Set mSata Cache SSD as a boot drive

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Takis Takas

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Dec 26, 2014
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I have an Acer S3 391 (-33214G52add) which has a 500GB HDD and a 20GB mSata SSD which is used as cache drive.

I will replace the HDD with a new SSD installing Windows as the main OS.

I would like to install Linux OS on the 20GB mSata disk and be able to dual-boot using the system boot menu.

I see the drive in disk management (has 2 partitions) but there is no other option than "delete volume".

The drive is not appearing in BIOS at all.

1.Will I be able to install on this disk using a Ubuntu installation usb?
2.Will the disk later be recognised by the BIOS and the boot menu?
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
Did you install the Grub boot loader? If you want to dual boot OS's you need it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/187789/dual-booting-explained-how-you-can-have-multiple-operating-systems-on-your-computer/
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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Yes. You should be able to install to the drive. Try unplugging the HDD and then boot the laptop with the install media for Linux. Once the install directory dialogue comes up there should be an option to use the mSATA drive. In fact, it might even do so without unplugging the HDD.

You might need to use Gparted to delete and repartition the drive first.
 
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T

Takis Takas

Reputable
Dec 26, 2014
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4,510
Well...
With both the new unformatted SSD and the mSata plugged, I was able to install Ubuntu on the mSata (with UEFI mode enabled). Trying to boot with UEFI still on gave a "no booting drive". Changing to Legacy mode, got me to the ubuntu boot screen where it stuck and needed a hard restart. After the restart, Ubuntu booted normally.
Then I went on to install Windows 8 on the SSD.
Now when both drives had a bootable OS the BIOS stopped recognizing the mSata and could only boot the SSD.
Conclusion:
The mSata can be bootable only when there is no other OS (or bootloader) on the main drive or no main drive at all.
As soon as you install an OS on the SSD the mSata becomes unavailable for booting.
The particular BIOS seems not to support a second internal bootable drive.
The mSata can be used normally as storage in Windows though.
Anyway, what I did in the end was to install Ubuntu on the mSata but put the bootloader on the SSD overriding the Windows bootloader.
Not exactly what I wanted (using BIOS boot menu to select a drive to boot and keep the two OS completely separate) but close enough.

P.S. On this particular model Acer seems not to use either IRST or ExpressCache.
 
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