I'm reinstalling Windows on Dell laptops, but the drive isn't showing up when I boot from USB recovery media. Loading a driver helped on one machine. What should I check?
Why can't Windows recovery USB see the drive on these Dell laptops?
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tunnel.vision.ish
Answers
Check the storage controller setting in the BIOS. If it's set to RAID On, Windows setup may need a controller driver before it can see the drive, even if the laptop only has one physical disk.
Get the appropriate storage driver for the exact model from Dell and use the Load driver option in Windows setup. Intel RST is one example, but check which driver applies to the machine.
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If you're doing a clean install, another option is to check whether the BIOS lets you switch from RAID On to AHCI. Setup may then see the drive without the RAID driver.
Don't change it casually on a machine with a Windows installation you need to keep. Changing the storage mode can prevent that installation from booting, so loading the correct driver is the safer first route in that case.
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If the right driver and storage setting don't get you anywhere, check the BIOS version too. A BIOS update has been reported to fix drive detection in some cases, though it isn't necessarily the cause here.
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tunnel.vision.ish:
That sounds consistent with the machine that worked after loading a driver. I'll check the controller setting on the others.