NVMe SSD Not Found on System

Problem:

After booting to Image for Linux on affected systems, Image for Linux is unable to see the installed NVMe SSD. This issue is known to affect systems using Intel's 100 Series or newer chipsets (Z170, etc.), including Dell XPS 13, XPS 15, and Optiplex 5040 systems. Currently, Linux does not include the drivers that support RAID mode on these chipsets.

Solution:

To allow Image for Linux to see the NVMe SSD it's necessary to change the SATA controller mode to AHCI from RAID. You will need to enter the system BIOS to make this change. For example, from the BIOS, go to System Configuration and change the SATA Operation option from RAID to AHCI.

Important: If multiple NVMe drives are in an actual RAID configuration, the RAID will be broken if you switch from RAID mode to AHCI. In this case, you would not be able to access the data on the RAID drive normally (for example, to back up a Windows installation on the RAID drive). Until Linux includes the necessary drivers for the newer chipsets you would need to use a TBWinRE/PE build with the controller drivers added (if necessary) to access the drive.

Note: If you are using Windows on the system, after switching to AHCI mode and using Image for Linux you will need to reset the SATA controller mode to RAID before attempting to boot back into Windows. Otherwise, Windows will likely error on boot-up due to the mode not matching the installed driver. If you wish to switch Windows to AHCI mode drivers you can use the TBOSDT OSDTOOL script to install them (drivers can usually be downloaded from the system manufacturer if not included with Windows).