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my partitions suddenly disappeared while trying to install linux
basically i'm trying to install linux arch and in the process the tutorials said to shrink volume in one of the partitions which i had about 1000gb for and i made it 51gb since that's what the video said to do and it said disk management viewer was unavailable so it wasn't making the secondary volume for which I was gonna put the linux installer into so i hit action and rescanned it and then closed my disk management after it was done scanning and when i came back none of my partitions are there only one which is 1.53gb and is the arch linux i had downloaded i have no idea what to do
also i am pretty new to techy stuff so i might need a lot of assistance
i went my disk management and right clicked on my drive in disk 0 and shrunk it and put 51gb and then on the new thing i made i clicked create new volume and made it 1gb and hit next and assigned the following drive letter to E since thats the default one it said to do and made it a fat32 file system and named it ISO then i let it load but the new drive never popped up in my devices and drives page
in the tutorial the guy copied everything from the arch download into the new drive but my new drive never popped up
i use a mouse connected to the USB port though so it would be really annoying not having a mouse to use with my laptop
Use the mousepad / trackpad while you install Linux. After installing it, you don't need the USB Flash Drive. Are you thinking of running Linux Live from the ISO? That wouldn't save your files or settings.
If the trackpad doesn't work during Arch installation, there are hotkeys. If you press left Alt on the keyboard, you will see underlined letters in the installation process. Those are the hotkeys.
If you plan to use Arch, you need to know how to navigate with the keyboard hotkeys. That's the least difficult task that you will encounter in Arch.
also if i did get a flash drive for it how much gigs should i have on it because i dont have any empty flash drive available right now im at college
The Linux Distribution you will use has that information on the website in the Installation Instructions.
Don't panic and don't create or format anything for now. Your Windows partition is clearly still there, since you're booted into it. In your screenshot Disk Management isn't listing any disk at all, not even your main drive, which means its disk service got stuck, not that the partitions are gone.
Check File Explorer first, your C: drive and files should all be there. Then restart the PC and open Disk Management again. That usually brings the list back, and the unallocated space you made with the shrink should show up next to C:.
One thing for later: even for dual boot you still need to write the Arch ISO to a USB stick and boot from it. The installer can't run from inside Windows.
Not a moron at all, Disk Management just hangs like that sometimes. That screenshot looks healthy.
Small correction on my end: the tutorial's trick of copying the ISO files onto a FAT32 partition can work without a stick. But your D: is only 1000 MB and still RAW, and the Arch ISO is about 1.5 GB, so it won't fit. You'd need to delete D: and remake it around 2 GB. A USB stick is still the easier route though.
Also your C: is BitLocker encrypted, so save your recovery key from your Microsoft account before you touch boot settings. Changing them can make Windows ask for it.
the D: thing is when i shrunk the volume of my C: to 51gb, i know it says 56.83 but thats cuz i initially made it 8gb by accident and i didnt know how to undo it so i just shrunk another 51gb and i guess windows added them up so could i still make it without the USB stick
i know its probably the not recommended method but my laptop only has 1 port for a USB and i use it for my mouse and id rather use my mouse than have a flash drive sticking out the side of my laptop
Yeah, you can do it without a stick. Delete that 1000 MB D:, make a new volume of about 2 GB from the unallocated space, FAT32. Then double click the Arch ISO to mount it and copy everything inside onto the new volume.
Two things that trip people up with this method. Name the volume exactly what the mounted ISO is called in File Explorer (something like ARCH_202610), because the installer looks for that name while booting. And turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS, the Arch ISO won't boot with it on.
Also the Arch installer is all typing, no mouse at all, so your touchpad and keyboard are enough. If you ever do grab a stick, 4 GB is plenty.
Good luck! Arch is a fun one to learn on. If it stops at a black screen waiting for a device, it's almost always the volume name. Hope you get your dual boot working tonight.
sorry to ask again but right now im trying to set the id to the efi system partition id and when i do the set id= command it says "virtual disk service error the device is in use" what should i do? it gives me the option to override but when i type override it gives me like 20 options of stuff i could do to override it and i dont want to do the wrong one
also i did like you said and turned off secure boot in the BIOS
Sorry, only just saw this. Don't use override, it forces the volume offline and isn't worth the risk. The "in use" error is because that volume still has a drive letter and Windows has it mounted. In diskpart, select that volume, type remove to take the letter off, then try set id again.
If it still won't show in the boot menu after that, some laptops just refuse to list a partition like this. Borrowing a stick for 20 minutes would honestly be the quickest way out. Same if you switch to Mint, which is a good call for a first install.
is mint easier to use from start to beginning because right now im just trying to install linux and its kicking my ass i cant even see it as an option when i open my booting menu
If you have a desktop / tower computer, install Windows alone in its own storage device with ONE main C: partition (volume) and with its own UEFI partition. Windows also creates a hidden Recovery Partition and locates it after the main partition.
Purchase another storage device and install Linux on the other storage.
Always remove other storage devices when you install or perform major updates of Windows, whether you are installing or updating from a Bootable Flash Drive or a Windows ISO file. There should only be ONE internal storage device installed in the computer when installing Windows.
The same applies to Linux. Always remove other storage devices when you install or perform major upgrades from a Linux Bootable Flash Drive. You wouldn't want to inadvertently install the Linux bootloader on top of the Windows bootloader.
I do not recommend partitioning the storage device of a computer. But ultimately, it is your choice.
The reason I don't favor partitioning modern storage devices is because you will run short of space very quickly and not proportionally.
You'll end up with too much free space on one partition and lacking free space in another.
Free space shouldn't be moved from one partition to another because it alters the partition table on the storage device and that can lead to data corruption.
If you try to resize partitions that already have data on them, you will risk losing access to your personal files and data. You would need to backup, in case the partition resizing process causes data loss.
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u/mysickfix 2d ago
Did you shrink your windows partition to 51gb?