How to setup Optane M10 on Inspiron 17 7000

Question

I have an Inspiron 17 1700 with Optane M10 chip that ran started getting 'No bootable drive' error. I ended up reinstalling Windows 10, but every time I try to setup the Optane drive I end up back at the 'No Bootable drive' error.

I can get Windows 10 running just fine, but when I install the 'Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Management Console' version 17.5.0.1017 or the Intel RST driver it reboots and then ends up with the 'No bootable drive' error.

Is there a good set of instruction on how to get it working for this machine? I've tried to follow the Intel Optane setup instructions, but always run into this error.

Any ideas for me?

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@balesse did you change your system to AHCI mode instead of RAID mode? Optane requires RAID mode, which means that you might need to provide the Intel RST driver during Windows Setup. If you switched to AHCI mode trying to bypass that, then that's probably the source of your problem. If you go here to get the latest Intel RST driver version, get the "floppy" version to get a simple zip file with the drivers you'll need during Windows Setup. Extract those to a folder on the flash drive you use for installing Windows 10. Put your system in RAID mode, and at the point in Windows Setup where you're asked where to install Windows 10, click "Load Driver" (you might have to click Advanced first) and select this driver.

And just for future reference, "Inspiron 17 7000" isn't a specific model; it's a model series that includes several systems introduced over the last few years. Your specific model name would be something like Inspiron 7790, for example.

balesse · Answer

Loading the driver before installing windows is what I was missing! I had seen some references to loading a driver then, but had not realized it was the Optane driver that I needed at that point. The system is now up and running with Optane - just downloading the last of the Dell updates now.

It still would be nice to know what caused this issue in the first place. I sort of suspect that it got some sort of update that messed up the Optane link, since the owner said the machine had updated before all of this started.

Right now I'm just happy to have it up and running. Thanks!

jphughan · Answer

@balesse Glad you're all set! I haven't worked with Optane specifically, but it sounds similar to trying to switch between RAID and AHCI mode, which will render an existing Windows installation unbootable because those two modes require loading a completely different type of storage driver at boot, and Windows won't automatically switch to the the other type if you set the system up to the opposite mode. Very basically, Windows only performs a full hardware inventory the very first time it boots after being installed. From then on, it records information about certain boot-critical devices and configures itself to load the drivers appropriate for those devices, simply assuming that all of those devices will always be there on subsequent boots. That significantly improves boot time compared to performing a full hardware discovery every time -- and of course in most cases it's reasonable to assume that the core hardware won't change over the lifetime of a system -- but that design does mean that there are certain components you can't simply reconfigure or replace and expect Windows to continue booting properly.

So my guess is that if you set up Windows without an Optane driver specifically loaded, then it uses some generic driver that works for basic functionality but doesn't set up Optane. And so if you then try to introduce a real Optane driver later on, then Windows stops booting properly. But if on the other hand you introduce the Optane driver right upfront, then Windows sets itself up to use that properly in the first place.

But again, that's just a guess since I haven't used Optane personally. Glad you're good to go though!

Inspiron

How to setup Optane M10 on Inspiron 17 7000

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