I seem to have solved my own problem. Step one (essential): ignore the Dell-supplied tools, they don't work. Step two (essential): flip the SATA Operation setting in BIOS until I find one that works. Step three (high recommended): Manually download the Dell drivers, choose extract operation rather than install (on another machine), then copy all those folders onto the standard Win 11 ISO image on USB. Step four (essential): Manually (re)install OS using OS-supplied tools. This has got me moving again.
Brand new X17 R2. I'm swapping out factory RAM and storage for (verified compatible) 3rd party kit. I have downloaded the Automated Support image and written to a 32Gb USB key with SupportAssist, Win 11 Pro, and supposedly all of the drivers needed to get started with an OS reinstall. SA runs fine. It detects the RAM and both drives. All looks good. System test is 100% good for everything. It wants a network connection, which is odd as I have supposedly downloaded a full ISO image, but ok whatever. Network confirms it can reach internet. After I confirm I don't want to back anything up (brand new drive, empty and unformatted) it starts "Downloading Recovery Contents". (Why? Didn't I do that already when I downloaded the Automated Recovery ISO? But ok whatever.) It dies instantly at 0.20%. No details, just "Download verification was unsuccessful. Please restart the download process." I chatted with Support who told me that SA is not meant for actual installation of Windows. Um. Why does the Support site tell me to use it to reinstall the OS then? That's OK, I also have a full Win 11 Pro ISO on another USB. That boots just fine. But then hits a bottleneck early on when it says it doesn't have necessary drivers. No kidding! This is why I used the Automated Recovery ISO with SA because it said it would inject all the required drivers. So... what do I need to put a factory image on brand new unformatted storage? If SA - why is it dying instantly and what should I be doing instead to make it work? If not SA - that's OK, I can do a manual reinstall... but what drivers do I need to be able to have the Windows install complete to the point where I can start manually installing other drivers? If I have to, I can put the old drive back in, clone it or take some backup, swap the new drive in, and restore from that backup, but that seems remarkably slow and dumb especially when Dell have a tool that is supposed to be able to reinstall the factory image. What am I doing wrong?
X17 R2, reinstall, SupportAssist cannot reinstall