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:
- What could be causing this behavior?
- How can I regain control over this uncooperative drive and start booting my system from it, if at all?
- (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!