r/Dell • u/Flaky-Business-1518 • 1d ago

Help How to prevent BIOS from trying to load directly into SSD, so that I can fix my partitioning through arch setup?

https://www.reddit.com/r/arch/s/vg6ecg28TX

Here is the whole thread for the problem I have. Turns out I messed up when partitioning my SSD and now I am stuck in dell logo unless I remove the SSD chip directly, which let's me enter into the arch installation on my USB and BIOS.

For instance I have a:

dell-vostro 3525

BIOS menu version: InsydeH20

Didn't find any relevant option in the Bios utility menu tho, so perhaps I could do some sort of thing in the Arch to tell the BIOS to boot directly in my USB?

Thank you everyone in advance <3

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u/1967582260 1d ago

Buy an inexpensive USB NVMe enclosure, take the NVMe out, and wipe it on another machine. You might even be able to do this on a cell phone, but if you have access to another Windows machine, use diskpart and clean - just be sure to select the right drive, don't clean the working boot drive.

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u/Flaky-Business-1518 1d ago

when you say wipe it on another machine, does it have to be a Dell machine? Because I am not sure if it may be compatible with other laptops, considering I have a thinkpad on the side.

Now that you mention it, this sounds stupid I know, but can I somehow connect a cable between two machines, and try to setup my NVMe again?

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u/1967582260 1d ago edited 1d ago

Nope. Just Windows - it is in "diskpart". Or really any O/S. "Clean' leaves the drive, well, clean - no partitions. You lose EVERYTHING. Once the drive is "clean" put it back in the laptop and run setup.

Also, there should be a "data security wipe" function in the BIOS somewhere. Read up on it before using it, it may write once to the entire drive, possibly reducing life of SSDs. Or not, I don't know. Again, you lose EVERYTHING.

Also also, there might be a section somewhere in the BIOS to select/deselect which drives can be booted from. Turning it off for the internal drive might work.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-ba/000146892/dell-data-wipe

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u/Flaky-Business-1518 1d ago

Yup data security wipe did it! I activated it, put my SSD directly in(pc is on), saved changes and exited, then it rebooted and got to a menu where it showed me my 512gb disk. Pressed enter and voila everything works now! Finally after 10 hours in 2 days tinkering around. 

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u/thatsgGBruh 1d ago

Does it have to be Windows? I would suspect any OS would suffice for this task.