Dell laptop won't boot from usb

[tea for one]

Can you boot into Windows 10 and supply the info from:-

System Information > System Summary > BIOS mode > UEFI (or BIOS)?

[petersonlevi88-j]

It's not showing that in Windows settings, but in my bios I'm in UEFI mode. Secure boot is enabled. When I created the USB iso with rufus, I selected the default which was UEFI. I was able to boot the USB and run Ubuntu live. I went through the install steps and chose install alongside Windows and got to the final screen where you select partitions. I chose the auto settings and clicked continue. I waited for 20 minutes, but it never left that screen so I shut it down and rebooted the USB and chose graphics safe mode to attempt again. It no longer showed the option to install alongside Windows. It was either custom it erase disk. Upon choosing custom it showed unlabeled partitions that has apparently been partially created from Ubuntu. I have very basic experience doing manual partitions, but I have no clue how to do a manual with the Windows alongside it. I've only done manual partitions with a blank drive

[tea for one]

Before going any further, it is essential to know how Windows 10 (originally 7) is installed.

https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/ch...uefi-mode.html

[petersonlevi88-j]

Update. I have successfully installed Ubuntu alongside Windows 10. I was reading another article and opened up disk management through command line and was planning on shrinking partition, but it notified me there were errors on the windows partition, so I fixed and rebooted and decided to try again with Ubuntu before proceeding forward. It then again offered me the option to install alongside Windows.

[petersonlevi88-j]

And thank you for the link, I was already aware of that. I'm in UEFI and I created the USB Ubuntu using rufus and selected UEFI install for it's creation on USB

[tea for one]

This seemed to be a combination of two problems.

Creating the USB device - Rufus was the solution
Using Windows tools to fix Windows partition errors

Nevertheless, it's good to read about successful results.

Please mark the thread as solved https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPo.../SolvedThreads

[zebra2]

I don't have a Dell, but given that most bios follow a pattern
Make a bootable USB and place it in the USB slot
Open the Bios and select Boot Order (or something similar).
Move USB to the first boot position.
Save and Exit and reboot.

If you don't have a bootable USB plugged in it may not give you the option since the bios won't give an option for what is not there.
After you boot and install and then reboot with the USB removed your Bios may remove the USB boot option and return to default.

The settings are different from one bios to another but this is what I have on my Lenovo systems.

[ajgreeny]

I am pretty sure that Windows 7 was always installed in BIOS mode, not UEFI, and if you upgraded from 7 to 10 your Windows 10 will, I think, now be using BIOS mode and msdos partitions, not gpt.

So if you have now installed Ubuntu in UEFI mode you may have problems related to that as it is more or less essential that both OSs use the same mode.

If you can boot to the live Ubuntu USB please use gparted and show us a screenshot of what partitions that sees. Failing that, and assuming you can boot to Windows, use the Disk Management utility from that to show partitions; it is not as good as gparted but may give us better information than we have now.