Can't install Linux on SSD alongside Windows because SSD won't show up

AlpineTom

Yesterday I installed Windows 10 from scratch, leaving 10 GB unallocated on the SSD to install Linux (10 GB is enough when /home and swap are on the HDD). However, the SSD is nowhere to be found in the installer or live environment, only the HDD (the Verbatim thumbdrive holds the Linux installer, the Kingston was for saving the screenshot).

I've disabled Fast Startup in Windows and made sure I shut it down properly, I've disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS, and I even checked if the SSD might be in /dev/nvme, but no luck. I tried changing boot mode in the BIOS from UEFI to legacy or something simiar, but UEFI is the only option available.

I'm at my wits' end, to be honest. Although I've been using Linux for nine years now and installed various distros on several laptops (I'm typing this on an Acer Swift 1 running MX Linux), I haven't dealt with laptops who had two internal drives, so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something. But what?

AlpineTom

I found the solution.

I kept thinking that this issue must be driver-related, kind of how some Linux distros sometimes fail to detect your touchpad or WiFi card. But since Manjaro, MX Linux, and Puppy Linux all failed to detect the SSD, I must have been wrong, which is why I looked around the BIOS some more. Aaaaand...

SATA mode was set to RST with Optane, which -- as far as I understand it -- basically turns this into a RAID setup that Windows apparently kept hogging even after a clean shutdown. I changed SATA mode to AHCI, and lo and behold, Windows failed to boot (ERROR: no boot media recognized). But on the upside, Manjaro finally detected the SSD as /dev/nvme0n1, and after installing Windows for the umpteenth time, I now have the Windows 10 + Manjaro dual-boot setup I wanted.

Should anyone else find this when having the same problem I did, I hope this helps.

xapim

Hi make sure you post your specs (model etc...) so whoever might help to be able to

AlpineTom

xapim said:

Hi make sure you post your specs (model etc...) so whoever might help to be able to

Yeah, sorry, silly me.

Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH317-52); i7-8750H, GTX 1060, 16 GB RAM. The SSD is an NVMe INTEL SSDPEKKW256G7, and the HDD is a WDC WD19SPZX-21Z10T0.

AlpineTom

I found the solution.

I kept thinking that this issue must be driver-related, kind of how some Linux distros sometimes fail to detect your touchpad or WiFi card. But since Manjaro, MX Linux, and Puppy Linux all failed to detect the SSD, I must have been wrong, which is why I looked around the BIOS some more. Aaaaand...

SATA mode was set to RST with Optane, which -- as far as I understand it -- basically turns this into a RAID setup that Windows apparently kept hogging even after a clean shutdown. I changed SATA mode to AHCI, and lo and behold, Windows failed to boot (ERROR: no boot media recognized). But on the upside, Manjaro finally detected the SSD as /dev/nvme0n1, and after installing Windows for the umpteenth time, I now have the Windows 10 + Manjaro dual-boot setup I wanted.

Should anyone else find this when having the same problem I did, I hope this helps.

xapim

Yeah almost all the new predator (2018) bios have those sata options modes unfortunately mine doesn't i can't change the sata mode so its a bit of a nightmare to do a dual boot on mine even with 7 i tried but i just gave up (just got bsod's on setup) for the time being will pick it up again when i have more spare time and patience i'm sure ill get there in time