I'm a total beginner and recently switched from Windows 10 to Linux Mint 22.1 on my Acer Aspire E5-573. The installation went smoothly, and I was able to boot it up the next day. However, now my laptop just says 'no OS' and doesn't even recognize my hard drive in the boot menu. I did disable secure boot and tried the F12 menu again, but it still doesn't show anything. I also tried legacy mode and checked the memory, which was fine. I have no clue what went wrong or how to get my OS back. Can anyone explain what I might have missed?
5 Answers
I had a similar issue with older hardware and UEFI—it was acting weird, but switching to Legacy mode ended up working perfectly for me. Just something to keep in mind!
It's possible your hard drive might have failed. If you're up for it, check the connections to make sure everything is properly hooked up.
Make sure you've disabled secure boot and fast boot in your BIOS. The boot mode (legacy vs UEFI) also matters a lot depending on how the partition table is set up. If you're able to, boot from a live USB to take a look at that setup. It could also be a hardware issue, so keep an eye on that.
You should check if your hard drive shows up in the BIOS every time you reboot. If it doesn't, it could be that your hard drive is broken or there's a BIOS setting that's misconfigured. Look for something like "disk/storage operation mode" to see if it's set to RAID instead of AHCI—switch it if it is!
I recommend checking out some installation tips that might help you figure this out. It's important to mention your specific Linux distro and any error messages next time for better advice. And remember, during installation, always use an ethernet cable and remove the boot media afterward!
Yeah, ensuring all the connections are sound can make a huge difference!