Ubuntu installer can't find any disk on Dell XPS 13 9350

Question

I am trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 / 15.10 on my Dell XPS 13 9350 (November 2015).

I created a bootable USB disk which boots fine but the installer and the file manager do not detect the hard drive.

What is the problem? How can I solve it?

score 94 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 16 '18 at 20:10

94

In Windows, run Command Prompt as admin
Invoke a Safe Mode boot with the command: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
Restart the PC and enter your BIOS during bootup.
Change from IDE to AHCI mode then Save & Exit.
Windows 10 will launch in Safe Mode.
Right click the Window icon and select to run the Command Prompt in Admin mode from among the various options.
Cancel Safe Mode booting with the command: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
Restart your PC once more and this time it will boot up normally but with AHCI mode activated.

(Source)

edited Oct 16 '18 at 20:10

Zanna

70,465

answered Mar 08 '16 at 05:20

David

956

1

This saved my day. However I stuck on i/o err. – Amit Kumar Gupta Jun 03 '17 at 13:56
4

This is a good solution but only if you have Windows 10 installed already unfortunately... – hg8 Mar 27 '18 at 07:29
The Live USB was able to detect my hard drive and do the install after only running steps 1-4... – Michael Mandel Jun 05 '18 at 16:03
I'm stuck at step 5) since now instead of the PIN, it does not recognize my password. Any idea how I can stop it from booting in safe mode? – Adrian Jul 21 '18 at 11:44
1

In my case there was AHCI and RAID ON options in BIOS and it also worked. – renadeen Jul 29 '18 at 10:38
In step 2 I get the error "The set command specified is not valid. The parameter is incorrect" – Erel Segal-Halevi Oct 16 '18 at 06:14
@Erel You might have just made a typo. But in any case, you could instead enable "Safe boot - Minimal" on the Boot tab of msconfig.exe, which does the same thing. – wjandrea Oct 19 '18 at 19:32
@Adrian IIRC, you can go to the Windows Recovery Environment, get a command prompt, then run bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot to get out of safe mode. If you need more info, ask on Super User since Windows support questions are off-topic here. – wjandrea Oct 19 '18 at 19:34
you also want to be aware that if you haven't set a local password you may never be able to get back in ... (esp if your network stuff wont work even when you do safe mode with networking ...) – John Nicholas Jan 18 '19 at 15:07
2

@hg8 the steps on windows are required only if you want to keep windows booting - for linux just changing the bios to AHCI is enough – pqnet Jan 21 '19 at 12:08
1

@ErelSegal-Halevi if you use powershell you need to enclose {current} in quotes, i.e. such as "{current}", because brackets are interpreted by powershell as special characters – pqnet Jan 21 '19 at 12:09
Same problem with a Dell XPS 13 7390, and this solution worked as charm (except that the SATA setting was "RAID" instead of "IDE". Changed it to AHCI, as indicated. – Pierre-Antoine Feb 21 '20 at 14:02

hg8 · Answer 2 · 2015-11-16T08:24:01.457

61

So far the only workaround I found is to switch to AHCI Sata mode in BIOS settings:

Boot into BIOS (F12 at startup)
Select Bios Setup.
Move to System Configuration > SATA Operation and select AHCI.

Restart the computer and now the Ubuntu installer will detect the SSD.

Unfortunately this is not practical for a dual boot setup as Windows won't be able to boot in SATA mode so you every time will have to revert the BIOS settings when wanting to boot Windows.

edited Nov 16 '15 at 08:24

answered Nov 10 '15 at 20:12

hg8

13,462

1

@cl-netbox Indeed, unfortunately the pre-installed Windows is not in AHCI mode... – hg8 Nov 11 '15 at 10:14
4

You can create the boot recovery USB thumb drive, boot from there and repair windows install by choosing to "keep your personal files". Then windows will boot again in AHCI mode. – Metiu Nov 25 '15 at 12:39
I did switch it, but ubuntu 16.xx still does not see the ssd. – user1539216 Nov 04 '16 at 16:33
4

It also works in the new dell xps 15 – nanounanue Dec 08 '16 at 17:43
It was already in AHCI mode, but for some reason this did end up working – Taylor Mar 08 '19 at 14:37
1

This worked for Dell Inspiron 7591 – Jatin Dec 24 '19 at 09:56
1

This also works with Dell Precision 3541. Thank you! – Eerik Sven Puudist Feb 04 '20 at 12:14

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 19 '18 at 20:00

The main problem is that DELL shipped with Windows pre-installed in IDE mode. The best solution in every aspect is to perform a clean installation of Windows. As a side effect you achieve one big advantage: pure Windows without any crap.

Create a Windows system backup before. Things may break badly!
Boot from a GParted Live media and format the Windows partition with ntfs.
Boot into BIOS/UEFI of the PC and change the settings to AHCI/SATA mode.
Reinstall Windows.
Disable Hibernation and Fast startup in Windows
Boot from Ubuntu installation media and reinstall GRUB.
Boot into BIOS and select Ubuntu to be the default operating system to boot. Now you can select which system to boot, without having to change settings.

For those users who don't want to reinstall Windows, there is a way to switch to AHCI mode:

@toine : Yes, it is recommended to first install Windows and afterwards Ubuntu. :) — cl-netbox, Apr 27 '16 at 16:59

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 26 '18 at 16:57

I had the same issue on an old HP Compaq & it was due to RAID format. I remove this in the BIOS menu:

press ctrl + F12 on te startup & then quckly Ctrl + I one the Intel BIOS screen
Go in "Remove RAID" section & select your Hard Drive
exit from BIOS & then reboot
Hard drive should be visible from your Ubuntu installer

Ubuntu installer can't find any disk on Dell XPS 13 9350

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