SSD playing hide and seek?

kallen

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Hello friends. I just purchased a new Acer Aspire5. I needed a laptop that would accommodate my 2.5" Samsung EVO 4TB SSD...this model comes with the newer M.2 SSD as well as an expansion slot for a 2.5" drive. So 4.5TB total...not bad for trying a couple new distros...as well as my primary Ubuntu install.

Problem I have, when I boot to Ubuntu 20.04 on USB, the live session cannot see the 4TB drive. BIOS detects and identifies the drive, and Windows can access the drive as well. I tried fdisk -l as well as Gparted. no drive. Any ideas?

Also, touchpad didn't work and a couple Fn keys didn't work. Not sure if related, probably not.

Thank you for reading. :)
 


Touchpad and Fn probably need drivers and additional configurations. I don't believe they are related to HDD issue. Check you BIOS maybe to see if SATA setting is set to "Raid On" and try changing it to "AHCI". IS your drive has GPT partitioning or MBR? I would use GPT for 4TB HDDs. Also would check if your OS has the right NVME drivers for your hardware installed. These are just starting points.
 
Touchpad and Fn probably need drivers and additional configurations. I don't believe they are related to HDD issue. Check you BIOS maybe to see if SATA setting is set to "Raid On" and try changing it to "AHCI". IS your drive has GPT partitioning or MBR? I would use GPT for 4TB HDDs. Also would check if your OS has the right NVME drivers for your hardware installed. These are just starting points.

My BIOS doesn't have any options for "Rain On" or "AHCI"...as for MBR vs GPT I am not sure. How do I determine which is correct and what my setup has?

THanks!
 
Check under SATA or Hard Drive settings. It is RAID, not Rain ? GPT or MBR is accessible when you format the hard drive. Google something like "Format HDD as GPG in Windows" and you should get plenty of instructions.
 
It is GPT, not GPG

Wiz :)
 
Check under SATA or Hard Drive settings. It is RAID, not Rain ? GPT or MBR is accessible when you format the hard drive. Google something like "Format HDD as GPG in Windows" and you should get plenty of instructions.

RAID lol, typo... my BIOS/Firmware whatever does not have an option for RAID/ACHI. In fact, the BIOS this system came with has quite a few less options/settings than other computers I have owned. I will try reformatting the drive in windows as GPT and post back.
 
Check under SATA or Hard Drive settings. It is RAID, not Rain ? GPT or MBR is accessible when you format the hard drive. Google something like "Format HDD as GPG in Windows" and you should get plenty of instructions.

the drive was already correctly formatted to GPT...I downloaded Fedora 33 last night and will load that on my USB and try that tonight. I tried Manjaro but it wouldn’t boot (got stuck after the live GRUB)
 
Hey guys, wanted to update. So I got Fedora loaded on my USB and booted up great....MUCHfaster and smoother than the live Ubuntu and the buttons and touchpad work normally. However, it does NOT see the SSD! I am at a loss as to why BIOS and Windows can see this thing but Linux cannot....
 
To everyone who made suggestions, I wanted to say thankyou and post an update in case anyone else lands here. I am posting this from Fedora on the SSD. With end of the year projects at work I havn't had time to get this system working. Anyways, I tried to update the BIOS but it gave me an error that it was the same version. I discovered that Acer BIOS have hidden options, unlocked with Ctrl+S. The option I disable was "VMD Controller" (Intel Volume Management Device Bootcamp).

Booted into live session and there she was, just waiting to be formatted!
 

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