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April 25th, 2020 03:00
Another year another try - missing media driver on windows 10 install xps 9380
Dell XPS 13 (9380) Ubuntu
Core i7 16GB 1024GB SSD 13.3"
(source, in swedish)
Last year I tried to install Windows 10 alongside my pre-installed Ubuntu (dual boot). After struggling a long time I felt I'd come to a dead end, and gave up.
Today I tried once more, double checked everything, and tried some new things, but still nothing. Now, with WSL2 being released I no longer feel the need to have Ubuntu at all, if I just can get Windows 10 working. But I don't get anywhere.
Summary
- I have a Win10 bootable
usb 3.0, UDF, created with the official Media Creation Tool.
usb-c - I have downloaded all drivers I could find here and here, and also this Samsung NVMe Driver
- I've put these on a FAT32 (also tried NTSF) usb 2.0
- I am able to boot and start the installation. After choosing language I am prompted with the uninformative "missing media driver". In the folder explorer that shows up at this stage, I can locate the usb 2.0 with the drivers described above, but the installation does not seem to recognize anything of interest on it at all. I can see subfolders etc. but no files are "picked up" (edit: I now can find drivers after clicking around manually, but nothing seems to work. At first I hadn't unpacked the .cab file but now I have. So I see a bunch of inf files in various folders but nothing working)
- I have tried all permutations of usb-slots, moving them around but with no difference. I previously tried with a bootable usb 2.0 through a adapter, but had the same problem then.
Further notes
- AHCI is enabled
- Secure boot is enabled
- I have not been able to find any drivers on the whole world wide web for Samsung NVMe PM981 which is what my Dell laptop came with. The closest is what I linked above. I also saw this PM991 driver on Dell homepage. This I have not tried.
My hope
I am completely stuck, since the installation does not say anything about which/what (?) driver is missing.
I own this laptop, which came with Ubuntu. I also own a Windows 10 license. But is the reason I have all these problem that I need a certain Dell Windows 10 ISO for 9380 which includes a bunch of magic drivers, and this is beyond my reach? Is there any way of getting my hands on it if I contact Dell and explain the situation?
Would it make any difference if I in BIOS perform a complete data wipe? But why would it make any difference? I'm willing to try it but I just feel that I need some kind of reasonable idea of why this would help me, before I cause more pain (throwing away my currently working Ubuntu).
I'm very grateful for any advice from the community or Dell official



Philip_Yip
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April 25th, 2020 12:00
First of all try with more up to date installation media. Use the Windows 10 Version 2004 (Slow Track) Insider Preview ISO as it may be more updated (it will install a cumulative update when Windows update connects to the internet taking you to the final mainstream build) and is more likely to contain the SATA preinstallation drivers for your hardware:
https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-10-version-2004-and-clean-install/
Try downloading this driver and extracting the zip file:
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05644037M/1/SERIAL%20ATA_01_Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Driver_1NN1D_WIN_17.2.4.zip
Copy the extracted folder directly to your Windows 10 Bootable USB. If no drives show up during the Drive Options screen attempt to load this folder.
eipe
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April 26th, 2020 03:00
Thank you @Philip_Yip for your reply. I will try what suggest.
Regarding "Copy the extracted folder directly to your Windows 10 Bootable USB" - do I have to do this at the same stage as when I'm creating the bootable USB, or can I manually do this afterwards? It's not "locked" or anything?
Just extract and copy paste into a folder on the USB?
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
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16.1K Posts
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April 26th, 2020 12:00
Manually copy it after the USB Bootable USB has been created. It isn't locked and you can place files and folders on it like any drive.
eipe
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April 27th, 2020 03:00
@Philip_Yip Thank you so much! This actually worked. I have struggled so much and I'm very grateful.