After install, main SSD not being detected

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1

So, essentially, I went to install Arch on my main ~256gb SSD(I have a 2nd 2tb ssd that I installed Manjaro onto) and after bungling it, the smaller drive basically disappeared. I was able to clear all it’s partitions using a Windows install disk, and figured after it was clear I would be able to use gparted or command line to manually set up EFI/swap over Manjaro.

This was not the case. I was forced to install on my larger drive(not an issue, I just want to recover my other one) and now fdisk -l doesn’t detect it, nor does other distro installers. Did I brick it? Is there a program I can use to possibly recover it?

Thanks in advance,

edit: posting inxi info.

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.42-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64 
  root=UUID=cb875d8d-f1e9-41ca-a7f6-47922bf65258 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 
  dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A515-54 v: V1.07 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: WHL model: Doc_WC v: V1.07 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.07 
  date: 06/28/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 16.8 Wh (37.8%) condition: 44.5/48.9 Wh (90.9%) 
  volts: 14.8 min: 15.2 model: LGC AB14B8KK type: Li-ion serial: <filter> 
  status: Discharging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.69 GiB used: 2.98 GiB (80.6%) 
  Array-1: capacity: 32 GiB slots: 2 EC: None max-module-size: 16 GiB 
  note: est. 
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 size: No Module Installed 
  Device-2: ChannelB-DIMM0 size: 4 GiB speed: spec: 2667 MT/s 
  actual: 2400 MT/s type: DDR4 detail: synchronous bus-width: 64 bits 
  total: 64 bits manufacturer: SK Hynix part-no: HMA851S6CJR6N-VK serial: N/A 
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-8145U socket: BGA1528 (U3E1) 
  note: check bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake note: check family: 6 
  model-id: 8E (142) stepping: B (11) microcode: DE cache: L2: 4 MiB 
  bogomips: 18406 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 400/3900 MHz base/boost: 2079/8300 volts: 0.7 V 
  ext-clock: 100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 801 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_capabilities 
  arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt cmov constant_tsc 
  cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms 
  est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window 
  hwp_epp ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce 
  md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid 
  pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdrand rdseed 
  rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 
  stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx 
  vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 
  v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3ea0 class-ID: 0300 
  Device-2: Quanta HD User Facing type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:3 
  chip-ID: 0408:a061 class-ID: 0e02 
  Display: server: X..Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting 
  alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
  s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
  Monitor-1: eDP1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 143 size: 340x190mm (13.4x7.5") 
  diag: 389mm (15.3") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (WHL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.1.2 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9dc8 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.42-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.30 running: no 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 
  bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Ralink RT5372 Wireless Adapter type: USB driver: rt2800usb 
  bus-ID: 1-1:2 chip-ID: 148f:5372 class-ID: 0000 
  IF: wlp0s20f0u1 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found. 
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found. 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
  v: 3.0 port: 4060 bus-ID: 00:17.0 chip-ID: 8086.282a rev: 30 class-ID: 0104 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 16.77 GiB (0.9%) 
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000LX001-1RG174 
  size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: SDM1 scheme: GPT 
  Message: No optical or floppy data found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 1.82 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (98.37%) used: 16.77 GiB (0.9%) 
  fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: cb875d8d-f1e9-41ca-a7f6-47922bf65258 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
  label: NO_LABEL uuid: 62E2-282B 
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found. 
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found. 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 12 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: Ralink RT5372 Wireless Adapter type: Network 
  driver: rt2800usb interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 450mA 
  chip-ID: 148f:5372 class-ID: 0000 
  Device-2: 1-5:3 info: Quanta HD User Facing type: Video driver: uvcvideo 
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0408:a061 
  class-ID: 0e02 
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
2

The disk is invisible from a Linux perspective looking at your inxi output. Please check your UEFI environment and look for something like:

  • HDD mode
  • SATA mode
  • AHCI mode

and change that from whatever it is right now to something else.

(Consult your manufacturer’s UEFI manual)

:crossed_fingers:

3

Great, thank you! I’ll report back/edit this post with my findings.

4

Is the disk visible from BIOS?
If yes is the disk visible from Windows?
If yes reinitialize it, format it to GPT/NTFS
Reboot to Linux, is it visible now from lsblk or other command/tool?

5

Update: Disabled secure boot / changed to AHCI from something like “boost plus octane”, I don’t actually recall.

It’s now visible from fdisk/gparted, but when I try to reformat it into a different file system gparted tells me it “can’t inform the kernel of the change because it/they are in use, as a result old partitions will remain in use. You should reboot now before making further changes.”

I was able to delete all partitions at first(so I could consolidate) but now it’s throwing an error. It’s also tagged msftdata and appears to not have a format(other than Linux file system) as shown by fdisk -l.

Also, oddly enough, it shows 119.24gb on gparted(it’s actually 128gb) but shows 109gb free when I go to the directory in file browser. It seems to me there’s some sort of Windows leftovers hanging it up, but upon running the error message it appears this has occurred with other Arch/Arch-based distros.

I’ve solved my initial issue but it looks like I’ve created another. Should I bother trying to install onto it or would that corrupt it? That was my main goal, getting Manjaro onto my smaller drive so I could use my 2tb as removable bulk storage.

Edit: NOT sure what I just did but I was able to format the full drive to gpt and then ntfs. Is there a way I can essentially swap the partitions/data on the drives now? I should mention, it appears this drive is NVME.

1 Like
6

The GPT/NTFS format was just a suggestion to get the disk ready to be reformatted when installing Manjaro from the Live USB (you absolutely do NOT want NTFS file system in Linux, you most likely want EXT4 file system).

When I received my new M.2 NVME SSD last year, I couldn’t find a way to initialize it, format it, view it in the system. I had to do that in Windows then I rebooted on the Live USB to install Manjaro (selecting delete entire disk or similar option when asked).

I’m not sure about your issue though now.

Try to boot to the live USB and see if you can install Manjaro now on this SSD. There are ways of importing system backups, but just do the sane thing now, properly install Manjaro and see if everything is OK.

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