No drive not showing up while trying to install (dual boot) Linux

[TheNoobie27]

I have been trying to dual boot to troubleshoot another unrelated issue I have been having with my GPU and BSODs while gaming.

I have gone through multiple online tutorials and have have followed the following steps:

• Created a partition on the SSD windows is installed on 
• Downloaded the correct ISOs from the official websites
• Used rufus (for my first attempt with Ubuntu 19.10) and Etcher (for my second attempt with Pop_OS 19.10 (the one with nvidia drivers)) to create bootable USB drive
• Turned off Secure Boot
• Turned Fast Boot off from inside Windows as well BIOS (or UEFI I don't know the difference)

I am using

• Acer Triton 500 (PT515-51-71VV)
• The boot SSD is the one that came preinstalled (WDC pc sn720 sdaqntw-512g-1001)
• I am running Windows 10 Home 10 1090 (18363.657)
• The BIOS version is Insyde Corp. V 1.12

Only the usb drive I booted up for shows up during the installation so I can select the partition I want to install the OS in.

I have included some screenshots.

 

Thank you in advanced

[Robchil]

did you set the new partition as bootable? 

[Sir0Tek]

But... Partition 4 on the ssd is a Pop!OS-image, in ISO9660 (CD/DVD, non writable) format, that is not the usb-drive. 

[TheNoobie27]

18 minutes ago, Sir0Tek said:

But... Partition 4 on the ssd is a Pop!OS-image, in ISO9660 (CD/DVD, non writable) format, that is not the usb-drive. 

I had originally created a  unallocated partition there. When it didn't show up during installation I used the new simple volume button, but didn't format it as I read somewhere th at linux doesn't support NTFS and FAT32 (the only 2 option given by the New Volume Wizard). 

[TheNoobie27]

59 minutes ago, Robchil said:

did you set the new partition as bootable? 

I don't understand, I am booting off of USB drive.

Anyways I tried it using a tutorial and got this error message.

"The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk.
The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks."

[Sir0Tek]

It is possible that the install (ubuntu 18.04 lts based?) isn't able to access the nvme due to a missing kernel-module.

Linux is able to acess ntfs/fat32 but it is not wise to install it in these very filesystems. Nonetheless, with the installation the root-partition will be reformatted anyways so it doesn't matter.

[Robchil]

change sata/nvme to ahci in bios, until linux is installed with kernel that has nvme module. 

then you can change it back to uefi. 

[TheNoobie27]

2 hours ago, Robchil said:

change sata/nvme to ahci in bios, until linux is installed with kernel that has nvme module. 

then you can change it back to uefi. 

Changing the settings to AHCI did let me install Pop_OS. It prompted me to restart the computer to add user. I pressed restart but Windows booted and went into Automatic Repair. If I press "Exit and continue to Windows recovery environment" it loops back. If I tell it to got to UEFI settings it just shows a black screen after restarting.

[TheNoobie27]

Even when I try to normally start it up and then go to BIOS through spamming F2 it just shows a black screen

[Robchil]

sounds like it's not able to install any bootloader. so you can select linux and windows boot. usually windows eats the whole disk, how did you get the two partitions you plan on using for linux? 

[TheNoobie27]

54 minutes ago, Robchil said:

sounds like it's not able to install any bootloader. so you can select linux and windows boot. usually windows eats the whole disk, how did you get the two partitions you plan on using for linux? 

I used the Windows Disk Management to shrink the main Windows partition and create an unallocated 30gb partition. Then once I got into Pop_OS installation wizard through the bootable SSD I went to the advanced option as I wanted to dual boot it. An application call gparted (not sure about the name) launched in which I divide that unallocated partition into 500mb fat32, 25.5gb ext4 main and 4gb unformated swap drive.

[Robchil]

and? what did it do after that? install files? 

 

when you created a partition ahead of the windows partition, windows got confused.. and you have to troubleshoot and reset mrb records, right now it thinks your new partition is the winboot partition.  so it's no surprise it won't boot correctly to windows. 

 

 bootrec /FixMbr

bootrec /FixBoot

bootrec /ScanOs

bootrec /RebuildBcd

are the commands you have to run in troubleshooter command prompt. 

 

after that finish the linux installation. 

 

[TheNoobie27]

16 minutes ago, Robchil said:

and? what did it do after that? install files? 

