XPS13 9370 Developer - boot an UEFI, GPT windows 10 usb key

You won't find USB devices in your BIOS boot order list since it's a UEFI system and UEFI booting works very differently, but it should definitely be in the one-time boot menu.  What tool did you use to create the Windows 10 install media?  You might find it easier to set up the USB stick as MBR instead.  You can still boot MBR devices in UEFI mode as long as you use a FAT32 partition and your partition has a UEFI bootloader file at the expected location, which Windows 10 install media would.  I boot MBR flash drives in UEFI mode all the time because I have my flash drives set up in a way that supports both Legacy BIOS and UEFI booting.

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@ShedG wrote:

On my 9370 with 1.6.3 BIOS I can boot (UEFI) from the right side USB port. Can't boot from the left rear port. (Didn't try the left front port.)

I'm pretty sure that I could boot from the left ports with 1.5.1.

Didn't try MBR booting. My understanding is that it is necessary to boot UEFI in order to install UEFI. Most USB drives that can boot EFI can probably also boot MBR but then any subsequent installation would be MBR.

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Yes you need to boot in UEFI to install in UEFI, but again it is possible to boot in UEFI mode from an MBR flash drive.  You can make sure you always boot in UEFI mode by enabling Secure Boot in your BIOS, which disables Legacy booting.  There's no such thing as "booting MBR".  MBR is a partition layout scheme, not a boot mechanism.  The two partition schemes are MBR and GPT.  The two boot mechanisms are Legacy BIOS and UEFI.  Legacy BIOS can only boot from MBR disks.  UEFI usually boots from GPT disks, but it can also boot from MBR disks.  That's how I'm able to have flash drives that support both Legacy and UEFI mode, even when Secure Boot is enabled in the latter case which means UEFI is the only available boot mechanism on the system.  If you boot OS installation media in UEFI mode, even if the flash drive is set up as MBR, the OS will still install itself in UEFI mode and set up the internal disk as GPT.

From what I have read (after extensive research) this happens when you have an earlier XPS. One side is a USB 3.0 port and the other is a USB 2.0 port. It is my understanding that those machines with a 2.0 port can boot to UEFI. A driver issue is what I think I have read. I have a 9333 and I have two 3.0 ports. I have a Samsung 860 EVO arriving in about 8 hours and I have done a huge amount of research in a short period of time to try and figure out how to get my laptop to boot into UEFI. No success so far. I am hoping that when I install the new drive it will boot but thus far I am having my doubts. 

I was hoping to get the disk to boot using the Windows media creation tool but I get this error: 
"There was a problem running this tool"

FFS... I suppose that it could be a hardware compatibility issue with the USB drive but I am using a Sandisk Ultra 3.0 128 GB and that seems to be a drive that a very large percentage of people are not having issues with. 

At this point I am not sure what to try and or research next. 

I have posted this elsewhere but want to get the word out:

My findings upon research into installing a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB drive. I am a network engineer and I was running into issues trying to get my Dell XPS Ultrabook 9333 to boot into UEFI and do a clean install of Windows 10 Pro:

I could not get the pc to boot into UEFI and install Win10 no matter what I did. All failed. I tried using the Windows media creation tool, I tried with Rufus, I tried with WinUSB and others but nothing worked. I did find a solution after more than several hours of research. I found the solution. It was not a peculiarity with Dell or the XPS (9333). 

The answer is the need to create an install media with the correct windows image for the version of Windows 10 you are trying to install. It turns out that Windows is not releasing the ISO file the way they have done so in the past. I may be incorrect in some of my assumptions as I quit researching this issue after I got my installation media properly configured. But here are my findings and what I believe is behind the issue that a great many people are having when trying to install Windows using UEFI.

I had to use command line to extract the appropriate Windows Image file from within the ISO file downloaded from Microsoft. Apparently, the ISO has all versions of windows contained in an ESD file. After I did that and created a bootable disk as recommend by the opensource project at the oven.org called Win10XPE located here:
Win10XPE boot disk at (opensource project) theoven.org

To make a long story short, I was able to install Window 10 Pro in UEFI with secure boot enabled. Plus I now have a great bootable rescue drive. This project is opensource and really remarkable. If any of you agree let's get the word out and help some other folks save a lot of headaches. 

many PCs made the BIOS can not use the USB3 ports at all to boot usb sticks

I have  2010 laptop HP that has  NEC USB3 chips and zero support in the bios for that, but as windows 10 loads.

The bios is in fact UEFI class 1. above  and supports GPT in legacy mode.

the w10  has no problems what so ever. with uSB3 chips.

this is legacy transition problem with lame BIOS.

I have a very similar problem.  On a new XPS 7390 with Windows 10, I tried to install Linux Mint/cinnamon from a live USB drive.  The XPS does not seem to see the USB drive-- in the one-time boot screen the USB drive is not visible.  I tried to create the USB with Windows/rufus or linux/USB Image writer-- same result.  I tried MBR or GPT-- same result.   I made sure that Secure boot is set.

The very same USB that fails in the XPS boots just fine on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.  The odd thing is that the XPS DID manage to boot on the USB drive ONCE, but failed subsequently. I am totally confused and unhappy with this XPS, especially seeing many similar complaints.

Any ideas would be appreciated.