My laptop switched from AHCI to RST on its own (probably after a Windows update) and now I cannot boot my Kubuntu anymore. Live sticks also cannot access the drives. When I try to switch it back in the UEFI settings, it tells me that it will wipe the drive to do so.

Is this message correct? How can I change it back without losing all my data?

The device in question is a Lenovo Ideapad 720-15ikb with Kubuntu and Win10 dual boot.

  • Trones@ythreektech.com
    2·
    10 months ago

    If you have access to an external drive as big or bigger than the laptop drive, boot SystemRescueCD and ddrescue it as a backup, just to be safe. I personally haven’t had it actually wipe a drive, basically it’s saying switching might render it unbootable if the right drivers aren’t in place.

    I always back up first just to be safe though, worst case I waste a little time.

    • Square Singer@feddit.deOP
      2·
      10 months ago

      I only got an old external USB2 drive. Backing up >1TB over that will take some time^^

      Thanks for the suggestion though!

  • zeroblood
    1·
    10 months ago

    My acer laptop did the exact same thing for unknown reasons. When I switched it back to AHCI Arch (btw) booted again but windows broke and I managed to fix it with a Windows live usb. I think I had to use bcdboot and generate a new bootloader.

  • yum13241@lemm.ee
    1·
    10 months ago

    The last time I remember hearing of AHCI was when SATA was still new and IDE (or ATA) was king.