Formatting external SSD broke file system, drive not seen in Disk Utility and not recognised as storage

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Formatting external SSD broke file system, drive not seen in Disk Utility and not recognised as storage

So I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 but have very limited storage and have decided to get myself an external drive. The drive I got is ADATA IM2S3138E SSD, salvaged straight from barely used Windows laptop where was used for system storage and put into Gembird M.2 enclosure, brand new.

As SSD was intended to hold personal data so I wanted to encrypt it and when it connected and appeared in Disk Utility I tried to format it from NTFS into APFS Encrypted, which failed with error that there is not enough space on selected drive.

Okay, so I selected macOS Extended Encrypted then and tried to format one more time. I don't remember exactly what kind of error I got - was related to 'Drive not available' of sorts, but it resulted in SSD disappearing from both Finder and Disk Utility, only seen as a USB device. I have disconnected the drive and connected again - same. Restarted - did not resolved either. Reseted both SMC and NVRAM - no luck. Not seen as a disk using Terminal commands, so I can't format it either.

Interestingly, I also own a Windows PC so I have connected a drive and system did recognised it as a USB device and showing it in File Exploler, yet it still non-formatable (displays 'Insert Disk' error when tried) and when entering Windows Disk Management tool it shows this external SSD as a disk with no tomes at all, 0 kb memory available out of 0 kb.

So Disk Utility managed to remove old file system but did not managed to format to macOS Extended I guess? Has anyone had something similar as this before, is there any way to fix it?

MacBook

Posted on Sep 11, 2019 2:07 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 11, 2019 3:10 PM in response to maksim228

Does the SSD support hardware encryption and was Bitlocker being used on the SSD when it was in the Windows PC?

When you connected the SSD to the Mac, what did you see in Disk Utility before trying to erase it? Did you see just the NTFS volume or did you also see the physical device AData SSD?

It is possible your SSD enclosure is causing a problem. You could try reinstalling the SSD in the old PC to see if the Windows installer can repartition the SSD.

On Windows, try running GSmartControl to check the health of the SSD. If the SSD's enclosure allows the proper communication for GSmartControl (not all enclosures allow the necessary communication), then double-click on the SSD icon within GSmartControl and save the output. Post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. GSmartControl also has the ability to initiate an SSD's internal self diagnostics if the SSD has the capability. FYI, GSmartControl has a stand alone portable version which does not require installation.

Does ADATA provide any software to manage the SSD on Windows? If so, see if you can Sanitize it or perform a Secure Erase, or reset the PSID. Note: You can not perform these operations on the boot drive nor if the SSD is connected externally. It is possible to create a Knoppix Linux USB Boot disk and perform these operations from the Linux command line. It can be risky performing these operations with the SSD connected using USB. The Linux logs may also provide clues about the connection with the SSD and also includes GSmartControl so you could test the SSD while it is installed back in the original computer. I can provide instructions if you want to try it.

I'm also curious to the answer for @dot.com's question.

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Answer 2

maksim228 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2019 11:04 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you for response.

No, there was no any sort of encryption active, it is known for sure. It even had Windows freshly reinstalled for troubleshooting reasons before SSD was removed.

Cant remember if SSD was actually seen during my first erasing attempt as I had this view option disabled, but it was there before my second attempt I enabled devices list after first error.

So I downloaded GSmartControl and ran it with SSD connected but only result I got is in the picture below. Nothing detects it, I guess.

Not possible sadly, old Windows laptop had video chip failure so it was scrapped for parts.

I have contacted adata support and waiting for their answer. Will update this post if we get some sort of resolution or how it may be related to macOS or encryption. Will also try to find another enclosure and test it.

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