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My ThinkPad came with a 500GB HDD and a 24GB SSD (intended for speedup of the preinstalled Windows 8). For the record, the SSD in question is a Toshiba THNSNX024GMNT. I've had Ubuntu installed on the HDD as a dual-boot alternative to Windows since 2014, without making explicit use of the SSD.

I decided to wipe all drives and install Ubuntu only, with the SSD at and using the HDD for /home to make things run a little more swiftly and smoothly, but it seems I am unable to manipulate the SSD at all. There are two partitions on the SSD to begin with, both marked as hidden, which pop back up after any and all attempts to repartition or format the drive:

  • When trying to install straight to the SSD from a Ubuntu Live USB, the installer gets stuck when creating the file system (no further progress even after several hours). Original partitioning appears again after reboot of the computer.
  • The disk utility seems to successfully delete the original partitions, but gets stuck when creating new partitions. Original partitions re-appear after reboot.
  • Gparted seems to delete original partitions and even create new FAT32 partitions, however after rebooting the machine the original hidden partitions are back.
  • Lenovo's "Drive Erase Utility for the Resetting the Cryptographic Key and the Erasing the Solid State Drive", when started from a bootable USB drive, claims to erase the SSD. After reboot, the original partitions are there (still? again? who knows).
  • Besides all the failed partitioning, benchmarking the SSD in the disk utility grinds to a halt after 2-3 samples, and freezes there without ever completing.

EDIT: Some further research suggests that there might be a firmware problem with this particular drive -- any thoughts on how to deal with Toshiba SSD firmware updates?

My questions now are:

  1. What could be causing this behavior?
  2. How can I regain control over this uncooperative drive and start booting my system from it, if at all?
  3. (Comments on the utility of booting Ubuntu from the SSD are welcome, but I figure once I get it to work I can judge for myself if it was worth it.)

Thanks for any and all pointers!

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  • In your BIOS, is the SSD set to RAID?
    – heynnema
    Apr 14, 2017 at 0:38
  • I can't quite figure it out -- the BIOS Config tab doesn't have a "Devices" section or anything like that as far as I can tell, and configuring storage isn't mentioned anywhere. Are there other ways to see if it is set to RAID?
    – maitagorri
    Apr 14, 2017 at 1:19
  • I did some Googling about this problem, and it seems like the SSD was only used as a cache for the HDD, and required a special Windows driver to make it work like that. It looks like you may not be able to use the SSD in another capacity, like a bootable Ubuntu system disk... but... do your own homework and confirm for yourself what I've just suggested. Lastly, the Lenova software you used only "erases" the SSD... it doesn't apparently change the format or intended use of the SSD.
    – heynnema
    Apr 14, 2017 at 13:38
  • Thanks for looking into this heynnema! What I've found online suggests that "that [caching] is how it is configured in software. Physically it is of course an ordinary drive and it can be reconfigured to act as one." While some people seem to have had more luck, others report having to update the drive's firmware. Further thoughts, or suggestions on firmware updates under Ubuntu?
    – maitagorri
    Apr 15, 2017 at 1:49

1 Answer 1

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The problem turned out to be with the firmware of the Toshiba mSata, an issue that several Lenovo support staff themselves were not aware of when I called them. The solution required a specific firmware update provided by Lenovo, executed from a bootable USB created with -- of course -- a Windows executable. For anyone experiencing similar ThinkPad SSD troubles, follow the instructions here if you have access to a Windows computer.

Everything works fine now and my X240 is booting 16.04 from the SSD, quite a bit faster than before.

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