Hi,

I'm really hoping for some assistance and ideally some patient guidance.

I'm a long time Mac user that just bought a new Dell XPS 8930 Tower  (i7-8700, 16GB RAM & 256GB SSD & 2TB HDD).

I am NOT used to or well versed in the whole Windows / Win10 / UEFI / PC world, and are probably googling for the wrong terms, so please forgive me for any " obvious " or " clueless " questions.

Brief Explanation:

I'm trying to dual-boot  the computer with a split SSD with both Win10 and Ubuntu installed. I will probably be using both systems equally.

I have tried various ways to install Linux, but no success. I could install LinuxMint on a HDD partition, but cannot boot from or access that partition. The SSD is not visible in Linux at all.

I have tried to change a variety of UEFI / Secure Boot settings, tried to change (Fake)RAID to AHCI, etc, but all without any real success. I've also tried booting from USBs with a variety of Linux distros and versions with limited success.

Basically, I've tried, but reached a point where I'm just lost and fairly clueless about what is possible and what I should do.

My Questions are:

1) Is it  even possible to DUAL-BOOT from the SSD on this PC??

2) Why does the SSD disappear when I try to install Linux?? Is there some simple setting / config to be changed somewhere??

3) Would a full erase of the SSD & HDD drives and reinstall of Win10 solve the problem??

4) IF I do an erase & full reinstall, how do I register Win10 (ie: type in the serial number) so that I can stay legal??

5) I have an  official Dell OS (Recovery) DVD , which have saved me several times. If I use this to reinstall the system, will it setup the system in the same way (ie: overwrite any of my UEFI/config changes) ??

I probably have another 100 questions, but knowing the answers to the above questions would be progress in my world ;(

I'm NOT rich, but will consider paying for assistance that leads to a successful result (if I can afford it).

Thanks for your time and attention.

PS: Details: (just in case)

SSD: KXG60ZNV256G NVMe TOSHIBA 256GB drive.