Linux noob: unknowingly installing appimage via Disks broke my drives

I'm a linux noob. So pleeeease be gentle, I'm trying my best, to wrap my head around things, after abandoning windows.
I originally switched to CachyOS since Muta from SomeOrdinaryGamers recommended it for gaming. Sadly I had a lot of problems with it, and ultimately bricked it while trying out a fix.
Bazzite was also recommended, since it ALLEDGEDLY is more beginner friendly. (I agree about 30-40%

)

System info:
Operating System: Bazzite 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.16.4-116.bazzite.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Manufacturer: ASUS

Drives:
Western Digital HDD WDC WD20EZRZ-22Z5HB0 (2TB)
Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB (SVT03B6Q)
System SSD CT500MX500SSD1 (M3CR023) 500GB

Initially it worked just fine, but sooner or later problems arose. From time to time I get very annoying yet temporary sound bugs. But my biggest issue atm is not being able to access my drives as the title hints at.

Just now I learned through Muta's video on WinBoat, that AppImages appearently have to be given permissions to be run as programs. (which goes against eeeeverything I've learned about PCs in my life so far. To me this does not make any sense)
Anyways, when I tried to install a mod manager via appimage a few days ago (not knowing about the permission part yet) it automatically opened the Disks program and wanted me to choose a disk. I assumed, that this appears to be the way to install appimages, but was still confused, since I wasn't sure what the program you use for partitioning and formating hat to do with that. I selected my Samsung SSD, appearently burned the app image onto it and then: no change. Looking for the program in the start menu didn't work, since there was nothing coming up. I opened Dolphin, and next thing I know my Samsung SSD is gone.

For some reason, not only my Samsung SSD but also my WD HDD doesn't show up anymore in Steam. The latter does however show up in Dolphin.
The only directory I can select to install Steam games is /var/home (So I'm guessing the drive, where Bazzite is installed)

I tried resetting my system, but that didn't fix the issue. Even on the freshly installed bazzite system, all problems still stay unsolved.

Does anyone know what is going on and what I can do about it?

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 2:26 AM

Anyways, when I tried to install a mod manager via appimage a few days ago (not knowing about the permission part yet) it automatically opened the Disks program and wanted me to choose a disk

This should never happen and i literally cannot replicate this even when i try force it to do this, dolphin the filemanager still forces the appimage to launch normally even when i remove the executable bit.

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 2:28 AM

sadly you have replaced the contents on the disk with the appimage, so you will have to reformat the disk and the data on that disk is lost.

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/27/25, 9:06 AM

I have already reformated it a few times. Is there a specific partition format I have to choose?

HHikariKnight > Anyways, when I tried to install a mod manager via appimage a few days ago (no...

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:25 AM

i can somehow reproduce it

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:26 AM

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:32 AM

granted this isn't very helpful by itself

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:34 AM

since i can't give steps as there really are none just like OP another thing about my system is it can't run appimages the traditional way

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:34 AM

as i'm on Nix OS

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:35 AM

the disk image writer option does open the restore screen of disks

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:40 AM

oh wait i can't really reproduce it

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:40 AM

the way i got this screen is by using flatpak dolphin

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:40 AM

normal dolphin works normally

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 11:45 AM

though i guess bazar should probably hide flatpak dolphin because of this

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 12:48 PM

That's a good catch

HHikariKnight That's a good catch

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 12:59 PM

in this case it seems understandable since i recall there being a dbus method that opens files & if it can't it shows this screen
flatpak dolphin/most flatpaks using that wouldn't be that surprising
though non flatpak dolphin has no reason to do this

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 1:00 PM

also it can't run non appimage executables either

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 1:00 PM

same screen but with more options appears

Nn o t v e r y c h i l l I have already reformated it a few times. Is there a specific partition format I...

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/27/25, 2:58 PM

Soo...how do I make sure to format the disks the right way now??

I already formatted the Samsung SSD several times, but this doesn't fix the problem. Do I choose a specific file/format/partitioning system? Can I do this in the Disks program or is there a more effective method?

