XPS 8930, boot failure, reinstall question

@OrbitingJV 

It does sound like a hard drive issue. But it still could be anything. Does your system have an SSD M.2 as the boot drive? My XPS 8930 came with a 256 GB M.2 nvme as the boot. Also, a 1 TB for storage. I am thinking if you have a normal hdd for storage it could be failing the system is trying to read it on startup but cannot because it is failing. I suggest disconnecting the HDD storage if yours has one and then try to boot.

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@OrbitingJV wrote:

I have an XPS 8930 that has been had boot issues for a while now. It sometimes takes 6-10 boot attempts to start up. The machine sometimes hangs at the Dell logo and other times doesn't even get that far. It also was running exceptionally slow. I attempted to restore it to the original settings and now it wont even get to the Dell logo. I hear the hard drive spinning.  Before I take it to a local tech shop, thought I'd check here...

1) does it sound like hard drive failure or something else?

2) if I end up needing a new hard drive, how easy it to install Windows, and will I have issues getting the right drivers for the stock components?

Thanks!

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1. Yes, but could be anything. Press F12 on boot, run ePSA, and see what fails.

2. It's pretty easy, but depends on your skill level.

I've documents the steps many times here on the forum. The XPS-8930 is intentionally basic, so the Windows Installer flash-drive (that you can create with Microsoft.com Media Creation Tool) should have all the basic drivers you need. If not, you can get any missing ones from support.dell.com .

Finally, I would suggest you replace your bootable C-Drive spinning-platter Hard-Disk-Drive (HDD) with a SSD (either NVMe or 2.5inch SATA). 480gb or larger . They are much faster and more reliable. Remove any Optane modules that might be occupying the motherboards M.2 slot.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I just moved the questionable hard drive to my backup machine and it accesses no problem, so hard drive failure seems to be ruled out.  Wondering if it could be the motherboard or CPU?  Probably need a local tech at this point.

Hello OP, the assessment is flaw if your hard drive was/is the OS drive.  While you can access it in file explorer of your backup machine, the operating system was not working properly with your XPS 8930.  I agree with the suggestion from @Tesla1856 , replace your drive with a new SSD and clean install Windows without any of Dell bloatware.  All your data from old hard drive can be retrieve from your backup machine.

If you could remove your drive and access it with your backup machine, I am sure you can repair/reinstall your XPS.