 

when you created a partition ahead of the windows partition, windows got confused.. and you have to troubleshoot and reset mrb records, right now it thinks your new partition is the winboot partition.  so it's no surprise it won't boot correctly to windows. 

 

 bootrec /FixMbr

bootrec /FixBoot

bootrec /ScanOs

bootrec /RebuildBcd

are the commands you have to run in troubleshooter command prompt. 

 

after that finish the linux installation. 

 

It did install files. And I shrinked the volume from behind (if it makes sense), atleast that's what the UI showed. I'll try these using these commands anyways.

[TheNoobie27]

It did install files. And I shrinked the volume from behind (if it makes sense), atleast that's what the UI showed. I'll try these using these commands anyways.

 

Edit: Also shouldn't I be able to get into BIOS even if Windows isn't working?

[TheNoobie27]

28 minutes ago, Robchil said:

and? what did it do after that? install files? 

 

when you created a partition ahead of the windows partition, windows got confused.. and you have to troubleshoot and reset mrb records, right now it thinks your new partition is the winboot partition.  so it's no surprise it won't boot correctly to windows. 

 

 bootrec /FixMbr

bootrec /FixBoot

bootrec /ScanOs

bootrec /RebuildBcd

are the commands you have to run in troubleshooter command prompt. 

 

after that finish the linux installation. 

 

It keeps showing "The system cannot find the file specified."

[Robchil]

yeah in the boot record it's looking for hda1 that was the original name of the partition. when you added a partition ahead of it, it became hda2.. and tries to boot from the new partition. 

[Robchil]

13 minutes ago, TheNoobie27 said:

It did install files. And I shrinked the volume from behind (if it makes sense), atleast that's what the UI showed. I'll try these using these commands anyways.

 

Edit: Also shouldn't I be able to get into BIOS even if Windows isn't working?

you should, this reminds me of old IBM systems that has bios on the harddrive, delete it and bios is gone.. they don't do it like that anymore, so if you get into bios by hitting F2 at boot it's probably set to fast boot with no delays and quick post. 

[TheNoobie27]

7 minutes ago, Robchil said:

yeah in the boot record it's looking for hda1 that was the original name of the partition. when you added a partition ahead of it, it became hda2.. and tries to boot from the new partition. 

So how do I make it look at hda2. When I enter the aforementioned commands it just says "The system cannot find the file specified."

Do those commands need to be used in the same order? I have only tried the first one and it didn't work.

[TheNoobie27]

4 minutes ago, Robchil said:

you should, this reminds me of old IBM systems that has bios on the harddrive, delete it and bios is gone.. they don't do it like that anymore, so if you get into bios by hitting F2 at boot it's probably set to fast boot with no delays and quick post. 

I did disable fast boot in both windows and BIOS. I also used be to able to get into BIOS by using F2 before (when fast boot should have been enabled).

[Robchil]

boot from windows install usb, troubleshoot and run those command mentioned earlier in command promt

 

next time you want a dual boot system. create an unformatet partition in front before installing windows :D, then it don't bite you in the ass. 

[TheNoobie27]

2 minutes ago, Robchil said:

boot from windows install usb, troubleshoot and run those command mentioned earlier in command promt

 

next time you want a dual boot system. create an unformatet partition in front before installing windows :D, then it don't bite you in the ass. 

Will it delete the original recovery partition OEM created as I don't want to lose it. I have another issue with my GPU crashing and BSODs which were fixed only after resetting the laptop (using the OEM recovery partition?)

 

Can't I just use the same resetting function again?

[Robchil]

the commands won't delete any partition.. google them and read up what each do. but by running them you can start windows again and find those files it need. 

 

[TheNoobie27]

3 minutes ago, Robchil said:

the commands won't delete any partition.. google them and read up what each do. but by running them you can start windows again and find those files it need. 

 

I'll need to do that tommorow morning as the only machine have is down. Thanks for all your help though.

[TheNoobie27]

Found this one the manufacturer's forum, could this be related to my issue. They are discussing the same model that I have.

[TheNoobie27]

19 hours ago, Robchil said:

the commands won't delete any partition.. google them and read up what each do. but by running them you can start windows again and find those files it need. 

 

I used install usb to run troubleshoot and run cmd commands. The first two "The system cannot find the file specified.". The other two say that no Windows installation were found.

 

Another thing I found was when go for "Use a device" my SSD and Pop_OS show. Both of them boot me into Pop_OS.

 

What do you suggest I do next?