I have a Kingston M.2 SSD out of an old working laptop. No idea anymore about the type, OS, etc. I bought a USB enclosure to use the SSD as an external drive. Tried to initialize/format in Win11, Linux & 2 different third party utilities. Using all those methods the software shows the drive but won't let me do anything. The drive is not defective. Any ideas?
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SSD formatting
- Thread starter randy714
- Start date
I have 128GB and 256GB SSD's (pulled from Dell laptops) in small, self-powered enclosures. The power requirement is minimal. As they are small capacity I used MBR rather than GPT.
What make/model laptop did you pull it from?
What's the make/model of enclosure?
What happens (or not) when you click on the 'OK' button on the 'Initialize Disk' dialog?
What make/model laptop did you pull it from?
What's the make/model of enclosure?
What happens (or not) when you click on the 'OK' button on the 'Initialize Disk' dialog?
Maybe it's the USB enclosure. I had a problem like that once, a disk I knew was fine, but my external adapter did not allow me to do anything with it.
I purchased a FIDECO sata/ide to usb 3.0 adapter, hard drive adapter (link here), and that allowed me to reformat and use the disk.
I purchased a FIDECO sata/ide to usb 3.0 adapter, hard drive adapter (link here), and that allowed me to reformat and use the disk.
Hi Randy714,
It's not going to be any of the issues that others have mentioned. If the devices fits the enclosure, than it will work. Also, if it were a cable issue, or enclosure issue it wouldn't be visible in the diskmanager.
It is possible that the drive has some unusual formatting or encryption, though I doubt that as well.
BUT, here's what you can do if you don't care about the contents.
Open a command line (in administrator mode) in Windows with the device connected in its enclosure.
At Command line prompt enter this:
DISKPART
Once you see the DISKPART> command prompt, enter LIST DISK
In your disk manager image, it's showing as Disk 2, it will most likely be the same, but you can validate that with the capacity of the "SIZE" column. So in the disk list once you identify which one is your drive, enter:
SELECT DISK 2 (assuming it's 2)
Then enter: LIST PART
It will give you a list of partitions on the drive.
There will most likely be only 1 partition, but this is just to verify if there is more than one.
What you can do now is completely remove all partition information from the drive first.
Do that by entering:
CLEAN (Make double sure you have the right drive first. It will be the one with an * on the left of the entry next to it when you LIST DISK).
After the CLEAN command finishes, enter:
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PART 1
Now you can format it:
FORMAT fs=ntfs quick
Then you can EXIT diskpart after it finishes.
Now you can go back to your disk manager, you should be able to see the drive.
Actually, you should be able to see the drive (it will have assigned the next drive letter) in Windows explorer as well, with the full capacity of the drive available.
It's not going to be any of the issues that others have mentioned. If the devices fits the enclosure, than it will work. Also, if it were a cable issue, or enclosure issue it wouldn't be visible in the diskmanager.
It is possible that the drive has some unusual formatting or encryption, though I doubt that as well.
BUT, here's what you can do if you don't care about the contents.
Open a command line (in administrator mode) in Windows with the device connected in its enclosure.
At Command line prompt enter this:
DISKPART
Once you see the DISKPART> command prompt, enter LIST DISK
In your disk manager image, it's showing as Disk 2, it will most likely be the same, but you can validate that with the capacity of the "SIZE" column. So in the disk list once you identify which one is your drive, enter:
SELECT DISK 2 (assuming it's 2)
Then enter: LIST PART
It will give you a list of partitions on the drive.
There will most likely be only 1 partition, but this is just to verify if there is more than one.
What you can do now is completely remove all partition information from the drive first.
Do that by entering:
CLEAN (Make double sure you have the right drive first. It will be the one with an * on the left of the entry next to it when you LIST DISK).
After the CLEAN command finishes, enter:
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PART 1
Now you can format it:
FORMAT fs=ntfs quick
Then you can EXIT diskpart after it finishes.
Now you can go back to your disk manager, you should be able to see the drive.
Actually, you should be able to see the drive (it will have assigned the next drive letter) in Windows explorer as well, with the full capacity of the drive available.
Sorry but... that's not my experience.
I have two different USB3-to-SSD enclosures - a cheap-and-cheerful clear plastic Multibao and a more expensive aluminium Iconix.
Nothing I do will get Ventoy to boot reliably across the Multibao's USB-to-SSD bus interface yet there's no issue with the Iconix. IMO the Multibao's bus interface hardware is the problem.
But you're talking about "boot" versus being recognized. The "Unknown" partition type is not because of not being able to see the drive. It's clearly powering up if the Disk Manager sees the drive.
It's an M.2 the OP mentions. I've seen enclosures result in low speeds (USB2 v USB3.1) same with cable types, but doesn't impact the ability to manage the partition.
To be honest, I have a feeling the drive was damaged during removal, or before being placed in the enclosure. The OP doesn't seem to know much about the laptop it came from and is just claiming "I have a Kingston M.2 SSD out of an old working laptop. No idea anymore about the type, OS, etc." Is suspicious to me to start with.
If it was out of the laptop for a long time, could have been damaged. If it's out of a MAC, it would explain why the partition type is "unknown" as Windows won't mount the drive. In those cases, and similarly when I've had drives from RAID arrays that were not reset before breaking the array, a partition wipe is needed, and then you can reformat after that.
It's an M.2 the OP mentions. I've seen enclosures result in low speeds (USB2 v USB3.1) same with cable types, but doesn't impact the ability to manage the partition.
To be honest, I have a feeling the drive was damaged during removal, or before being placed in the enclosure. The OP doesn't seem to know much about the laptop it came from and is just claiming "I have a Kingston M.2 SSD out of an old working laptop. No idea anymore about the type, OS, etc." Is suspicious to me to start with.
If it was out of the laptop for a long time, could have been damaged. If it's out of a MAC, it would explain why the partition type is "unknown" as Windows won't mount the drive. In those cases, and similarly when I've had drives from RAID arrays that were not reset before breaking the array, a partition wipe is needed, and then you can reformat after that.
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