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July 1st, 2022 15:00
XPS 8950, won't boot from SATA SSD
Hi all,
As the title suggests, I cannot boot from my SATA SSD. This PC came with a NVMe SSD that has Windows on it. I installed a SATA SSD that has Linux on it. In the BIOS it sees this other SSD but won't let me choose it as a boot option. I even removed the NVMe SSD just in case, and it still won't boot to the SATA SSD. The master boot record on the SATA SSD is fine, as I just removed it, put it back in my old computer, and am using it now. I am able to boot to a USB stick but not to that SATA SSD. Any ideas?
Thanks
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RoHe
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July 1st, 2022 16:00
How are you booting from USB, via the F12 menu?
Do you see an option to boot from the SATA SSD when you open the F12 menu at when you reboot the PC?
Vic384
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July 1st, 2022 17:00
@anomalyLuna You may have to disable Secure Boot. Since you have an XPS 8950, I assume you have Windows 11 and Secure Boot is very likely enabled (required for Windows 11) in the BIOS.
redxps630
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July 1st, 2022 18:00
Re: The master boot record on the SATA SSD is fine, as I just removed it, put it back in my old computer
would it be possible the OS on the sata SSD was installed in legacy boot mode? if so, another pc of UEFI bios would not be able to boot from it.
RoHe
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July 1st, 2022 19:00
@redxps630 - There is no Legacy mode in BIOS on XPS 8950. The last XPS model to support Legacy mode was XPS 8930.
@anomalyLuna - Did you disable Secure Boot as @Vic384 suggested?
It's also possible it won't boot from the SATA SSD because BIOS is set to RAID rather than AHCI. BUT... if you change BIOS to AHCI without reconfiguring Win 11 first, the PC won't boot from the original NVME SSD when you put it back in.
redxps630
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July 1st, 2022 20:00
Re: The master boot record on the SATA SSD is fine, as I just removed it, put it back in my old computer, and am using it now.
this implies linux was originally installed on the SATA SSD in your old computer. If so, would it be possible that the old computer was booting from legacy bios?
when you say master boot record, if what you mean is MBR, that is used in legacy bios only. If you had used UEFI bios in your old computer to install linux, you would have GPT and not MBR.
SATA SSD with OS installed via legacy bios in the old PC would not boot in UEFI bios environment of 8950. In order to boot from the ssd in 8950, you need to reinstall linux on it via UEFI bios.