Windows won't boot unless I select legacy boot

[antwan.hommy]

Yesterday I tried turning on my PC just like any other day. The light came on (from the keyboard and power button) but it then turned off after about 5 sec. I tried this multiple times over and over again until I realized my PC was low on charge. I plugged in the PC and it booted. I have a dual-boot PC with Windows 10 and Linux. When it booted, it took me straight to initramfs. I tried to look for solutions from the Internet to no avail. I thought something had gone terribly wrong so I decided to reinstall Windows and Linux on my PC from the start by deleting my partitions completely. I did so and downloaded Windows 10 and Linux Mint on my two USBs.

I first however called technical support for my PC (Dell XPS 13 9360) to see if the issue was due to my hardware. They assured me my hardware was perfectly fine. After I completely erased my partitions and created a new one, I downloaded Windows 10 with the help of my USB. It downloaded successfully. However, when I set the booting sequence from the BIOS to UEFI, it just informs me that Windows 10 has stopped working with a "sad" face. When I try to boot it from the USB and click "fix my PC" and go to cmd and type "diskpart" and after that "list disk" it doesn't detect my SSD, even though I just downloaded Windows 10 to it.

After this I tried legacy boot. It tells me that no booting device detected. However, when I have legacy boot on and I hit F12 so I can select it to boot from UEFI Windows Manager, it works. And when I boot it from the USB and go to the same cmd and type "diskpart" and "list disk", it detects my hard drive.

I've been working on this for hours but I haven't really gotten anywhere. I desperately need help. Thank you for your answers in advance.

PS. I would also like to mention that I also tried the same process with Linux Mint and the result was identical.

 

[Barty1884]

Did you make any changes to your BIOS settings after installing Windows? If so, one of those changes is the issue. Ie enabling Legacy boot when Windows was installed in UEFI mode will cause a conflict.

 

[antwan.hommy]

Did you make any changes to your BIOS settings after installing Windows? If so, one of those changes is the issue. Ie enabling Legacy boot when Windows was installed in UEFI mode will cause a conflict.

I think I did yes. My apologies for not mentioning this in the original post, but when I booted from the USB (which seems to be a UEFI boot) my booting sequence had legacy booting on because my USB wasn't able to detect my SSD if I booted it from UEFI.

 

[Barty1884]

Then you need to maintain legacy boot.

When you installed Windows, you should've been presented with (at least) two options.
1. UEFI-[name of usb drive]
2. [name of usb drive]

If you installed with option #2, you installed Windows in legacy *mode* and enabling UEFI after the fact will cause boot issues.

If you want UEFI enabled in the BIOS, you need to install with option #1.


Now, if the SSD isn't detected by the Windows installer when you select option #1, there's an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.

 

[antwan.hommy]

I'm sorry but I'm a bit confused. You mentioned that I should've been presented with 2 options when installing Windows, but at which point should they be presented? When I'm mounting the ISO file to the USB, when I'm already in the Windows installer (already booted PC through USB) or a different period? Also, how and where will I be able to select option #1?

 

[Barty1884]

When your select to boot from USB, before processing to the Windows installer. The select which, youd select the corresponding number in your keyboard.

 

[antwan.hommy]

Just got it working. I had indeed downloaded Windows in UEFI from UEFI-[usb name]. Also I had booted from legacy boot but used F12 to instead boot from USB. I switched to UEFI only boot and it didn't work. I tried looking around the BIOS and saw that I had RAID ON, so I changed it to ASCI and sure enough that did the trick. No idea why it works but it does.

Thank you for your assistance!