[Bug 2131958] Re: Installer doesn't seem to recogneize hybrid HDD + SSD harddrive - installs on itself

[Erwin Goodman]

linux mint GitHub bug report I created before this: https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/13203
(I thought this was the right place to post it. Apparently it wasn't.)

** Bug watch added: github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues #13203
   https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/13203

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2131958

Title:
  Installer doesn't seem to recogneize hybrid HDD + SSD harddrive -
  installs on itself

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  See this Reddit thread for reference:
  https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1oyhl0o/critical_install_error_what_do/
  ...and this thread on the Linux Mint forum:
  https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2708861#p2708861

  I was told to report this here.

  I tried to install Linux Mint on an old DELL laptop of mine (probably
  with this data sheet. (DELL Inspiron 14 7437)

  This pc was released when SSDs started to become mainstream. It
  contains a very weird hybrid hard drive that has a 500 GB HDD and a 32
  GB SSD section.

  The laptop had Windows 10 installed before I tried to put the new
  install on it. I used the newest version of Ventoy (1.1.07) to put the
  newest Mint .iso on an 16 GB Kingston Data Traveler 2.0 USB stick as
  boot medium.

  The install program seemingly didn't correctly detect the harddrive or understood it as a single medium. When I ran the install, it had somehow seemingly erased both sides of the internald harddrive and therefore automatically selected the USB stick as the harddrive instead, but didn't tell me that in the install program (The install program should probably tell people what the boot install software wants to install on) on the default option (= no custom partition selected). It then proceeded to try to install Linux Mint on the very same stick the install software was stored upon. Or at least what I think what happened. At least it gave me the error message you can see as the first picture in the Reddit thread.
  After that, nothing worked. The pc wouldn't boot into the Linux Mint OS and I couldn't boot from the stick again. The stick was seemingly broken or wiped as it wouldn't show as a hard drive anymore on my parallelly used Win11 test/control laptop.

  After downloading another .iso of linux mint and Ventoy on my
  test/control laptop, I found out that the stick was indeed not broken
  at all, but that the ISO was just erased. After reconfiguring the USB
  stick with Ventoy and the new .iso, I was able to boot linux mint from
  the stick on the old laptop again.

  This time I selected the custom ROM partition option to see what the
  program was suggesting to install upon. This was when I realized that
  the installation program tries to install linux mint on the very same
  stick the iso is stored upon, because it can't really detect the
  harddrive.

  My best guess is that it's because the harddrive is such a weird piece of hardware, but I really don't know.
  This is why I came here. I'm at my wits end.

  I only have access to this laptop on the weekends so I can't post the
  syslog and partman files here.

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