Windows 10: Cannot Boot Windows 10 on a Dell XPS 8700 Desktop

My hard drive has crashed and the PC will not boot.

I have tried a bootable usb drive, but it shows several partitions on my HDD of which only 1 can be used per the screen messages and it is "too small".


Any ideas?

:)

 

Can the Dell XPS 8700 be upgraded to Windows 10?

A friend with a Dell XPS 8700 i5 that was running Windows 7 had the OS crash. Recovery media is no longer available and a Microsoft Windows 7 disk isn't a solution because it requires inputting a license key; apparently Dell PCs have the license key embedded in the bios. The question is will the XPS 8700 support an upgrade to Windows 10 if we get a retail copy? TIA for any help.

 

Can the Dell XPS 8700 be upgraded to Windows 10?

Windows 7 doesn't have a key embedded in the bios, that only started with machines built for Windows 8 and above.


The Dell XPS 8700 appears to have been built for Windows 8, but was available with Windows 7 as a downgrade option. In this case there would be no CoA sticker for W7. If this machine had Windows 7 installed when supplied then the key in the bios would still be one for Windows 8. Type the service tag of your friend's XPS 8700 in the Dell Support site here and the System Configuration section will tell you exactly what this particular machine was originally supplied with.

Dell Support - XPS 8700


Assuming it has a Windows 8 key in the bios then a clean install of Windows 10 will find this key. Setup will use it to choose the correct edition to install, Home or (more likely for this model) Pro. The installed Windows 10 will be activated because this PC has a qualifying Windows 8 license based on the embedded key.


PS: I actually bought a second hand Dell Latitude laptop that was built for Win10 but supplied by Dell with Windows 7 pre-installed, so I am speaking from personal experience.

 

How to add SSD as boot disk on new Dell XPS 8700 with Windows 10?

Goal: Add a Samsung EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD and make it the boot disk for a new Dell 8700 running pre-installed Windows 10.

Questions:

• 
  Do I have to change the BIOS from IRST to AHCI?
  
• 
  Can I transfer the OS from the original C: drive to the SSD via
  
  EasyUS Todo Backup?
  
• 
  Do I need the Windows installation disks?
  

Background:

Using a StarTEC USB 3.0 to 2.5 SATA III Hard Drive adapter cable, I connected the new SSD to the new Dell 8700 via USB. The Dell transfer tools, and Dell Navigator, did not recognize the SSD. I later read a post that said that these Dell tools did
not yet work with Windows 10. As suggested in another post, I did get the transfer to work using EasyUS Todo. I copied Windows 10 to the SSD. I then installed it internally in one of the empty drive bays. Windows 10 file manager recognized the drive and I
was able to see that Windows was indeed copied on it.

But, before I change the Boot Sequence to start with the SSD, I would like to know if the OS transfer will indeed work and\or whether the BIOs needs to be changed from IRST to AHCI (if yes, how).

Finally, Windows disks, usually orderable from PC manufacturers, are not yet available from Dell. Alternatively, the “create USB recovery disk” goes in an endless loop even though I am trying to create one using a new 32GB San Disk USB drive.

Any other things I need to do in order to make this SSD boot configuration to work?

Thanks!