So I have an XPS 8700 with 12GB memory using an Intel I7-7700. I have just installed this new 2TB hard drive that has never been used and it is a Western Digital. I am Not going to dual boot or run anything other than Mint 18.2. Thing is I have verified the downloaded ISO file and then burned it to DVD. I have disabled secure boot and gone as far as disabling UEFI. I still am not able to get my system to recognize the boot device (which I have set as optical first and the HDD second). It gives me no notification other than boot device unavailable install boot device and press a Key.
Thanks for any help. On the title it should be 2TB.

Try hitting F12 on boot and selecting legacy mode. Did you verify the DVD after it was written? should be the same as the downloaded iso. Also, did you burn the DVD on the slowest compatible speed?

Sometimes in the boot order you must specifically enable a temporary boot device. Everything else you have done looks correct. If you formatted the new drive in Windows 8, it will have a GPT partition, which may not be immediately visible from the Linux installer.

When you get to that just format the drive again.

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If you have a quality disc and burn you might be able to see two choices for boot. One could be a uefi dvd/cdrom and other legacy cd.

Pretty sure you can leave uefi and secure boot on for mint or at least uefi. Ubuntu LTS works for both.

Go to bios and see how the drive is detected. The drive has nothing to do with your problem as far as I can tell. You have to get it to boot. Put uefi back on for sure.

Could make a bootable uefi flash drive too but that is more trouble. Some creators out there seem to work well for this.

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If you have another Linux machine available, use "dd" to create a boot USB. Should be no need to select "legacy" mode the Mint iso is hybrid and works just fine in UEFI mode (I never use secure boot).

As above, just hit F12 for boot options - as clearly stated on my XPS splash screen.

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Is hybrid boot UEFI/BIOS, or flash drive/optical disk as everything on the Internet seems to imply?

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Whichever you prefer. The iso that was downloaded to create the DVD will work fine on a USB - in either UEFI or BIOS based systems.

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Regarding BIOS/UEFI, I would advise you to use UEFI as it is the more modern standard and your system supports it.

Personally, I would try burning the ISO to a USB stick (using e.g. Rufus, YUMI or Etcher) and doing it that way, in case there is a problem with the DVD drive.

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@hydrurga- Thanks for your help. I am still getting nowhere but I will try and download Rufus and put it on a USB stick and change my boot order. I have UEFI and legacy to no avail. Secure boot is and always has been disabled when trying to install.

@syg00-Thanks for your help, though I am still having the same problem.

@AwesomeMachine Thanks for your help,I wish I had another Linux machine but unfortunately I don't. I don't have an operating system on the computer in question. I did verify the DVD after it was burned using a sha256sum.txt.exe which is a windows program but it did come back with the proper numbers. I guess I'm a little concerned about you talking about a temporary boot order. I do have the DVD first and then the HDD, is there something you see I should change? I did burn it at 8x speed. The code you have given is it something I can run in Windows?

@jefro-Thank you for your assistance. I still am having the same problem.


Could the wrong type of DVD be a problem such as -r or +R? This machines new hard drive is formatted not knowing what they used. It was a new purchase from NewEgg.

Let us start over then.

dvd and hard drive ought to show properly in bios.


To make a dvd,
download an iso,
test iso by md5 or shal,
take a dvd that works in your burner. Age of burner and reader may affect this.
you must burn the iso as an image and not a file.
burn it at the slowest speed available,
not all dvd drives work well with other drive's burned discs, not all disc's burn well,

The dvd should boot normally.

At one time hybrid meant that the iso could be used as a usb or optical disc image. The feature of uefi and secure boot may start to be added to that phrase but very few images are secure boot and uefi, a bit more are uefi combo. You'd think the maintainers always mention this at the download pages.

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This is quite wrong. There is nothing wrong with using GPT disk formatting with legacy BIOS in Linux. This is called a BIOS/GPT boot and I have been doing it for years. My first BIOS/GPT installation was Fedora 13 in 2011 and it was all created by the Fedora installer Anaconda.

If the drive is formatted as GPT just leave it as it is. It is a much more modern and better disk formatting system. If the disk was brand new, blank and unformatted from the factory I would recommend GPT formatting anyway instead of ancient MBR. Any recent Linux installer will not have a problem with GPT.

By the way your terminology is wrong. It is "it will have a GPT partition table" not "it will have a GPT partition" which sounds like it only has a single GPT partition.

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Dumb question but did you view the contents of the burned DVD? Is it many files or a single ISO?

If it is a single ISO file then you burned the DVD as a data and not burn as image. Windows 7 is capable of burning a DVD as an image.

Typically new internal drives are empty i.e. no MBR/GPT, partitions or formatted in any way.

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@michaelk-I didn't view the files until reading your post. Being as I have burned several disk but only tried one to do a test run and possible install. During the burning process I had the ISO on it and then I had told it to put GET and sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpt and it also has a windows sha256sum.txt.exe on this same DVD the ISO was on. After looking at my original ISO that I was using to install Linux it was then I noticed all of the different files.
I have since burned a new ISO only and have examined it and seen the files you are speking of. Matter of fact I have actually watched the DVD load and have been able to see some of the menus etc. I did not at this time install it. I had one other problem that I will be discussing below.

@tofino_surfer-being as the drive came in new I just assumed it was formatted as a GPT drive. I can't say if it was or wasn't as I haven't had to format it yet. What I can say is I took it out of my XPS 8700 and using another computer I was able to check how it was setup and the only option it gave me was a checkbox to use the drive as GPT so that is what I checked and then reinstalled it. After all of the above I finally was able to get Linux 18.2 DVD to run on my XPS 8700.

@jefro-you have stood by me during all my frustration and I do appreciate that in itself as have a few others that didn't give up on me. You have taught me a lot. I do hope you don't give up on me.
When I got the DVD to load it would not load anything to get me on the internet.

@Everybody that helped. I learned a lot and it frustrates me somewhat knowing I created most of my problems. I would like to Thank everyone's input as well as the people on the forum/board for putting such a community together, without you I wouldn't be where I am today.

Is there a way now that I can verify the DVD since I have the DVD running? AwesomeMachine gave me a code to run for md5sum but I am not sure if this is a windows command or if it was a Linux command. I did use a sha256sum.txt.exe windows program to verify the image but now I have to question myself as I have done so much wrong. I still am not sure where I have my BIOS settings but will soon let people know how I set it!
Thank You again everyone that helped me! Maybe one day I can return the favor for a newbie!

You can verify the DVD using md5sum in a similar fashion to verifying the ISO file. The method is using linux commands. Since you verified the downloaded file, burned the disc as suggested and it boot successfully I am confident that is is working.

http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/10/07/ve...mage-on-linux/

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In the boot order in certain BIOS/UEFI setup programs you must set the boot order, but you must also enable each boot device using a certain key.

I've heard of certain optical disks failing to write in certain drives. But once they're written they should read in any compatible drive.

A new hard drive should not be formatted. See if you can boot the Linux install media with the HDD disconnected.

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Explain this please. "DVD to load it would not load anything to get me on the internet."

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