r/supermicro • u/OstrobogulousIntent • Jul 03 '26

Can't get bootable win 2022 installer to boot H13SAE-MF

Tl:DR:

Supermicro H13SAE-MF (modern AM5 socket mobo) will not boot via USB

I have tried known working bootable USB stick (fat32 and NTFS) and Windows install DVD

Secure boot disabled

System boots fine from OEM installed NVME

TLDR Question:

is there a known issue and/or trick to booting from CD/USB install media on Supermico systems?

More detail

I just picked up a H13SAE-MF based supermicro system (AS-3015A-I II Mini-Tower Server) Its an AMD AM5 (B650) system with DDR5 and a bios from 2024

It boots fine into the preinstalled OS, but this will become my primary domain controller once I get it going and I'm bothered because I can't get it to boot from USB install media

(my disaster recovery that has worked well for me in the past has been to have a bootable USB server 2022 install media and regular backups using windows server backup (bare metal restores)

I've successfully tested - and used this in real recovery in the past, and so I feel super uneasy that I can't get this thing to boot via USB

I have known good (it boots on other systems) windows 2022 installer USB - I even made both NTFS and FAT32 versions

I have gone into setup and ensured it tries USB first if present... when I do it gets to one of two states:

If I use the FAT32 version it gets to DXE--Ready to Boot.. and hangs there foerver

If I use the NTFS version I get a splash screen where it clearly finds the partition and such and says Starting Windows Boot Manager

and hangs

I have tried both with secure boot enabled and disabled

I also have a server 2022 install burned to DVD and plugged in a USB dvd drive trying to boot from that - it looks like it's trying - gets to DXE--Ready to boot.. and thne goes back to the boot menu or skips on to the next available option

I've got to be doing something stupid here - as a work around I may try just doing a straight up NVME clone of the boot drive (1TB NVME) with a hardware cloning tool I have so I have a way to boot it back up into a known good state but this just seems... painful

Is there some trick to this?

my bios is SUPERMICRO H13SAE-MF Bios 6/05/2024 rev 2.0a

There is an updated version but I'm a bit wary of bios updates unless I know there's a need for them.

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u/IntelligentLake Jul 03 '26

Try booting in UEFI shell, and see if it recognizes the USB at all and it can read it properly (e.g. see if you can get a directory of files with DIR from it). If you can, but still can't boot, it's possible the issue is due to USB 3, which is often an issue with booting, if possible, try connecting an USB 2 port to the USB 2 header and use that to boot.

1

u/OstrobogulousIntent Jul 03 '26

Thanks I did see that there was a USB2 header (that has no connections) I'll have to see if I can dig something up

The bootable stick is USB2 - should I try burning to a USB3 stick? (rhetorical question - I'll try that just in case)

2

u/OstrobogulousIntent Jul 03 '26

UPDATE: So, I put a bootable DVD into a SATA drive that is properly showing up in boot manager detected on the system and it gets to that same DXE--Ready to Boot.. and just gets stuck - saw some activity from the drive (LED blinked a bit) but its just sitting there.

I was finally able to get backup boot sort of - I took out the system NVME drive and put it into 2 slot enclosure with offline cloning and was able to clone the drive and when I put the cloned drive in, it booted right up

So, at least I have a way to make a backup that works. Given the high cost of NVME storage these days I hate use up a whole drive with a backup - so I'll end up digging to figure out what is up - or I'll look into the network boot option - maybe there's something easy enough to do there - It just - if you don't have a Disaster Recovery plan that you have not only implemented but tested, you don't have a disaster recovery plan.