XPS 13 L322X Replaced mSATA - Need Help Installing Windows 10 Pro

Question

I have just replaced the mSATA to 256GB. I am now at the stage of installing Windows 10 Pro (System originally shipped with 8.1 Pro and upgraded with free Windows 10 Pro). The USB drive I'm using has the following files/folders at the root: Folders boot efi sources support Files autorun.inf bootmgr bootmgr.efi setup.exe   I've tried legacy and UEFI to boot from USB.     how do I proceed to get Windows 10 installed?

johnptd · Accepted Answer

1. Do not use Rufus to create the bootable drive. The Media Creation Tool will format a perfectly good bootable drive. I have done this for years for each version of Windows 10 and used the resulting drives on a number of UEFI and MBR systems without issue.

NOTE: I believe the flash drive should be MBR not GPT. My flash drives are defined as MBR.

2. In order to boot into BIOS to make any physical changes you would use the F2 key. To do a one-time change to the boot order in order to boot from an external drive or DVD without actually changing BIOS, you can use the F12 key. I believe this is true for most Dells but may not be true for all. If the drive is not showing up under either method, then there is something wrong. See if item#1 will get the drive to appear.

3. Here are some excellent instructions for doing a clean install which might help:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-clean-install-windows-10-a.html

JohnD

EDIT: You might want to check your BIOS to see if it has an option to enable booting from USB drives.

johnptd · Answer

I assume that when you try to assign the flash drive in BIOS or using F12 to assign it temporarily, the drive is not showing up? How did you create the USB Windows 10 installation drive? Did you download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and created the drive with that?

JohnD

ACTcrmAdvisor · Answer

I used Rufus to create the bootable USB with the following settings:

Devise: ESD-ISO (F:) (8GB)
Boot selection: Windows.iso
Image option: Standard Windows Insta llation
Partition Scheme: GPT
Target System: UEFI (nonCSM)
Volume label ESD-ISO
File system: FAT32 (default)
Cluster size: 4096bytes (default)
Quick format: Checked
Create extended label and icon files: Checked

I'm not sure what you mean in asking if I assigned the flash drive in BIOS or using F12 to assign it temporarily, the drive is not showing up?

At this point I put the bootable drive in the XPS. When the system didn't recognize the USB drive, I started messing around with the BIOS. Last change was to F9 - Setup defaults.

What should I do next or is there a video either in YouTube or somewhere else to show what to do?

BTW, the system does recognize the new mSATA drive, but of course, there is nothing on it.

From what I read the type of USB should be UEFI and on the boot segment of the BIOS:
Boot Priority Order
UEFI Boot:
Windows Boot Manager
Network Boot

Secure Boot: Disabled
Load Legacy Option ROM: Disabled
Boot List Option: UEFI
Add Boot Option: [Enter]
Delete Boot Option: [Enter]

ACTcrmAdvisor · Answer

Thanks for the great checklist for creating a bootable drive.

There was one thing missing from my environment which was this is considered a bare metal installation. By adding the driver of the mSATA drive to the boot disk, the rest of the Windows 10 installation proceeded flawlessly.

The steps you gave, though, have now been added to my OneNote under Help Desk >> Windows 10 from USB.

Thanks to everyone who helped guide me through this challenge.

XPS

XPS 13 L322X Replaced mSATA - Need Help Installing Windows 10 Pro

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