I'm trying to make duel-boot system with my existing Windows 10 installation and Ubuntu (probably encrypted) on my Acer Predator Helios 300 but I can't get past one of the first steps because Ubuntu wont detect my internal hard drive. All that gets detected in GParted is the USB drive itself that has the "Try Without Installing" lite version of Ubuntu on it. It's a new computer and there's nothing wrong with the internal hard drive as far as I know, it works fine in Windows and shows up in the bios as "HDD1 Model Name: WDC PC SN730 SDBQNTY-1T00-1014"
To give some additional information I'll start with some details about my BIOS because I'm reading that if the settings are wrong in the BIOS it can prevent the internal hard drive from being detected.As the picture shows the SATA Mode is: Optane with RAID
I've heard that maybe this needs to be changed but I see no way to edit anything in the Information tab of the BIOS unless I'm missing something.
Here's a Picture of the Main Tab in the BIOS...
I have Fast Boot disabled just in case that helps.
Here's a picture of the Advanced Tab in the BIOS...
It only has two options, Intel VTX and Intel VTD and both of those are disabled by default.
Here's a picture of the Security Tab in the BIOS...
TPM is installed and Enabled, I'm not sure if that matters but I've heard that this setting can impact OS installations so let me know if that needs to be changed. There are some security settings in this tab that are shaded out and I can't figure out how to edit them if I'd needed to. I disabled Password on boot but under the shaded settings it says Secure Boot Mode is set to Standard. Other than that there's an option that says "Select an UEFI File As Trusted For Executing" I cant figure out how to change this setting either if it turns out that I'd need to in the future. I've read that UEFI is important for installing Ubuntu.
The good news is that under the Boot tab in my BIOS, the Boot Mode is set to UEFI and Secure Boot is set to disabled, here's a picture of the Boot Tab in the BIOS...

My BIOS may be missing options that are important for Ubuntu installations, I'm not sure. For example, I've read that I may need to tweak the legacy mode but I don't see an option for that in my BIOS.
Additional Information:- The BIOS is InsydeH20 but I have no idea how to update it. So I'd need help on where to download a new BIOS for this laptop model and how to update it if that's the case. The Acer website didn't seem to have a BIOS listed for this specific laptop model number but they may have a bios for other Acer Predator 300's, I'd have to check.
- The Model Number of my laptop is: PH317-54-70YD
- The Version of Ubuntu that I'm Trying to install is 20.04.2.0 amd64 but my processor is an Intel and not AMD so I'm sure if that matters. I doubt it because my processor is 64 bit regardless and Ubuntu runs fine off of the USB stick.
- Here's a picture of what the Gparted and Disk programs see in Ubuntu...


As can be seen, my internal hard drive isn't listed here, again that's unless I'm missing something. If there's a way I need to mount my internal hard drives in Ubuntu I'd need to know how to do that. I'm not very familiar with Ubuntu Terminal Commands.
- Here's a picture of the Terminal after I typed "sudo sgdisk --print /dev/sda" ...

Ubuntu is giving me the error that says "Invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in Memory. Below this it says "Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by 33 blocks!" but I'm pretty sure it's referring to the USB drive and not my internal hard drive because the internal isn't even listed. It only list a 3.8 Gigabyte Disk which I'm sure is the same USB drive that Gparted is seeing.
In windows I downsized my system partition to leave plenty of room at the end of the internal drive to install Ubuntu. For one last picture here's a layout of my internal hard drive from within Windows..

