Hello, I just purchased a used HP Probook (no OS) and installed Zorin 17.1 from a USB (I used the same USB to install it on my old computer, which I am using fine). The installation process seemed to go OK, but when I restart the computer the BIOS gives the following message: "Boot device not found. Please install an operating system on your hard disk." Zorin works fine if I "try" it from the USB. I even tried to install it again but then there is a dialogue box that shows Zorin is already installed.
Can you share a screenshot of what your drive partitioning looks like? In either something like gparted or disks? I'm just curious as to what the partitions look like and where.
Also, what type of Bios is the system running? Bios or UEFI?
Finally, sometimes the system isn't smart enough to find the correct bootloader on its own. Most BIOS' have a "Boot Menu" that can show you what you can boot from (mine is F7, but all BIOS are differently set up). If you can find that, you can see if it can see anything there.
You have an efi Partition and the ext4; that looks good. A little bit irritate me this ''biosgrub'' Partition.
But the first Thing what you could make is to go in the BIOS and there to the Boot Order. Control if the ''ubuntu'' Entry is on first Place.
Has Your older Computer a UEFI BIOS, too? What Tool did You use to create the Stick? Does is run in GPT or MBR? GPT Partition format is for newer System. MBR is mr for loder Systems.
Another Question: Do You have deactivated Secure Boot and Fast Boot in the BIOS?
Thanks... I wonder why biosgrub is irritating for you? Anway, I looked at the Boot Options in bios and there is nothing called "ubuntu", only the options "Notebook Ethernet / Notebook Upgrade Bay / Notebook Hard Drive". There are also advanced setting which I looked at but didn't change... it's a bit bewildering to me, I attach pics (apologies for the quality, I took them with my phone).
My OLDER computer (HP Pavilion 15)'s bios version is F.67 ... which a search leads me to believe is a UEFI. I have been using it for 10 years but ... actually since I upgraded to Zorin 17.1 I've had problems booting it. and it takes multiple attempts pressing F2 and F7 and F9. I assumed this was a hardware problem (the fan is noisy too, needs cleaning...) ... and that was why I bought another machine.
To create the USB stick I used balena Etcher as recommended on the Zorin site. I don't quite understand the next question... I guess you mean, does the USB stick run in GPT or MBR? The answer is: I don't know, I was not familiar with these terms. Looking at the pic of the partition table I posted earlier I see no reference to either of these. ... so sorry, I don't know, I'm still learning all this
@Ponce-De-Leon and also to answer another of your questions: Secure Boot and Fast Boot are NOT checked, so I guess that means they are NOT activated, i.e. they are deactivated.
From recollection, I thought bios grub was only needed for 32-bit machines or for ones that have a BIOS that does not support EFI.
Personally I would look at doing a manual installation of Zorin 17.1.
Choose the something else method and this should launch GParted.
First, delete all the partitions and within GParted create a new partition table.
Next create a /boot/efi partition of 512 Mb and format it as FAT32
Next create a root partition for the system, you label it as '/' and make this 80 Gb formatted to Ext4. Whatever is left can be made as your /home partition, formatted to Ext4 - all partitions as primary and make sure your partitions have the correct flags. Here is my HDD partitioning of Zorin 17.1 Core on an HDD:
There are the Options Legacy, UEFI Hybrid and UEFI Native. That and the Question with the GPT and MBR relates. Both are Forms of Partition Sheme. MBR should work better with the Legacy Mode and the GPT with UEFI Native.
Unfortunately in BalenaEtcher You cannot adjust what You want to choose. If You have the Possibility to use Windows the Tool Rufus is a good One because there you can select what do You want use.
But because You can switch between Legacy and UEFI, You could try first to choose the UEFI Option and then look if it finds Zorin with his efi Boot Partition.
That also happened to me I was installing zorin os in many different ways but none of them worked I disabled secure boot and enabled legacy support but that also didn't work the only working solution that worked for me is using another installer I installed kde neon and it worked with no issues at all but when I install zorin it gives me error 3f0 I could install zorin before but now I don't know what happened
I really love zorin os
Oh, you mean 3f0 is an error message? When I saw Hard Disk 3F0 I thought that was the number of the disk ... Also error messages usually say "error 404" or something and this did NOT say "error" .
Your first screenshot shows you choosing to install Z17 alongside Z17. Was that intentional?
If installing Z17 alone, then you would choose the Second option "Erase disk and install Zorin OS" (or Third "Something else" option if doing a manual installation.)
Firstly, have you tried using the boot repair tool that is present in the Zorin live environment when booting it from ISO / USB? This may resolve the issue.
If that doesn't work, I have found this old Stack thread with two plausible suggestions:
No... that was just a way of showing the partitions, and showing the forum that Z17 does appear to be installed. Afterwards, I backtracked out of that installation.
Thank you, this seems to be helping. I ran the boot repair and it gave me specific instructions, and also meanwhile I loaded the boot report to this pastebin:
It seems that the BIOS has the legacy mode enabled, and it says "Please disable BIOS-compatibility/CSM/Legacy mode in your UEFI firmware, ..." (pic attached). I am following the instructions.
Later I went into F9 Boot device options and found I can select EFI ... I was confused whether to choose grub, shimx, or mmx, I chose shimx, and ... lo and behold, Zorin booted from the hard disk. Now I need to make sure that will happen every time, without me needing to go into boot options. However, if I leave the computer to try and boot on its own, the HP screen flashes up for a second then disappears and the screen goes blank... repeatedly. It seems like the machine is trapped in some loop. When I intervene by pressing F9 I can select the boot option EFI/ubuntu/shimx64 and this boots fine. The video tracking seems very slow (perhaps I should reinstall with NVIDIA drivers?) but that is a minor problem for me.
Also error messages usually say "error 404" or something and this did NOT say "error" .