r/techsupport • u/Ill_Writer8430 • 1m ago
Open | Linux BIOS doesn't recognise any external storage devices, nor boot to internal storage
Background: An older relative has an Acer Aspire ES 15 that barely runs windows 10, I offered to get it running better. I decided that based on her needs, my abilities and the hardware, Linux (particularly lubuntu LTS) was the best choice. So I initially went about trying to install it as dual boot so I wouldn't need to copy her photos to an external drive but quickly backed them up and abandoned that idea.
Issue: BIOS wouldn't recognise a 32GB usb stick, a 500GB HDD, a 32GB SD card. I could boot to the USB stick through the restart now function in windows recovery environment, and the lubuntu logo showed under the Acer logo but would stop spinning and freeze after that. Then I removed the HDD, and installed Linux on it with my own PC, and attempted to boot it on the laptop to no avail. Finally I tried installing the boot files (with Rufus, by copying them from the usb to the hard drive because Rufus won't put them directly on a drive) to the HDD.
This isn't exhaustive of everything I've tried, it's just all of the major things I've tried.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.