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/27/25, 2:58 PM

Most of the things your guys talk about are foreign jargon to me, that's why I repeated my question

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:15 PM

use the disks program and format the disk to ext4 or btrfs (might be listed under "other")
sadly what you had on it is lost.

ext4 is linux only
btrfs you can also get to work under windows (if this is needed)
use ntfs only if you plan to share non game files with windows, games cannot be on an ntfs filesystem.

Nnagito || Knight of Emilia though i guess bazar should probably hide flatpak dolphin because of this

Kyle Gospo•11/27/25, 3:23 PM

It does

Nn o t v e r y c h i l l Soo...how do I make sure to format the disks the right way now?? 🥲🥲🥲 I alrea...

Hiran•11/27/25, 3:24 PM

What HikariKnight wrote is not entirely truth. ext4 can be opened on windows via wsl2. That being said, wsl2 is good enough for file transfer between systems but nothing heavier. Its basically a linux VM that exposes files

KKyle Gospo It does

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/27/25, 3:24 PM

yeah kinda expected that
such a lame problem to have

Hiran•11/27/25, 3:25 PM

what do you exactly want to share between systems?

HHiran What HikariKnight wrote is not entirely truth. ext4 can be opened on windows via...

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:29 PM

they already said they are not very knowledgable with this so i did not want to complicate it

Hiran•11/27/25, 3:30 PM

I played a bit with wsl (to transfer stuff between windows and my bazzite/kubuntu setup) so there is a chance I might be able to help you

Hiran•11/27/25, 3:34 PM

Wsl is rather easy to use. On the other hand I would avoid that btrfs driver for windows- it wasn't updated in a year and I read about partition corruption because of it

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:40 PM

yikes

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:40 PM

most people using the btrfs driver want it for sharing games though

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:40 PM

and the wsl approach isnt good for games iirc

HHikariKnight most people using the btrfs driver want it for sharing games though

Hiran•11/27/25, 3:51 PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/btrfs/comments/1936hca/winbtrfs_corrupted_btrfs_partition/
some people like to live on the edge

From the btrfs community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the btrfs community

HikariKnight•11/27/25, 3:53 PM

im so glad i gave up windows back in 2009

Nnagito || Knight of Emilia i can somehow reproduce it

HikariKnight•11/29/25, 3:05 AM

i managed to kinda reproduce it, opening it through firefox actually, but gear lever was still the default

HHikariKnight i managed to kinda reproduce it, opening it through firefox actually, but gear l...

nagito || Knight of Emilia•11/29/25, 7:12 AM

yes
firefox is a flatpak ain't it
so of course it has this limitation as flatpak dolphin does

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/30/25, 3:02 PM

okay guys, thanks a lot for your advice so far
My plan is to dual boot, since I A) want to access stuff I can only via Windows, e.g. games with kernel level AC like Apex, Battlefront and B) prefer to use Word. I am aware of Libre Office, but I've used it in the past, and had bad experiences then and also recently on Linux when I was trying to write and edit job applications. For some reason Libre weirdly ruins the layout of word files, and also has other imo userunfriendly problems/limitations.
Also Word's free for me since I own a office 360 license from my former school

After reading the things you explained, my plan going forward would be formating my Samsung SSD to ext4, and using it for linux apps
and formatting my WD HDD (I'll probably upgrade it to a SSD in the near future) to btrfs and using it to run Win apps (I'll plan to dual boot soon)

Kohega•11/30/25, 3:05 PM

What about OnlyOffice instead of Libre ?

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/30/25, 3:06 PM

haven't heard of it yet, will check it out thanks!

Nn o t v e r y c h i l l okay guys, thanks a lot for your advice so far My plan is to dual boot, since I ...

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/30/25, 3:08 PM

sadly there is no "other" Option or drop down menu, and I can't find the option to select the formatting type anywhere
Am I blind? is there something I'm missing?
pics follow

n o t v e r y c h i l lOP•11/30/25, 3:08 PM