One final attempt to install Windows 10 on Dell XPS 15 9570

How are you making your Bootable USB?

On Linux

You need to make sure it is FAT32 formatted and the file format is NTFS. If you are making your Bootable USB on Linux be careful making the Bootable USB as many utilities make the Bootable USB FAT32 formatted (needed to pass Secure Boot) but the install.wim exceeds 4 GB (the upper limit of FAT32) so is truncated and the Bootable USB is corrupt. This gives an incomplete install.wim and an error will come up looking for the drives. You need to split the install.wim into multiple swm files below 4 GB and use this in place of the install.wim:

https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-10/#creating-a-uefi-bootable-usb-direct-download-link-iso

Also this is a new model and the Windows 10 Installation Media does not yet contain the Serial ATA drivers. These need to be extracted and loaded during the Windows 10 Installation. Try this driver. Note you need to extract the .exe using p7zip.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers/DriversDetails?productCode=xps-15-9570-laptop&driverId=589C4

Within the subfolder you should get drivers like the following. Windows installation media needs drivers in this format (not .exe format in order to load during installation).

On Windows

If making your Bootable USB on Windows, then I advise using the direct download links opposed to the Media Creation Tool:

https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-10/#using-the-direct-download-links

Then slipstreaming the entire driver pack into the install.wim (before splitting it into 4 GB chunks to fit on a FAT32 formatted USB Flash Drive):

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=m5kn4&oscode=wt64a&productcode=xps-15-9570-laptop

See the detailed instructions here to slipstream the driver pack and split the install.wim:

https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-10/#creating-a-uefi-bootable-usb-with-driver-pack-slipstream-direct-download-iso

I'm making the bootable install drive from Linux. I've tried a variety of methods - dd, Gnome Disks, and etcher. All with the same results.

I'm a bit puzzled by 'make sure it is FAT32 formatted and the file format is NTFS'. It can only be one or the other. And then, as we're copying the install ISO sector-by-sector, any destination file system is blown away anyway (to be replaced by udf, which is what the windows install iso's are on).

Anyway, whichever means I use, the boot works fine - the installer starts up and then (after language selection) prompts me with the 'a media driver your computer needs is missing' dialogue. I've tried the SATA drivers (which I had extracted to a diffeerent partition). The installer finds them, but still claims drivers are missing.

If I really have to split up the Microsoft-provided install.wim file (which  seems odd, given the media is udf-formatted), that's probably a bridge too far. At that stage I think I'll just get a cheap Windows machine. The Microsoft install process is incredibly difficult and primitive! It's (quite literally) easier to install experimental or academic OS's like fuchsia or Plan 9! 

[edit - forgot to thank you for the reply. Thanks.]

I've followed the links to your site & I see you've got a wealth of info up there. I'm going to follow up some of that when I regain my patience with the process. Thanks

That's unfortunate, something else must be missing.

Try to slipstream the entire Dell driver package to the install.wim (you'll need to use Windows 10 to do this, you can probably set up a temporary Windows 10 VM which you can use unactivated to perform the slipstream). There was a recent comment on one of my guides about slispstreaming the entire driver cab into the install.wim being the only way someone managed to install Windows 10 on a recent Dell XPS (I can't recall if it was the same model).

On a Windows machine, use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to create the Windows-10 Installer-drive.

Use a 32gb USB-flash. It will end-up formatted as FAT32 but don't worry ... it WILL WORK (yes, Microsoft knows all about the 4gb file limit of FAT32 ).

Then follow this closely ...  ( ie, BIOS options, DiskPart clean SSD first, etc.)

I betcha it will work. 

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R7-M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/m-p/6073081/highlight/true#M3401

Thanks guys but I've run out of time  to fiddle so have just bought a cheap machine with preinstalled Windows for this temporary purpose.

Welcome to the Dell Community @howmanydamnednicknamesdoihavetotrybeforeyouwillgivemeone 

So much to read but if you have answered this already sorry for asking!

You say you wiped W10 and installed Linux, are you now trying to install W10 as a Dual Boot?

Or did you completely erase the drive and try to install a fresh copy of W10?

I have never been unable to install a fresh W10 image on a Dell laptop YET.

Best regards,

U2

 @U2CAMEB4ME  - yes I was going to shrink my main Ubuntu partition and install Win dual-boot. But not to worry, after multiple (20+) attempts I gave up & bought a cheap Windows machine  (I wanted bare metal for this purpose rather than a VM).

Too much time spent on such a trivial task! By comparison, about a year ago I audited a bunch of linux distributions, and installed about 10 in half a day (and only drew a blank with only 1 of them).  The Windows installer isn't up to the job, and I'm hoping this is my last ever brush with it!

Hi! I have the exact same issue. Erased all partitions, installed Linux (switched distros a couple of times), and I want to dual-boot Windows now (the partition is already waiting... for a while). Windows installer keeps asking for a driver that seems impossible to identify. I am trying to do this occasionally for over a year (and will keep trying so I would really appreciate a solution).

I tried to install from USB and USB-C ports, from a USB 2.0 stick and an SD card... My guess would be issues with the NVMe driver (?). Btw, RAID & Intel RST don't make much sense to me on a laptop with a single hard drive and I cannot find any solutions for specifically AHCI drives by searching around the internet.

Help, I'm quite desperate about one of the "easiest" tasks here

Have you tried to slipstream the entire Dell XPS 15 9570 driver pack into the install.wim? Note to do so you will need to use another computer with Windows or a VM as wimlib (the Linux utility) unfortunately doesn't have the ability to add packaged to an install.wim.

See my guide here:

https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-10/

Specifically section 2.4 using the direct download links on Windows and 4.3 slipstreaming a driver pack to the install.wim and creating a UEFI Bootable USB.

@Philip_Yip: Wow, yes, it works! Amazing tutorial!

I didn't have the time to install Windows 10 but the error is gone. I had some issues with booting from the USB (I did everything in Linux except the PowerShell part and the boot fix). In a nutshell, working on Linux (I've explicitly marked the parts that need to be done in Windows) :

1. Go to https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-10/
2. Download the latest Windows 10 ISO image (see 2.2 Windows 10 Download Page)
3. Prepare a USB drive (I used GPT and NTFS which means there is no need to split install.wim later)
4. Extract the contents to the USB except for install.wim which should be extracted to a Windows PC (e.g., VM)
5. Download the latest Dell driver pack (see 4.3 Creating a UEFI Bootable USB with Driver Pack Slipstream – Direct Download ISO)
6. Extract the drivers to the Windows PC and follow the rest of the procedure in the tutorial to update install.wim in PowerShell (in Windows)
7. Copy the updated install.wim to the USB drive
8. Fix the boot sector: bootsect /nt60 X: (in Windows; bootsect.exe is on the USB drive - need to copy it first to some location that is not on the USB drive; X is the letter assigned to the USB drive)
9. Sync (safely remove USB drive) & reboot

Big thanks for this Philip !

I managed to install windows 10 pro on the xps 15 9570 following your guide.