My son bought me an Acer 215-53 with 8 gig ram and NVme drive and he gave me an SSD to install. The two drives (500 plus 500) give me a terabyte of drive space.
I must say that Windows 11 isn't too bad or maybe it is this new computer.
So of course I want to install Mint. I was going to use the SSD I installed for Mint but the odd thing is that gparted can't see the SSD. It doesn't matter how I format / partition that SSD as Gparted will not see it. to gparted it is as though the drive isn't even connected.
Windows can see the drive and can read and write to the drive.
So if Gparted can't see it there is no way for me to install to it. I've never had gpart not see a drive.
Just to research this I turned off secure boot and fast boot but that didn't make any difference.
Any ideas?
Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD -solved
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD -solved
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
On acer laptops they use the crap InsydeH20 bios and by default the sata settings are hidden. It will show Optane/Raid. You have to enable sata to get the laptop to detect the ssd drive. You do this by the following..
Boot into the bios by holding down the F2 key, and when you are in the bios scroll across to the tab Main and then press Ctrl+S key it will show the sata setting then click on it and select AHCI mode. Some of them require you to set a system password before you can see the sata setting.
I have a acer swift 3 and I had to do that to get LM to install it will not install otherwise it will come up with the error "No drive found". My sister-in-law bought the acer swift 5X and the sata setting is completely non existant, meaning you cannot set it to sata mode as the keys to enable have now been disabled. I was told this by their service techs who said that a majority of new acer laptops will NOT allow other O/S to run on them, meaning they are tied into windows.
Boot into the bios by holding down the F2 key, and when you are in the bios scroll across to the tab Main and then press Ctrl+S key it will show the sata setting then click on it and select AHCI mode. Some of them require you to set a system password before you can see the sata setting.
I have a acer swift 3 and I had to do that to get LM to install it will not install otherwise it will come up with the error "No drive found". My sister-in-law bought the acer swift 5X and the sata setting is completely non existant, meaning you cannot set it to sata mode as the keys to enable have now been disabled. I was told this by their service techs who said that a majority of new acer laptops will NOT allow other O/S to run on them, meaning they are tied into windows.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Yes I knew about the ctrl S option but nothing shows up when I do it. I have set a password but not sure if it is a system password. I've never seen such a BIOS.
I'll go see what password I have set and report back.
I have supervisor password set and that is what allows access to the BIOS utility.
Sadly it appears that not all Acer computers will allow ACHI mode. What's up with that?
https://community.acer.com/en/discussio ... velmate-p6
Well it could be worse it is a gift from my son and I'm not going to complain. I've spent the past year being sole caregiver to my wife who has AML Leukemia. My son bought it for me because he said I was such a good caregiver and I could use a gift. Wife was just released after having a bone marrow transplant and it seems that it all worked for her.
It's a speedy computer and it would really sail with Mint.
I'll go see what password I have set and report back.
I have supervisor password set and that is what allows access to the BIOS utility.
Sadly it appears that not all Acer computers will allow ACHI mode. What's up with that?
https://community.acer.com/en/discussio ... velmate-p6
Well it could be worse it is a gift from my son and I'm not going to complain. I've spent the past year being sole caregiver to my wife who has AML Leukemia. My son bought it for me because he said I was such a good caregiver and I could use a gift. Wife was just released after having a bone marrow transplant and it seems that it all worked for her.
It's a speedy computer and it would really sail with Mint.
kato181 wrote: ⤴Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:01 am On acer laptops they use the crap InsydeH20 bios and by default the sata settings are hidden. It will show Optane/Raid. You have to enable sata to get the laptop to detect the ssd drive. You do this by the following..
Boot into the bios by holding down the F2 key, and when you are in the bios scroll across to the tab Main and then press Ctrl+S key it will show the sata setting then click on it and select AHCI mode. Some of them require you to set a system password before you can see the sata setting.
I have a acer swift 3 and I had to do that to get LM to install it will not install otherwise it will come up with the error "No drive found". My sister-in-law bought the acer swift 5X and the sata setting is completely non existant, meaning you cannot set it to sata mode as the keys to enable have now been disabled. I was told this by their service techs who said that a majority of new acer laptops will NOT allow other O/S to run on them, meaning they are tied into windows.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Well it seems you have gotten one of those laptops that will refuse to let you install another O/S. There will be another catch for you also, seeing it came with win10, you will only be able to update to win11, because if you purchase win11 on usb, and try a fresh install, it will give you the same error message that LM did....No Drive Present!!! I struck that when I tried to install win10 pro as a fresh install, it was impossible, so I had to update to the pro version which took 6hrs.
Acer support now sux big time, they won't help with support all they will tell you to use the update. I have been a acer user for years and was very disappointed with their lack of help let alone technical support.
Acer support now sux big time, they won't help with support all they will tell you to use the update. I have been a acer user for years and was very disappointed with their lack of help let alone technical support.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
You can still run linux. Install VirtualBox on Windows 10 and then install Mint as a Virtual Machine. Mint runs great as a virtual machine. The downside is you will always be booting Windows to get to the virtual box launcher to start Mint, but you are going to have to do that anyway.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Just for kicks I tried a Manjaro KDE stick and KDE partition manager sees the other drive. Hm????? But would it install to that drive.
Yeah I've had others Acer's that were great but what were they thinking? MS holding them hostage?
Yeah I've had others Acer's that were great but what were they thinking? MS holding them hostage?
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
So sadly and oddly other distros would see the other drive. I partitioned and installed Kubuntu and it works as it should as a dual boot.
So the question is why doesn't Mint see the other drive.
