0

I really hope that this does not turn out to be a duplicate question as I'm really confused and tried many options.

I have a DELL XPS 8920 PC which had a windows 10 installed on it. I tried to install an Ubuntu in a dual boot mode (I have done this before on other systems) but encountered this:

enter image description here

And not the normal options for installing Ubuntu alongside, etc. The problem seemed to be with the fact that my system's SATA configuration was set on RAID, people claimed that changing it to ACHI would enable Ubuntu to detect my hard drive with the risk of not being able to boot back to windows. I did the steps recommended in https://samnicholls.net/2016/01/14/how-to-switch-sata-raid-to-ahci-windows-10-xps-13/#fn-513-3 and after a reboot, I wasn't able to boot back into my windows and still ubuntu installation was unable to detect my hard drive.

Note that I am mainly a Linux user and rarely work with windows and am totally unfamiliar with windows low-level configuration. I only want to be able to install Ubuntu, preferably while keeping the already installed windows (if it hasn't gone completely out of repair by what I've done), but losing windows doesn't matter much to me as I don't have any important files there.

EDIT

OK, I tried the first command suggested in Leftover software RAID data to remove any RAID leftovers, doing that resulted in Ubuntu installation to give me the option Erase disk and install Ubuntu which is good, I just want to know isn't there any hope for my windows?

EDIT2

In the end, I erased disk and installed Ubuntu, of course with some difficulty regarding the grub-install which seemed to have been solved after doing what was suggested in this answer

szm
  • 23
  • Turn RAID back on and boot Windows. Most suggest installing ACHI driver in Windows before turning RAID off. Have you updated UEFI from Dell. And if SSD, you may need firmware updates on SSD. Dell XPS 8920 & Nvidia GTX 1060 & PCIe M2 drive Raid change to AHCI https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2360929 Other model Dell with similar issues: http://askubuntu.com/questions/884991/ubuntu-16-10-dual-boot-error-grub-efi-amd64-signed-package-failed-to-install & http://askubuntu.com/questions/867488/dell-xps-13-9360-dualboot-windows-10-and-ubuntu-16-04?noredirect=1#comment1344306_867488 – oldfred Feb 09 '18 at 14:56
  • Well, the first thing I did was to change back to RAID but that didn't solve anything and I couldn't boot into windows and so couldn't follow the steps suggested by the links you mention and other ones I have seen myself :( – szm Feb 09 '18 at 18:24
  • Did you have RAID 0 and two identical drives? OR RAID 1? Or just one drive? If RAID 0, you probably destroyed Windows as half of data is one one drive and half on another. Did you backup Windows before install? Dell may offer Dell OEM Windows as repair disk for nominal charge. If not RAID 0 you should just be able to boot Windows and f8 into repair console to make repairs or use your Windows repair disk which Dell recommended you make when you first booted system. – oldfred Feb 09 '18 at 20:21

1 Answers1

0

Because Linux and Windows do RAID differently unless you have had a hardware RAID controller, I wouldn't suggest using the Windows RAID system at all. If the reason you have RAID is that you have 2+ storage devices, your best bet is to re/install Windows on one of them, and install Ubuntu on the other. If you only have one drive, I would suggest re/installing Windows again, running the windows equivalent of fsck (CHKDSK or something?), shrinking the partition, and installing Ubuntu in that new space. Best of luck!

Matanya
  • 372