I can't think of anything else to share to help members here to identify the problem I'm having but let me know what I can do from here to make it easier. I can work my way around a computer somewhat but may need help on certain things if I haven't done them yet. Updating my BIOS or doing commands in the terminal from Ubuntu are things I'm not experienced with. I've installed Ubuntu once a long time ago on another laptop but have forgotten quite a bit since then.
Thanks in advance for any help!
//Edited the content to add model name on title.
Thread was edited to add model name to the title
FAQ & Answers
Tinkerer
This will stop windows groom booting though I think, the Ubuntu page has a guide on trying to get it back working without having to re install
You should be able to leave secure boot on I think for Ubuntu , their signing keys are by default trusted on almost all laptops
You should also try leaving the TPM on, what this will allow is for Ubuntu to create a more secure keychain on the device for password storage
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Tinkerer
I'm hoping not to need to do away with my existing Windows OS because it has all of the ACER software and a bunch of other updates and programs that took a couple weeks to set up.
I'll look for the link you're talking about to get Windows working again.
Pre warning that playing with boot and registry is a blue screen waiting to happen! Make sure to back it up first
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Tinkerer
https://www.mikekasberg.com/blog/2020/04/08/dual-boot-ubuntu-and-windows-with-encryption.html
The problem I'm having now is only partially relevant to the questions I asked here. I'll probably create a new help request since you helped me solve the primary issue I was having a couple days ago. My current problem is still relevant to making a "duel boot" system with Windows 10 and Ubuntu Encrypted so if you know what I'm doing wrong below, I'm open to any tips. If not, no worries.
Just in case you have any ideas on this, here is where I'm at in the the Tutorial above. I have Ubuntu installed on my hard drive in an encrypted partition and a separate non encrypted /boot partition and all of that should be set up right so I left off on the last section of the tutorial on step number 3 below...
Continue Testing
. We have to do a couple more things before we restart.etc/crypttab
. This is what will allow you to unlock your encrypted drive by typing in your passphrase when booting.sudo blkid /dev/sda6
/etc/crypttab
. Use your favorite editor to edit this file. I’ll use vi.sudo vi /etc/crypttab
Save the following file contents, replacing the UUID with the actual UUID you found above.With the Vi editor open, I'm not sure what the person in the tutorial was wanting me to do with all of this text that was listed in step 3...
For me, anything could be the case because the tutorial didn't explain this step by step.
I tried copying and pasting this line from above, as is, into the Vi editor....
I forget everything that happened when I pressed Enter but eventually the screen got weird and I saw nothing but single letters like CCCCCCCC and DDDDDDDDD all the way up and down the screen in the Vi editor. I didn't know what was happening so I closed out this terminal and went to try again but this time I get this message before Vi editor opens...
Found a swap file by the name "/etc/.crypttab.swp"
owned by: root dated: Thu Apr 22 04:09:18 2021
file name: /etc/crypttab
modified: YES
user name: root host name: ubuntu
process ID: 97350
While opening file "/etc/crypttab"
CANNOT BE FOUND
(1) Another program may be editing the same file. If this is the case,
be careful not to end up with two different instances of the same
file when making changes. Quit, or continue with caution.
(2) An edit session for this file crashed.
If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r /etc/crypttab"
to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
If you did this already, delete the swap file "/etc/.crypttab.swp"
to avoid this message.
I'm assuming that this mounted what it needed to so that the crypttab.swp file could be recovered. This file is visible in the /etc/ folder when I browse for it from the Ubuntu GUI but when I right click it I don't see any option to delete. Under properties for this file it says I don't have permission. When I navigate to /target/etc in the terminal, crypttab.swp isn't even visible to be able to delete it. Although that might not be the right place to look. I don't know if I have to do "chroot /target" again and "mount -a" to find the same /etc/crypttab file in the terminal. However it's done, I think I need to be able to delete crypttab.swp to continue.
I really don't know what I'm doing, I only know how to navigate directories because "cd" is a command that worked in old school DOS and MS-DOS. I had to do research to learn how to do basic things like list the files in a directory because the old "dir" DOS command doesn't work, just like most other commands from the old days. I probably only got this far with a Windows 10 / Ubuntu encrypted setup because I copy and paste commands.
All I want to do from here is be able to continue with creating a way to unlock my encrypted Ubuntu installation from the boot screen otherwise it's unusable. I'm not sure if I can ignore the "E325: ATTENTION" message and just start over with an existing cryptab.swp file already on the computer. In Windows if you go to create a file with the same name and directory as another file, it gives me the option to overwrite the old file very easily.
Whatever the case is, the bigger issue is using the Vi editor to create a way to mount my encrypted Ubuntu OS. If there's another way to do that, I'd consider it but I feel like I'm so close and probably missing something very simple because of my inexperience with Ubuntu.
You are right about the vi modes, if vim is installed use that instead it is the same as vi , just better (vim is vi improved)
So when you open it in vi or vim you need to press i to enter edit mode, so use up n down to go to where you want, press i, paste, (hope that mouse integration is turned off else something weird will happen) hit ESC to exit edit mode , type :wq to exit (: is command w write, q quit)
The lines with # don't matter as they are cowith themments , so it's just the ones without it. People do stuff like that to explain what the command is they are doing, so the things you need to change is the line without the hash, and the values you need are explained by the comment
And to delete the swap file it lives at .filename.swp so if your file was
/Etc/cryptab
It would be
rm /Etc/.cryptab.swp
Rm is just del
The warning Is just a warning , if you delete the swap file it will go away
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Tinkerer
Thanks for the help on all of this. I have a lot to learn about Ubuntu and Terminal commands so I wouldn't have been able to pull this off without a lot of help but everything is working great now!
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Tinkerer
I'm just glad it's done at this point, I plan to make additional backups so hopefully I don't have to do this again, lol.
At this point I'm optimizing my Ubuntu installation with drivers and such and trying to figure out how to make NTFS faster on Ubuntu...
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/636806/how-to-optimize-my-ubuntu-installation-for-speed-with-my-predator-helios-300-ntfs-question-included/p1?new=1