S guess is a driver issue and Ubuntu based distros will have that SSD driver in its install program. Oh but wait Manjaro works. Now I don't know???
So the question is why doesn't Mint see the other drive.
S guess is a driver issue and Ubuntu based distros will have that SSD driver in its install program. Oh but wait Manjaro works. Now I don't know???
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Well that is indeed strange, as a LM user I didn't bother trying other distro's, but you could try disabling secure boot and fast boot in the bios then try mint again, it may well having something to do with the way they have set secure boot. LM 20.2 will install with secure boot enabled, but due to the acer issue you could try disabling them and try again. I have an acer swift 3 and I had the same problem but I was able to get sata enabled and ahci working and it runs perfectly.
Hopefully you created a windows recovery media before installing linux!! If you didn't, and you wanted windows back then you would be in trouble, only if you didn't create a dual boot and didn't delete the whole drive..
Hopefully you created a windows recovery media before installing linux!! If you didn't, and you wanted windows back then you would be in trouble, only if you didn't create a dual boot and didn't delete the whole drive..
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
I've tried disabling fast and secure. The distro just will not recognize the drive.
Ten years ago I used Kubuntu but not a fan of it these days. If I have to I'll go with Manjaro.
Ten years ago I used Kubuntu but not a fan of it these days. If I have to I'll go with Manjaro.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Well I'm afraid I can't help you anymore than I have, I just can't understand why Kubuntu can see the drive and LM can't, after all Kubuntu is based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is based on Debian and LM is based on Ubuntu so it should work the same by all accounts. Have you tried the edge.iso version or even LMDE they may work.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
The only other thought I have is - remove the nvme drive, can mint (gparted) see the SSD? On some desktops an nvme drive masks some sata ports, but wouldn't have thought this was applicable in a laptop. Beyond that you have to find a way of disabling optane/RST and setting the sata mode to AHCI. We have now had a small number of posts on this subject where mint won't see the drive, but some other distros do. I have no idea why, thought it might be the kernel, but no, a 5.13 kernel in mint seems to make no difference. It would be nice to know what packages these other distros have that provides optane/RST support.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
So far I've tried multiple distros that will see the SSD
Kubuntu
Manjaro
Ubuntu
I installed Kubuntu and it works fine but I haven't been a Kubuntu fan for a long time. So I guess it will be Manjaro.
Yeah I don't know why Mint isn't seeing that drive. Weird but I just recently installed the SSD and I'm not into taking my computer apart again to remove the nvme to experiment. So until this is all sorted out, I guess it will be Manjaro.
Kubuntu
Manjaro
Ubuntu
I installed Kubuntu and it works fine but I haven't been a Kubuntu fan for a long time. So I guess it will be Manjaro.
Yeah I don't know why Mint isn't seeing that drive. Weird but I just recently installed the SSD and I'm not into taking my computer apart again to remove the nvme to experiment. So until this is all sorted out, I guess it will be Manjaro.
AndyMH wrote: ⤴Wed Dec 08, 2021 8:27 am The only other thought I have is - remove the nvme drive, can mint (gparted) see the SSD? On some desktops an nvme drive masks some sata ports, but wouldn't have thought this was applicable in a laptop. Beyond that you have to find a way of disabling optane/RST and setting the sata mode to AHCI. We have now had a small number of posts on this subject where mint won't see the drive, but some other distros do. I have no idea why, thought it might be the kernel, but no, a 5.13 kernel in mint seems to make no difference. It would be nice to know what packages these other distros have that provides optane/RST support.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Yer that it would be interesting to find out AndyMH, I wonder why the Dev team haven't been given any info given to them with this problem.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Thanks. I tried Edge and it worked. I am now using an installed Mint on my new computer.
I'll mark this solved.
I'll mark this solved.
kato181 wrote: ⤴Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:50 am Well I'm afraid I can't help you anymore than I have, I just can't understand why Kubuntu can see the drive and LM can't, after all Kubuntu is based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is based on Debian and LM is based on Ubuntu so it should work the same by all accounts. Have you tried the edge.iso version or even LMDE they may work.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD -solved
Congrats glad you got it installed and running.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD -solved
I am glad because although Manjaro has a big following, I have it on some of my computers and not a fan. Probably the reason is because I'm not familiar with Arch terminal commands.
There have been a few times I've seen some screen quirks with Edge. Not as bad as the days of Nvidia screen tear, etc.
There have been a few times I've seen some screen quirks with Edge. Not as bad as the days of Nvidia screen tear, etc.
Re: Acer P215-53 won't even see the SSD
Thank youkato181 wrote: ⤴Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:01 am On acer laptops they use the crap InsydeH20 bios and by default the sata settings are hidden. It will show Optane/Raid. You have to enable sata to get the laptop to detect the ssd drive. You do this by the following..
Boot into the bios by holding down the F2 key, and when you are in the bios scroll across to the tab Main and then press Ctrl+S key it will show the sata setting then click on it and select AHCI mode. Some of them require you to set a system password before you can see the sata setting.
I have a acer swift 3 and I had to do that to get LM to install it will not install otherwise it will come up with the error "No drive found". My sister-in-law bought the acer swift 5X and the sata setting is completely non existant, meaning you cannot set it to sata mode as the keys to enable have now been disabled. I was told this by their service techs who said that a majority of new acer laptops will NOT allow other O/S to run on them, meaning they are tied into windows.
For people like me, I made instructions with pictures in here:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussio ... te-p215-53
1) Set some Supervisor Password (It s probably necessary)
2) In the "Maing" Press CTRL+S and set WMD Controller - Disabled
If you have problem witch touchpad in Linux, you cane set to PS2