Dual Boot Installation Failure - Intel RST Interference? | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:22 AM

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Device: Alienware Aurora R7 (desktop, Dell)
Original OS: Windows 10
Unfortunately Nvidia graphics card, but supposedly this is not insurmountable
Prior to attempting the installation, I did back up all the important files from my computer elsewhere. So the focus here is getting a functioning computer back in some fashion.

The goal was to dual boot Windows and Mint (Cinnamon). I managed to put the Mint ISO onto a USB without issue (verfied everything), and even managed to get to the live session, but while the documentation talks about disabling things like Fast Boot, my computer has something called Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) which needed to be disabled before Mint could be installed. This was a non negotiable pop up from the installer. After some googling the safest way to do this seemed to be through Windows itself so I did. Upon a quick test restart, nothing was wrong with Windows, so I attempted to install Mint again.

It started out fine but this time, I eventually got stuck at a message that said "the efi file system creation in partition #1 of SCSI5 (000)(sbd) failed". This pop up was on the select your location screen, for some reason, and could not be exited. I had to log out of the live session.

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When I attempted to log back in to try and figure out what happened, my install of Windows was borked. It booted straight into recovery mode but could not be recovered. I had an old Windows 10 installation USB for just such an occasion, but I couldn't get the machine to recognize it (it is admittedly rather old).

I can access the Windows CMD line through Recovery but very little actually functions since there's no longer a Windows install on this device, only the remants of one. I tried a few bootrec commands and basically was told by Windows itself there were no Windows installations on this device anymore.

Okay, so no dual booting. I'll just commit to Mint I guess. Except the boot menu no longer recognizes the Mint USB. Someone suggested I somehow overwrote the USB and so I've taken the time to redo both the Mint and Win10 installation drives on someone else's computer, just to rule out that being the issue.

My question is "what do I do now?"

There is still some form of Windows on my drive. I think it would be best to give up the dual boot idea and just make it a Mint machine, which I can live with and was the long term goal anyhow. However, I'm worried that whatever went wrong before will interfere now if I try to directly boot into Mint's installer. I think I need to wipe the drive completely. Unfortunately, it's actually surprisingly hard to wipe a drive when you don't have a functional command line, or an OS to do it through. Supposedly you can use a Win10 installer to do it, but I'm wondering if I should go all the way and re-install windows 10 in an attempt to fix this? But I don't want to end up right back where I started. Any advice would be appreciated here, as this installation has gone completely haywire.

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:25 AM

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simple answer just choose one internal drive on the PC, and make it fully Linux.

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no dualboots, unless you want to later, and use a second internal drive

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can you boot the Mint live USB now to a desktop?

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:27 AM

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yes

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:27 AM

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ok do so

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when you're at live desktop, let me know

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:29 AM

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im there rn

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:30 AM

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ok, first, ensure u are connected to internet there.

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then open Firefox, and log to Discord from there.

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then you can easily show screenshots. (alt+print) to do windowed pics

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also gets to test out the hardware

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once online and on web browser Discord, open terminal, and do efibootmgr and show

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actually, do that last thing now.. does it show "boot current" near top, @vast flicker

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:35 AM

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Bootcurrent: 1009

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:36 AM

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ok when ur ready, show full screenshot of that efibootmgr result

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:36 AM

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outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:37 AM

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do sudo parted -l and show

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:38 AM

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outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:38 AM

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ignore

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i think capital I will suffice

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if it doesnt show nicely on separate lines, stretch the terminal A BIT bigger not full screen, and run it again, n send new ss

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:39 AM

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sorry, was kinda long

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i can redo it if this is hard to read

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:39 AM

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yes redo

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maximize window idc now

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do clear

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to wipe it clean

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:40 AM

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cleared

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:42 AM

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ok show sudo parted -l

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:42 AM

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outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:43 AM

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ty

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ok you have an nvme that seems kind of messed up a bit

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open disks app by that name in start menu.

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choose the nvme, then show window (not maximized plz)

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:46 AM

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not sure which is the nvme. The 14GB intel?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:46 AM

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yes

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see if it even wants to show

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this is that Optane layer probably

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:47 AM

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outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:47 AM

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I don't think any linux distro supports Optane / RST

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:48 AM

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is there no way to disable it? or replace it?
cuz i really don't want to have done all this for nothing

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:48 AM

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so later, you will go in BIOS, and turn RST off and RAID off

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and put storage mode for SATA to simply "AHCI" . it is found somewhere in the Advanced or Configuration screens of BIOS, regarding Storage

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but for now, show picture of the Toshiba in Disks app

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:49 AM

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so rst and raid are two separate things I need to turn off, or will switching SATA to AHCI handle both? i was under the impression they were two parts of the same thing

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:50 AM

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possibly linked yes

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:51 AM

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ok

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:51 AM

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there should be a switch option for iRST

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probably but for now, is there anything on this hard drive you need?

