0

Installing Ubuntu 20.04 (U20). Laptop: Acer Aspire 3, model # A315-56. Laptop comes with 2 disks:

  1. Disk1: 256GB SSD
  2. Disk2: 1TB HDD

Laptop has Win10 on Disk1. Disk2 is just empty.

First attempt to install U20 on laptop was not successful due to: Ubuntu installation on computers with Intel(R) RST enabled.

After following the steps there, U20 is able to detect Disk1/SSD and I was able to install Ubuntu on it.

However, the second drive i.e. Disk2, remains hidden to Ubuntu. This disk is not found by lsblk, fdisk, lshw... nothing.

But logging out (from U20) and logging in to Win10, it is there, appearing as a huge 1TB empty hard disk.

Is there a step I missed to get U20 to detect this second HDD?

J de Silva
  • 1
  • Is it shown in UEFI? Partition tools will not see much, if not partitioned. If drive is empty you need to create partition type as gpt and create gpt partitions. You then can use ext4 for Linux data or NTFS for Windows data. Linux NTFS driver will see the NTFS if fast start up off in Windows. – oldfred Aug 02 '20 at 15:03
  • Disk2 is partitioned and formatted as ntfs. Win10 detects Disk2 and I can even shrink the drive. But like I said, when I log in with Ubuntu, all I can see is Disk1. – J de Silva Aug 03 '20 at 16:27
  • 1
    Most common issue is Windows fast start up which sets hibernation flag. Then Linux NTFS driver will not normally mount the NTFS to prevent damage as Windows restores the hibernation and anything done outside that is lost. Also could need chkdsk from Windows. http://askubuntu.com/questions/843153/ubuntu-16-showing-windows-10-partitions & https://askubuntu.com/questions/145902/unable-to-mount-windows-ntfs-filesystem-due-to-hibernation Note that Windows updates often turn fast start up back on, so even if you already turned it off, check again. – oldfred Aug 03 '20 at 17:51
  • The Acer Aspire series has a unique feature in BIOS/UEFI and it is possible this could be affecting your machine. Take a look at my answer here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1062418/cant-boot-into-live-usb-though-secure-boot-has-been-disabled/1062530#1062530 to see how to access the menu and see if there is an element which you must set in order to recognize your drive. – Raffles Aug 04 '20 at 21:03
  • Fast startup is disabled in UEFI. Rechecked and I can confirm that it remains disabled. For good measure, I also ran the powercfg /hibernate off command in Win10. Disk2 remains hidden in U20. I will now go through the comment of @Raffles – J de Silva Aug 06 '20 at 15:21
  • May be this? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1167506/the-installation-window-dont-show-a-root-file-system-for-choose-in-the-installa If RAID mode has written info onto drive, then that also has to be removed. – oldfred Aug 18 '20 at 14:51
  • Thank for all your suggestions, even if they do not seem to help yet. I went through the link in your last comment but I don't how it can help me because my problem is that U20 does not even find Disk2 for me to run the command. What do I use, /dev/sda? – J de Silva Aug 23 '20 at 10:31

3 Answers3

0

I have the same Acer laptop model and I faced the same problem. This problem doesn't have solution. Linux just doesn't support hdd controller used in this laptop model.

Ishmael
  • 1
0

Change your hard drive's mode to AHCI mode in BIOS as it may be in RAID mode by default.Also, disable Fast Startup.

To access ACHI mode, you may have to do the following.

In BIOS, in the Main section, press Ctrl + S It turns on a couple of additional hidden settings. One of those, the one for the hard disk, should give you option to switch ACHI.

javaiskillingme
  • 1
  • On an Acer you may have to create a supervisor password to access some of the extra menus. Be sure to write it down. Once the operation is complete, you can disable the password. – Raffles Aug 13 '22 at 17:58
-1

I partitioned a new volume E: from windows Then “try ubuntu” run terminal window

sudo lshw -c storage -c disk
sudo lshw -c storage -c e
sudo lshw -c storage

The last two commands I made up myself ‘doh. Only then could I see volume c and e in gparted. Then I format volume e as ext4 journaling root /

user68186
  • 33,360
GuestGirl
  • 1
  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. The answer will be better if you explain what the three commands do. – user68186 Dec 28 '21 at 22:03
  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Error404 Dec 29 '21 at 05:19