HDD not recognised

When I found out that my laptop was not compatible with windows 11, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement given that it only came out of warranty recently. Though I know that it will be about four years before the windows10 support ends, I like to bin things when I want to rather than when something like this crops up. This got me thinking about Linux.

As I don't want to go down the route of partitioning the hdd on the laptop, I thought it a good idea to use my PC while learning to use the new OS as it has a sata backup drive that I could use. However, when attempting to install linux onto it I found that during the linux installation process that the sata drive was not listed, and when I checked the bios, I found that it wasn't in the boot listing either. What's really strange is that it is available in file explorer and I'm able to add and delete files to and from it. I can only think that this problem has something to do with the bios settings preventing the second drive from being used, but nothing that I have tried seems to make any difference.

The PC has the Gigabyte B360M-D3P mATX Motherboard, Intel Core i5-8400 2.8Ghz 6 Core cpu. The C drive that windows is installed on is 480GB ADATA SX8200 NVMe (3200MB/R, 1700MB/W).

No doubt this a common problem but not one that I have ever come across, so, hopefully somebody on this forum has a solution......I hope!

How is the "sata backup drive" attached?

Macboatmaster said:

Why do you think your computer cannot run 11
(snip)

It's the OP's laptop (System 2) that is not Windows 11 capable (i7-2670QM CPU), not the desktop (System 1).

I wonder whether the SATA drive was set up as GPT or MBR? The former is necessary for a boot disk in a UEFI system, I believe.

Macboatmaster said:

Why do you think your computer cannot run 11
Intel(R) B360 Chipset

Hi and thanks for your response.
It seems that my attempts to provide a fuller explanation has caused a bit of confusion here.
The situation is that I have two machines, a desktop PC and a laptop and it’s the laptop that will not accept windows 11. As I do not want to mess with the smooth running of the laptop by installing Linux onto it as well as Windows 10, I thought it would be easier and safer to install Linux onto a SATA backup drive that I have on the PC. This would allow me to test it out, learn about its features and eventually use it on the laptop.
The problem that I have encountered is that the SATA drive on the PC is not recognised as a boot drive for Linux in the bios or the Linux setup procedure, but is recognised by Windows Explorer

Hope this better explains.
Dave

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SIW2 said:

How is the "sata backup drive" attached?

It is mounted within the PC case connected via a SATA lead from the motherboard.

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bobkn said:

It's the OP's laptop (System 2) that is not Windows 11 capable (i7-2670QM CPU), not the desktop (System 1).

I wonder whether the SATA drive was set up as GPT or MBR? The former is necessary for a boot disk in a UEFI system, I believe.

I will check this out. This being the case how would I go about changing it to GPT?

Thanks

milky bar kid said:

I will check this out. This being the case how would I go about changing it to GPT?

Thanks

Lots of tutorials here but the one you want is:

Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk in Windows 10

tomdsr said:

Lots of tutorials here but the one you want is:

Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk in Windows 10

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, the drive is still not accessible after the change