I have to admit, I'm not sure. It appears to be listed under the /dev/sda header, and it only has 27942MB, which added to the 3094MB seems to add up to the total storage space of the USB stick.
I looked up Gparted. I'm a *nix newbie, but I've worked with partitions, virtual machines, dual booting, on and off during the years. Are you recommending I quit my current Zorin "Install" screen [snowy mountain background], create a gparted stick and try again?
I am suggesting if you are having problems with disks and partitions, Gparted will give a clear illustration of them that you can post as a screenshot to aid diagnosis and forum help.
As some say: "a picture is worth a 1000 words"
/dev/sda3 formatted as ext4 used 619mb
This looks like the partition you want to install to.
To my eyes Gparted picture is showing only the USB stick, but there is a ext4 partition sda3 on that. I assume intention is not to try install ZorinOS on the USB stick.
@Aravisian is that your understanding?
The USB stick would be /dev/sdb rather than sda, right?
Thanks everyone.
My intention is to install on the 1Tb internal hard drive, not the USB stick.
I don't see "sdb" in the list.../dev/sda is the header, I assume, of the other items below it.
@Aravisian Did the USB stick become /sda as result of that formatting episode mentioned in OP.
/sdb seems to be missing.
On the LiveUSB version of Zorin OS, the Disks Utility should be able to answer these questions and hopefully clear up the confusion.
Launch Disks from the app menu.
In the left pane, the Disks that are recognized will be listed, including their ID and Maker.
On mine for example, I have a Western Digital SSD 500 gig disk and a 32 gig USB plugged in.
I also have Seagate HDD 1 Terabyte disk:
- I quit out of the running install and put aside that working USB boot stick.
- I created a 2nd USB boot stick.
- I restarted the computer. The first time through, I got that Windows Recovery blue screen error. The second time, I got the MOK menu. I clicked through that and got the Zorin install screen.
- Rather than install, I started the OS from the USB stick.
- I ran a few of the desktop apps. Gparted only shows the USB stick. Same with the other disk utilities.
- So...asking as an acknowledged relative newbie...maybe the internal hard drive is dead? is there a BIOS setting perhaps set wrong? I didn't see a 'LiveUSB' option.
I am enjoying learning more about BIOS setting and this OS, so thanks much to those assisting me! - Mike
This means that Secure Boot is enabled in your BIOS settings.
Did this previously have Windows 7 or higher on it? That Windows OS may have had Fast Boot or Fast Startup enabled. Fast boot locks the drive preventing read/ write access.
Are you able to boot Windows at all?
LiveUSB is just what we call booting a Live Demo from the USB. It is unlikely to be called that by the Computer. It can vary, but it usually just lists the USB stick by model as a bootable option.
Yes, I had Windows 10 on there. The hard drive was acting up - I ran CrystalDiskInfo on it and it returned some yellow warning lights. Somewhere before I starting testing Zorin I removed the Windows partition [I think], but the fact that I keep getting Recovery blue screens on initial boot tells me Windows is still involved.
In other news, it [appeared] Zorin bricked the second USB stick I created. That when it struck me...it's me, not Zorin. After I restarted the machine, I reformatted those two USB sticks with ntfs and the original Lexar and newer 32Gb PNY sticks came back to life, showing up as working drives in my Win11 laptop.
I'll go back to the BIOS setting in that old Acer laptop and look for Secure Boot or Fast Boot or Fast Startup.
1 Like
So the Secure Boot was set to 'Enabled' and there was no way to modify the field. If I changed the boot from UEFI to Legacy, the whole Secure Boot field disappeared.
To enable Secure Boot in Legacy mode requires several additional steps - On your machine, it may just simply disallow Secure Boot with legacy. In which case, using Legacy may solve your issue.
BIOS is set to legacy, boot from USB stick works, the install screen only offers me to install on that same USB stick. I can't find any info about the internal hard drive. I've posted verbatim every thing I see re the partition info and even posted a picture of that screen. Ran gparted and went over that here. Not sure what else I can do to put Zorin on my C drive....any help? Thanks.
Is it possible that the drive is failing?
One last thing i can think of - in your BIOS settings, are you able to see if you are using RAID or AHCI?
I think we're going to submit a repair claim with the warranty company - this Acer laptop is having the same problems with the hard drive that an original Acer I bought years ago. It's $95 to start a repair at a shop, but I can get a 3rd replacement for about the same. This time I'm hoping it's a different make and model!
To answer your question in any case, it's AHCI. I have a few more days to play around with it before I send it back.
I have a 3rd laptop [Lenovo from 2015] that I may use to try Zorin. It's even older [2015], but it still boots to Windows 8 [ugh, I know] and it might be a good challenge.
Thanks everyone! - Mike
Hello 337Harvey. Thanks for answering. It's been a few weeks - in the interim, I got my original Acer back with a new hard drive. I'm going to assume it's fine. It has Windows 10. I'll put it aside and use it as a backup.
I dug up the Lenovo. I was able to get Windows 10 on it. It has no hardware issues, and all the drivers are up to date. I saw a great review of Zorin recently on ZDNet, so I'm inspired to try the dual-boot on this laptop. I really don't want to lose the partition with the Windows 10 OS. I'll read some of the HOW TO here and see if I can find a way to boot with a Zorin USB stick, carve out a partition for Zorin, and then put it there.
Thanks for your very thorough instruction list - sorry my setup situation changed mid-project.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.