I’ve been racking my brain for days now, trying everything I could find on the Internet to get Zorin OS 16 Core (r4) installed on my laptop, but to no avail. I would very much appreciate some help to finally get to experience the joy of using Zorin.
The problem: The installer doesn‘t get past the “Updates and other software“ portion, it just keeps on “working“ (so the mouse thing keeps on turning and the screen isn‘t exactly frozen). Even after an hour of letting it do its thing.
When I uncheck "install third party software..." I can get to the Installation type page, but no matter what option I choose then, it instantly turns to this screen and I am unable to do anything:
Hardware: HP 17-x035ng (64-bit, 2TB space, 16GB RAM, Intel Core i5-6200, AMD Radeon R7 M440/Intel HD Graphics 520) running Windows 11 Home. I’ve checked that it’s in AHCI mode.
Some of the things I’ve tried:
Downloaded the ISO several times, also tried the 15.3 version (no difference)
Checked the checksum is correct
Flashed the ISO with Etcher and with Rufus (set to UEFI and GPT), used a slow burn rate for the CD
Booted from a live CD (DVD), a USB flash drive (16GB), a memory card (32GB)
Wiped my whole drive and installed a fresh version of Windows
Disabled fast startup
Created a partition with about 40GB of space on my C drive
BIOS: enabled/disabled legacy, enabled/disabled secure boot, booted with legacy, booted with UEFI
All the grub menu options + “nomodeset“
Zorin installer: didn‘t connect to the internet, tried all the installation options when I did get to the next step (alongside Boot Manager, instead of Windows*, “something else…“)
*I don't really mind if I can't dual boot with Windows, if I get Zorin to work well.
That is a very common problem. I faced it too. @Aravisian, when I encountered the problem for the first time, I did not have any NTFS partition, so I don't think a corrupt NTFS partition is the culprit...This happened to me once when I tried to reinstall Zorin and once during Kubuntu installation. And I solved it both the time by starting the installation process all over again.
Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I've already started the installation process all over again like 10 times (with different fixes/settings every time.
Do you have Windows installed right now?
Try running these commands in windows (command prompt or power shell):
sfc /scannow
chkdsk x: /f /r
replace 'x' in the second command with your assigned drive letter for each ntfs partitions.
like for example; chkdsk c: /f /r then for another partition run chkdsk d: /f /r and so on.
Also try this:
If you are installing Zorin on the same disk where Windows locates, make sure that Windows is completely shutdown not in a hibernate mode. To do that, you have to cancel hibernate mode in the power setting in Windows.
Yes! That was another fix I looked into but then forgot about because I couldn‘t figure it out. I feel like this could really be a viable solution, but I still have trouble understanding how I should actually go about doing it.
I have absolutely no experience working with terminals (or Linux, for that matter, though I hope that‘s about to change) – Would you (or anyone) mind explaining it in more detail?
Did you try installing Zorin by itself?
While it is recommended to install Windows first for dual boot, you can also do the other way around and fix the boot afterwards.
I had a close look at the error message (the one without 3rd party driver installation).
I also get this ACPI error in one of my desktops, but giving it some time, it will eventually boot into the desktop.
Thank you for the suggestions.
The first and last command didn‘t bring out any errors. I also did the chkdsk and restarted to start the process – At 1% right now and the ETA is steady over 10 hours. Should‘ve googled it beforehand to realize a 2TB drive will take up to a day to be checked and fixed and you can‘t cancel the process, but oh well, here I am.
could also be. Luckily I‘m heading to bed soon anyway and, fingers crossed, can wake up to a checked and fixed drive that doesn‘t trouble Zorin? Like an early Christmas miracle? We shall see.
Not a lot of terminal work is required on this, really.
Firs things first, check the integrity of the Windows Drive. Look for bad sectors.
Next:: DEFRAG. Thoroughly. NTFS fragments badly and if trying to secure or move a partition, this can really cause problems. Defrag until it will defrag no more.
Once done, you can open your Windows Partition Manager and create a partition for Zorin - you can even preemptively format it to ext4, if you want. I cannot (effectively) write a guide on using the Windows Partition Manager as I do not use it... But it may be more familiar to you than the Linux Equivalent Gparted is.
We can use Gparted, too, if you prefer. It is really, really easy to use.
Once all that is done, boot the LiveUSB of Zorin OS.
Connect to the net and run the installer. Check to ON for downloading third party drivers, etc and the additional updates as you go.
Monitor the installation. If it gets stuck, then try again with the checkmark OFF for third party drives and not connected to the net.
If still no good, we may need to check some BIOS settings.
The answer is short and simple — do not defrag a solid state drive. At best it won't do anything, at worst it does nothing for your performance and you will use up write cycles. If you have done it a few times, it isn't going to cause you much trouble or harm your SSD. You just don’t want this to be a scheduled, weekly type thing that takes away from the finite number of SSD rewrites. There are other ways to clean up and increase speed on your computer. There are even reasons for formatting an SSD, encrypting SSDs, and ways to increase storage space on a SSD. They all serve a purpose — there just isn’t a reason to defrag an SSD.
could also be. Luckily I‘m heading to bed soon anyway and, fingers crossed, can wake up to a checked and fixed drive that doesn‘t trouble Zorin? Like an early Christmas miracle? We shall see.