS, but they do not contain an NVMe driver. By adding the driver into the BIOS you can boot from a PCIe NVMe SSD.
Required Hardware
In order to carry out this upgrade, you will need a few things:
An NVMe SSD. I used a 512Gb Samsung 970 EVOPlus An NVMe to PCIe Adapter, I used this one from Amazon. A Dell OptiPlex 9020, 7020 or 3020 to upgrade. I have personally tried this procedure on the 3020 and 7020 Small Form Factor and a 9020 Minitower. It works for every variant of the machine. There are slight variations in the procedure for each machine.
Procedure Overview
This process involves five steps:
Upgrade your current BIOS if required. A18 for the OptiPlex 7020. A20 for the OptiPlex 3020. A25 for the OptiPlex 9020. Backup your current BIOS. Add NVMe driver support into the BIOS backup. Writing the modified BIOS back to the system. Install the PCIe NVMe SSD and Adapter. Optimise BIOS settings. Machine Preparation
Before starting the the physical installation of the NVMe SSD you can do all of the required preparation while the machine is running on your existing drive.
Upgrade your BIOS
The first step, is to upgrade your current BIOS:
A18 for the OptiPlex 7020. A20 for the OptiPlex 3020. A25 for the OptiPlex 9020. Just download the BIOS update from the Dell website and run the update. Before the update runs it will show your current version and the version that you will be updated to:
Dell BIOS Update Utility for Dell Optiplex
Install Intel Management Engine Components
Next install the Intel Management Engine Components from Dell. These management components will allow you to access the BIOS in order to back it up. Reboot once after installation of the management tools.
Download Intel Management Engine Tools
Now download Intel ME System Tools and extract the Zip file to your machine. For the purposes of this blog post I will assume that it has been extracted to: C:\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7.
The Intel ME System Tools will be used to backup the BIOS and write the modified image back to the machine.
Backup your current BIOS
Parts of the BIOS are protected and cannot be read to or written from. In order to get a complete backup the machine must be put into service mode.
Switch the machine off completely. Disconnect it from the mains Power. Move the jumper from the two pin PSWD connector, to the two PIN SERVICE_MODE connector. It is located between the Power Supply and the PCI Slot closest to it: Note: If you have a spare jumper you could leave the password jumper in place.
Image of Dell Optiplex 7020 Motherboard Service mode pins.
Service Mode pins for Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF
Image of Dell Optiplex 3020 Motherboard Service mode pins.
Service Mode Pins for Dell OptiPlex 3020 SFF
Service Mode Pins for Dell OptiPlex 7020/9020 Mini Tower
Once the machine is in service mode, turn it back on, you will receive some warning notifications:
First a warning informing you that the password has been disabled. Don’t worry about this as you will be putting the password jumper back where it should be soon. It will show this message:
Image of Dell Security Manager warning when the password reset jumper has been removed from Dell OptiPlex
Next, you will also receive a message notifying you that service mode is enabled:
Warning from Dell OptiPlex when the service mode jumpers have been set.
Press F1 to continue and continue to boot normally
When your machine is booted up again you can take a backup of your existing firmware. Open a command prompt as administrator:
Showing how to run a command prompt as an administrator
Run the following commands:
cd "\Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7\Flash Programming Tool\WIN64" fptw64.exe -d backup.bin
Image of output from Intel Flash Programming Tool when taking a backup of a Dell OptiPlex BIOS
The example above is from an OptiPlex 7020, the output from the 3020 will look slightly different as it only has a single flash device and will give output such as:
Platform: Intel(R) H81 Express Chipset Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid
--- Flash Devices Found --- MX25L6405D ID:0xc22017 Size: 8192KB (65535Kb) Reading Flash [0x800000] 8192KB of 8192KB - 100% complete. Writing flash contents to file "backup.bin"... Memory Dump Complete FPT Operation Passed
You will now have a file named backup.bin which contains a full backup of your BIOS. Leave the command prompt open as we are going to use it again to write the modified BIOS back.
Modify the BIOS Image
Download and open UEFITool 0.28.0 to modify your BIOS (Direct link to version I used).
Open the backup.bin from the previous step in UEFI Tool and expand it like so:
Image of UEFI Tool with a Dell BIOS Image loaded.
Scroll to the bottom of this section and you should see an area that looks like this:
Image of correct location to insert NVMe driver in Dell OptiPlex BIOS
Now, download this NVMe Express Driver and save it to your machine. Next, right click on the final DXE Driver before the Freeform entries. Specifically these is IDs:
D95D6B4F-92FA-4E78-9C48-C68C0813688E for the OptiPlex 7020 or 9020 6C58FC74-64DA-4D83-8BCD-9FD574C97316 for the OptiPlex 3020 Right click the item and choose Insert After:
Choose the file NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs that you just downloaded and you will see it appear right after the item that you selected:
Image of NVMe Driver being inserted into Dell Optiplex BIOS
Now go to File -> Save Image File and save the file as nvme.bin.
Write the new BIOS to the machine
You are now ready to write the new file back to the machine. Go back to the command prompt session. Type the following command:
fptw64.exe -bios -f nvme.bin
You should get output like this:
Shut down the machine and take the jumper off the service pins and move it back to the password reset pins if you took it from there.
Install the PCI NVMe SSD
If you have not yet installed your SSD into the machine, you can do it now. For the 7020 use the blue PCI slot, it is approximately twice as fast as the smaller black one.
For the 3020 you need to install it into the PCI Slot closest to the Power Supply.
Optimise BIOS Settings
Now that you have written the new BIOS, restart the machine.
You should be able to see the adapter in the BIOS:
Image of System Information screen from a Dell Optiplex 7020 BIOS.
If you are not going to have any SATA drives connected you need to disable them in the BIOS, here you can see I have disabled all of the ports that do not have a drive connected:
Disabling the un-used ports prevents an error on startup.
Finally, if you want the maximum possible speed from your new drive, consider disabling C-States in the BIOS. This makes it marginally faster, but I doubt you would notice much difference:
Now you should be bale to boot from an NVMe Drive natively using a PCIe adapter!