Dual boot on a new laptop

Installing Zorin OS
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1

Hello,
I have been running Zorin as a stand alone installation for about 2 years.
I recently got a new computer and I have been having some issues this time around. Sorry if this is a repeat, I have been looking around and haven't seen anything that has worked.

My new system is a Lenovo Legion 82RB004VUS
i7-12700H, 16GB DDR5-4800MHz
It has 2 1TB SSDs but they read as a single drive in windows Disk Managment.
Running Windows 11 Home

The issue I am having is that the installer can't detect or modify the partitions. I also get an error I have never seen before when I just hit install. Disks can see the drives but not the partitions. See pictures for details.

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What I have tried so far:

  • I saw a forum post (Zorin Installer not detecting partitions of second hdd) that said this can be caused by having MRB partitions and switching it to GPT can solve it. My SSDs are already GPT.
  • Another post said that Zorin can't install on NTFS, so I made an exFAT partition and it still doesn't work.
  • I thought it might be a Zorin thing so I made some boot USBs with Ubuntu and Mint and got the same result.

Unfortunately I need to keep the Windows partition for work reasons, but I do not like using it for my day to day system. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

2

Are you installing on the same Drive as Windows on a partition? Or on the other drive?
If on the other drive - I see it is set to RAID. Try changing that in your BIOS / EFI settings to AHCI, then boot the installer medium and see if that gives a better result.

3

I'd just buy a 64 GB or 128 GB external USB stick and install Zorin OS to that... no need to mess with your Windows installation and potentially break it, no problems with re-partitioning, etc.

4

How did you try to dual-boot? Because if you interfere with the Windows bootloader, it may misbehave. I've had that happen to me

5

I do not know if you can easy access the sata cable, but if you worry about the windows, disconnect the windows hdd, start the Zorin install and clean the hdd(partition manager delete all partittions, make surre that hdd is in GPT). During installation choose "erase all" and install Zorin. after installation, reattach the windows drive and boot with F keys(mine is F12). you will have option to boot from windows drive or Zorin drive. Have a fun

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