I have a Dell Optiplex 5050 (7th gen Intel Core-I7) which ran Windows for several years with no problems. However, I no longer needed it to for that, decommissioned it, and for the past couple of days, off and on, have been trying to install Linux on it with no success. I think there is something quirky with the hardware that is hampering the installation.

Mostly I've tried to install Mint, booting in both UEFI and legacy mode, although I also tried Ubuntu (which I realize is almost the same thing). I tried installing on both NVME and a SATA SSD, but neither worked.

What happens is that it always freezes at some point, either at "creating ext4 file system" or else a bit later, at "retrieving file 218 of 218."

One possible clue is that, when booting into UEFI mode, at one point the Mint installer gave the message that it couldn't install with "Intel rapid storage technology." I looked that up and determined that I had to switch a setting in BIOS from RAID to AHCI. Unfortunately, however, switching that setting didn't help. It still hangs partway through the installation.

I've installed Linux (usually Mint) on many other desktop and laptop computers and have never run into anything like this. Any suggestions that anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

The Dell bios has a system diagnostic test option, try running that and see if it finds any hardware errors first.

Unlikely, but easy to check:
Check the checksums of your isos.
Did you shut down Windows completely before attempting an install?

You might need to use advanced installer options to make sure it installs to the right drive/partition.

Don't you mean "Rapid Start Technology"? Intel RST or IRST?
You don't need it, disable it in BIOS.

Thanks to both of your for your suggestions. This is now resolved.

The message I got from the Mint installer pertained to "Intel rapid storage technology," not rapid start technology. Rapid storage technology is a method of communicating with SATA drives and did have to be disabled in BIOS in order to install Mint, but that wasn't the main problem.

The main problem, as far as I can tell, was caused by a 10-gigabit network card that I had previously installed in a PCIe slot. When I booted Mint Live in compatibility mode so as to get more diagnostic information, a message flashed by about a PCIe error. (The message flashed by so quickly that I didn't notice it the previous times I booted in compatibility mode.) So I removed the 10-GB card and used the GB connection integrated on the motherboard, after which I was able to install Mint. Once Mint was installed, I put the 10-GB card back in, and it didn't cause any errors and appears to be functioning properly. It's just that Mint wouldn't install with the card in place.

Thanks for sharing your solution.
You should tell the developers ofthe installer (probably the same asUbuntu's) about it. Sounds like a bug tome.