Zorin Installer not detecting partitions of second hdd

Installing Zorin OS
#1

Hello, I'm new here and hopefully this isn't a duplicate topic but I haven't found anyone with same scenario like I have

I am trying to install Zorin 16 Core onto my other hdd but the problem is that it only detects my other drives as 500 gb drives and doesn't detect any partitions within them or how much space is occupied on them

Here is a screenshot:

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20211010_1507491920×2560 561 KB

On my ssd where windows is installed i already tried making unallocated space from 2nd hard disk with Disk Management and having a secondary partition made with that unallocated space (because im shrinking my 500 gb hard drive to make a 30 gb smaller one) but that doesn't affect the installation

Also enabling/disabling secure boot doesn't affect this

I guess this is all, I can answer more questions if required
Thanks for reading

#2

Unless I am mistaken, I do not believe that Zorin OS can't be properly installed on an NTFS Windows partition. This is because Linux uses the EXT4 partition system. This might be the cause of your issue.

It looks like the installer is detecting your two 500GB drives, and thats how I know they are NTFS looking at your screenshot. What you are going to want to do, is format the drives that you are not using to MBR/DOS, and create a EXT4 partition. Then the Zorin installer should have no issue installing to them.

#3

Thanks for quick response,
I am not really sure how to proceed because on both of my hard disks I already have a lot of data and by formatting I would lose it and I don't have available any empty hard disk...

There is absolutely no way for me to install it on hdd partition? Is it possible to make a partition of hard disk with ext4 type so that the main drive can remain NTFS?
Because I think in past when I did partitions like this with some other distro it detected them fine but I'm trying out Zorin for first time so I don't know much about it

#4

Alright, I didn't realize you were storing a lot of data on those drives. I don't want to be responsible for the loss of data. So I am going to refer @Aravisian to this, to provide you a higher level of support.

But if it were me on how I would actually do this, if I was in the same scenereo? In regards to the two 500GB drives... I would consolidate data from second drive, and put it on the first drive, this would free up the second drive for anything I would want to do.

Then, knowing that this now completely free 2nd 500GB drive is now free for Linux only use. I would format the drive GPT, and then create an EXT4 partition, and then I would install Zorin OS onto that. I recommend waiting for Aravisians response to provide his opinion before you do anything else.

Your kind of doing something that is a little more involved at this time then the standard approach, and if at all possible, I'd like it done right so you don't lose any data, so lets get Aravisian's take on this one.

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#5

Are you using nVME or eMMC?

The Ubiquity installer should be able to see the partitions and able to install on a partition, regardless of NTFS. Where NTFS becomes a problem is with read/ write access. Some additional installation may be required once Zorin OS is installed, such as the exfat-fuse or ntfs-3g packages.

Have you ensured that within Windows, the options for Fast Startup or Fast Boot are disabled?

#6

I didn't know what nVME and eMMC mean so I googled it and hopefully my info is correct:
it's not nVME it's SATA
it's not eMMC because I'm not using sd cards or laptop so i doubt my pc has it
just in case this is my ssd: KINGSTON SUV400S37240G

I have disabled fast startup after seeing your post, and rebooted several times and it didn't change anything

I don't know why Zorin isn't detecting it because I tried going through install process for Garuda and it detected my drive correctly with size and all partitions

Here is additional screenshot of disks when live booting Zorin, maybe it will give some info:

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I tried doing chkdsk thing even before seeing your reply but it didn't find any errors, and in Disks application it only complains that NTFS might be corrupted only for the drive that I'm trying to install it on, while on 3rd hard drive it has no errors even though it's literally same NTFS.
I also tried changing my hard disk partition to FAT32 and EXT4 but it's still not getting recognized

Sorry if my post is not organized that well to read

#7

On your LiveUSB Zorin OS, can you try installing ntfs-3g and then, once completed, try opening and running the installer?
Open a terminal from the app menu or with keyboard shortcut ctrl+alt+t
Then paste into it (or type it out):

sudo apt install ntfs-3g

Ensure the terminal output shows it successfully installed.
Then open the Installer GUI from the Live USB desktop and try running it.

#8

Didn't work
It installed fine, only irregular line was this:
update-initramfs is disabled since running on read-only media

#9

Yes, because you installed in on the LiveUSB, not an actual Zorin OS Installed system.
Still couldn't read the partitions though... Hmmm...

#10

I have been looking whether other people on other distros had similar issue or someone with ubiquity installer, but I either didn't find anything or saw some commands which I have no experience in knowing whether they'll accidentally make me lose my data on the hard disk

Zorin Installer has no problem detecting I have Windows 10 and offers to install alongside it, but I really don't understand why it doesn't detect anything on these 500 gb disks while other distro installers read it fine

#11

This is a very valid question. Zorin OS uses the same Ubiquity installer than most Ubuntu based distros do.

#12

I found this answer, it might be an answer to this, but before proceeding with it I wanted to ask you if you know whether or not this will erase my data from the hard disk as well?

The output in terminal says dev/sda has valid MBR partition but that GPT one is invalid

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#13

The problem was the hard disk having MBR partitions. Converting it to GPT fixed the issue and it didn't delete any hard disk data.

Steps can be found here:

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Unable to boot/install Zorin 16 USB (.iso)