Ubuntu 18.04 can't recognize my SSD

Question

I got a new Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5, recently. Previously, I had been using a 10-year-old system. A lot of things have changed since then and I wasn't up-to-date with the latest tech.

So this new system has a single 500GB NVMe SSD and had Windows 10 pre-installed on it. Now I want to install Ubuntu as well (dual boot). For this, I shrunk my Windows partition to half (originally, there was only a single partition with Windows 10 installed on it).

Now I started the Ubuntu 18.04 setup (from a USB) and proceeded with installing it. But it couldn't recognize my SSD :(

So, I started digging in for a solution. I found that there's an option in the BIOS namely, SATA Controller Mode which was set to "Intel RST Premium" (the other option is AHCI).

A little bit lookup on the Internet tells me that Intel RST premium technology is an application for managing RAID arrays. So I am not sure what this BIOS option is.

I decided to just switch to AHCI mode but then I would have to re-install Windows 10 (which I don't want to). Furthermore, while changing to AHCI mode it gives me a warning - "Existing data stored on drivers will be erased when resetting controller mode. Proceed?", to which obviously I say No, because I don't know which "data" and "driver" is it talking about.

Also, let's say if I change to AHCI mode, do I lose some performance for Windows? (Oh c'mon, Intel RST Premium has cool words like rapid and premium in it. Don't tell me they are just for name's sake?!!)

Next, I also came across very similar questions on SE but some of them talk about how to switch to AHCI mode without re-installing Windows, while someone else talked about utilities such as dmraid and mdadm to configure things.

I am unsure what to do next. I just want to dual boot Windows and Ubuntu ...and live a peaceful life.

Answer 1

Hello I copy and pasted the answer to a similar question I wrote in the Lenovo Forums with a little changes hope it helps:

I have a new Lenovo Y740 with 1TB ssd set to rst, after intensite research over the web I came upon a tutorial that explains exactly how to do this, I don't know if you still need this but I hope any other person with the same problem can solve with this: http://triplescomputers.com/blog/uncategorized/solution-switch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/

the tutorial will walk you through how to change the ssd to AHCI mode in the bios without having to format or reinstall windows, and after that you can install ubuntu normally as you will do.

also other related links:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Laptops/Legion-y740-Window-on-PCIe-SSD-and-ubuntu-on-SATA-SSD-possible/m-p/4577649#M32994

tutorial for ubuntu in lenovo y740:

https://ark.party/ubuntu_y740

if you have windows HOME and wish to upgrade to PRO with a product key

https://softwaregroup.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012409747-How-To-Upgrade-Windows-10-Home-to-Pro-using-an-OEM-key

gigabyte and megabyte unit convertor to know how big you want your partition:

https://www.convertunits.com/from/GB/to/MB

I hope this is helpful.

Good luck and Happy Linux =D

Answer 2

I had the same problem with my Lenovo Ideapad C340, i followed @Abhi links and it worked perfectly for me (even if to enable safeboot i had to use the 'alternative' commands listed here: http://triplescomputers.com/blog/uncategorized/solution-switch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/).

Just to clarify to who wants to do this: the data on the drive WILL NOT be lost. I want to make this clear since my bios was showing me a scary message like "if you change the drive controller mode all data will be lost, do you want to proceed?", and this was setting me back from changing the controller mode at the beginning.

here is what you have to do:

1. Open your CMD with admin priviledges
2. Execute : bcdedit /set safeboot minimal
   this will enable safeboot on windows startup
3. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup
4. Change the SATA controller (or SATA Operation mode) from RST to ACHI
5. Save changes and exit Setup
6. Reboot
   windows should boot in safeboot mode (black background and writings on the background)
7. open your CMD with admin priviledges
8. Execute : bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot
9. Reboot
   Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled

You can now install any Linux distro as usual.

So now my SSD is being accessed is ACHI mode, but from what i've read that mode was designed for hard drives, not for SSD. Intel RST should provide better performance and better power efficency (due to the lower latency of the accesses to memory ).
source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/7843/testing-sata-express-with-asus/4

After installing Ubuntu on my SSD in dual boot, can i revert back the drive to RST? or will ubuntu not be able to recognise the drive? i don't think this will work but still i have some hope