[SOLVED] Dell SSD reformat

tbotnik

Commendable
Jan 5, 2019
7
0
1,510
All,

I have a Dell Inspiron 3793 laptop with a Hynix BC511 NVMe 512 GB SSD! I need to reformat it to Ext4 file system, but face 2 problems:

  1. The SSD form factor is larger than standard M.2 so external format is not possible as i cannot find an adapter with the correct form factor,
  2. The BIOS, in violation of law, is locked not letting the administrator enter bios and set it up for internal reformat.

If you know either where to get the correct adapter or how to unlock this bios, let me know!

Thanks!

TBNK
 

tbotnik

Commendable
Jan 5, 2019
7
0
1,510
  1. Why do you need to reformat it?
  2. Why Ext4, specifically?
  3. Do you know the actual BIOS password?
  4. "larger than standard M.2 " - The majority of M.2 NVMe drives are 2280. 22mm wide, 80mm long. A few are 22110. 110mm long.
Answering your Qa one at a time:
  1. I only use Linux, so EXT4 is required,
  2. See #1,
  3. There is no BIOS pwd, I can enter it but all disk mgmt is prohibited by Dell,
  4. Yes the standard M.2 connector is 2mm narrower than this SSD, and all attempts, have now tried to find the adapter for 9 months and failed even though all the adapter mfg say their's NVMe capable, but they are not, so not able to get an adapter, not even from Dell, though I'm sure their Dell authorized repair depots have one, but not able to get one at all! Can not even get one from Hynix
Cheers!

TBNK
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Answering your Qa one at a time:
  1. I only use Linux, so EXT4 is required,
  2. See #1,
  3. There is no BIOS pwd, I can enter it but all disk mgmt is prohibited by Dell,
  4. Yes the standard M.2 connector is 2mm narrower than this SSD, and all attempts, have now tried to find the adapter for 9 months and failed even though the adapter mfg say its NVMe they are not, so not able to get an adapter, not even from Dell, though I'm sure their Dell authorized repair depots have one, but not able to get one at all! Can not even get one from Hynix
Cheers!

TBNK
Can you boot from the USB you'll use to install Linux?
 
with new intel mb there is now in all the bios a sercure boot that by default is on so that theifs cant boot from usb or dvd devices and copyy people files. if there no bios password you can go in and turn csm off. you should then be able to boot from usb or dvd disks. if the laptop still has dell partions on it most bios ill have a restore key that you hit in the bios to restore the factory image now. if it not on the laptop then most vendors now will let you make a restote usb stick.
 
Solution

tbotnik

Commendable
Jan 5, 2019
7
0
1,510
All,

I may have found the answer as I stumbled across a M.23 standard. Still checking on this, but seens to be what I'm lokking for. Will let you know!

Cheers!

TBNK