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if so, see if u can browse the main partition, by highlighting it, clicking the play icon, then the blue link

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:52 AM

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nope! while this has gone very poorly, i did have the foresight to take EVERYTHING i cared about off this device before starting

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:52 AM

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ok so best to start fresh with this drive

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:53 AM

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okay. i do have a couple folders from the blue link, if that matters at all

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:53 AM

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if u mounted any partition, just click it and the stop button icon

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if u need them, upload to onedrive, or ur favourite place not anywhere on the machine. do NOT remove the ventoy stick at all til shutdown

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we can try an install soon, even with the optane thing on probably

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:55 AM

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i am uncertain what you mean by 'mounted any partition' here
the partitions listed i have not touched, unless you were referring to the files on the usb
which just has ventoy and the mint iso

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:55 AM

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anything mounted will show a play symbol inside of it, in the DISKS app

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re: the Toshiba

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do not touch anything to do with the ventoy , live loop, etc

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:56 AM

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ah, ok. a couple of them have play buttons but all say they are Not Mounted

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:56 AM

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if the icon isnt IN the partition, then it's not mounted

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anyway, unmount all from the Toshiba, then open gparted app

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:58 AM

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unmount = red uninstall button here?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:58 AM

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no the stop icon

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ok open gparted right away please

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:59 AM

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this immediately popped up

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:59 AM

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then pick the HDD and show

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cancle

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:59 AM

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like this?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:00 AM

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pick the hdd in top right, n show

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:01 AM

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if you're referring to the box with /dev/etc, it won't let me take a screenshot of that menu open

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:02 AM

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no come on. pick the hard drive in gparted

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not the f'n nvme

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:02 AM

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this?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:02 AM

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no

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omfg

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pick the damn HARD DRIVE in the top right box like i said

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:04 AM

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i am sorry i have no idea what i'm looking at

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:04 AM

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go to Device menu, new partition table, as GPT

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:05 AM

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changed to this

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:05 AM

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good close that

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:05 AM

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ok

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:05 AM

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close disks, and reopen disks app

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see if it cleared well

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then run up the installer on the desktop

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:06 AM

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outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:06 AM

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check the 14 gig nvme too

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i think it tries to mirror some stuff from the toshiba

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:07 AM

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all blue is good here, right?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:07 AM

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ok close that n run the install

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:07 AM

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ok!

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:07 AM

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choose 'erase disk and install'

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when u get to that point.

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you'll be installing onto device sda (the toshiba HDD)

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:08 AM

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do i need to close everything before hitting install now?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:10 AM

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nah

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u have a lot of RAM

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8 gigs i think?

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check ur free RAM in terminal.. free -h

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and total RAM

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:11 AM

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yeah, pretty spot on

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:11 AM

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plenty

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so just do the install

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:12 AM

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okay!

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:12 AM

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install multimedia codecs too when prompted

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dont have to put real name for anything unless u want to.

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region is for timezone/clock

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:14 AM

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alright, its installing!

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:14 AM

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give it about 40 minutes

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even if it says done in 4 minutes

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it may need time to mirror data to the much slower HDD

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since i think the nvme acts like a buffer here

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:16 AM

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so long as it works in the end, that's fine by me

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:16 AM

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i could be wrong, if ur PC has a hard drive light on the front, u can judge it by that after 25-30 minutes

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have a look at #1295728709306683482 index while u wait

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 5:18 AM

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absolutely, can do

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 5:58 AM

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@vast flicker finished?

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 2:44 PM

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outer robin <@402581886943363082> finished?

Yes, finished! Thank you so much for all your help, there was no way i was gonna be able to figure this out on my own.

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 3:50 PM

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vast flicker Yes, finished! Thank you so much for all your help, there was no way i was gonna...

Oh nice! and you're welcome.

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How's it performing so far?

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 3:53 PM

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performance is good thus far. currently installing some apps that i know i'll need (like calibre, vlc, etc) which is taking some time to download them all but i'm taking them one at a time. there's only a couple more things i think i'll need help with in the future (steam, figure out how to connect and disconnect my external storage to tranfer my personal files), but the base functionality of the device is perfect!

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still have some driver weirdness to figure out because nvidia but i expected that

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currently reading the user guide

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:28 PM

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once you have your main apps, do a timeshift snapshot

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in case anything screws up with core files in the system at any point later, it makes for an easy way to roll back to a good working state

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do inxi -Gxxx to see your graphics state.

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and mokutil --sb . If shows enabled, you have to register the nvidia driver for it to actually apply, or turn secure boot off.

vast flicker Jul 5, 2025, 4:36 PM

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if secureboot is shown as disabled, does that mean i'm good?

outer robin Jul 5, 2025, 4:36 PM

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yep

#Dual Boot Installation Failure - Intel RST Interference?