When I found out that my laptop was not compatible with windows 11, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement given that it only recently came out of warranty. Though I know that it will be about four years before the windows10 support ends, I like to bin things when I want to rather than when something like this crops up. This got me thinking about Linux.

As I don't want to go down the route of partitioning the hdd on the laptop, I thought it a good idea to use my PC while learning to use the new OS as it has a sata backup drive that I could use. However, when attempting to install linux onto it I found that during the linux installation process that the sata drive was not listed, and when I checked the bios, I found that it wasn't in the boot listing either. What's really strange is that it is available in file explorer and I'm able to add and delete files to and from it. I can only think that this problem has something to do with the bios settings preventing the second drive from being used, but nothing that I have tried seems to make any difference.

The PC has the Gigabyte B360M-D3P mATX Motherboard, Intel Core i5-8400 2.8Ghz 6 Core cpu. The C drive that windows is installed on is 480GB ADATA SX8200 NVMe (3200MB/R, 1700MB/W).

No doubt this a common problem but not one that I have ever come across, so, hopefully somebody on this forum has a solution......I hope!

Hi, and welcome here, at LQ!

what did you try to install exactly and how?
I think would be better to boot a live OS first.

Which Linux distro? Which installation method? That in Explorer you can read write from and write to it means it must be configured as a Windows device, so depending on the distro, you could simply have overlooked it, or the installer ignored it, while the BIOS may have omitted it because it lacked any bootable OS. Configured as a Windows device, it of necessity needs to be reconfigured to have Linux use it. Most Linux installers have no problem to do this, but they will usually warn you'll loose your data on it, unless you beforehand shrink its filesystem to leave space for Linux.

Just to clarify: Are you telling us that you took the drive out of the laptop, put it into a PC, installed Linux on it there, then put it back in the laptop?
I would not reommend that.

Why not? Linux isn't like Windows. Moving Linux disks among PCs typically isn't much of a problem, mainly depending on how network and audio are configured, neither of which affect bootability.

Is your HDD connected correctly? Is it SATA or IDE?

The situation is that I have two machines, a desktop PC and a laptop and it’s the laptop that will not accept windows 11. As I do not want to mess with the smooth running of the laptop by installing Linux onto it as well as Windows 10, I thought it would be easier and safer to install Linux onto a SATA backup drive that I have on the PC. This would allow me to test it out, learn about its features and eventually use it on the laptop.
The problem that I have encountered is that the SATA drive on the PC is not recognised as a boot drive for Linux in the bios or the Linux setup procedure, but is recognised by Windows Explorer

Hope this better explains.
Dave

Lets backup. How did you try to install it? Normally you have a Windows (in your use case) utility that takes the downloaded Distro ISO file and burns it to a DVD or to a USB thumb drive. Then you reboot the PC and boot off the DVD or the thumb drive. Once Linux is up and running, you can test drive it a bit (although it is slow). There is normally a program on the Linux desktop to 'install' to a hard drive when you are ready to do so. As your are walked through the installation you will be asked with a choice of installing on either the Windoze drive or the SATA drive. In your case pick the SATA drive (assume internal). The system will then format and install Linux onto the drive and make it bootable. I don't 'dual boot' so someone else can jump in from here. Hope that helps. As for what distro, coming from Windows, I'd suggest the latest Mint Cinnamon or say KUbuntu 20.04 distribution. But your call. Gnome desktop is quite foreign when coming from Windoze!

Tangent: have you considered running Linux as a VirtualBox guest?

I'm still confused as to what you mean by Linux "not seeing" the drive: What Linux command? lsblk? (ideally, post that info)

The UEFI 'monster'(IMHO) is totally NOT 'BIOS'! (tho it's loosely called that).

Here's a couple links about EFI seeing a HDD:
https://superuser.com/questions/1458...ize-hard-drive
https://askubuntu.com/questions/7066...and-connecting

So the problem has nothing to do with the laptop or any drives in it. Got it.
I understand your desire to tell us the whole story, but from a technical supprt POV this is just confusing.

FWIW, it should be perfectly possible to install any Linux on any (external USB, internal etc.) drive.