Why isn’t my 1TB SSD showing free space for Linux Mint installation?

When it shows no free space, that's usually because the SSD was formatted in a way that Linux Mint can't read. It sounds like Windows created partitions on it that are interfering. You'll need to delete those partitions first. You can do this using a disk management tool in Windows or a terminal in Linux using 'gparted.'

Make sure you're selecting the right drive! Your internal Windows partition is showing as /dev/sda. Don't mix it up with your external SSD. Check for other devices like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc. Use 'lsblk' in the terminal to list all drives and find your SSD without error.

I'm in the same boat! I found that formatting the SSD in NTFS from Windows before attempting the Mint installation worked for me. It showed up properly, and from there, Mint can handle the final formatting to Ext4 or any other format it prefers during installation. Just make sure to back up anything valuable first!

You definitely need to create a partition before you can install Mint. If Windows formatted the SSD, it might be in a format that Linux doesn’t recognize. Try using GParted from the live USB to set up the partitions during the install process.

If your SSD is recognized as /dev/sda with no size displayed, it may not be partitioned correctly. Even if you wipe it, you might need to format it to a Linux-friendly filesystem (like Ext4) afterwards. You could try formatting it to NTFS first in Windows, then retry the Mint installation, as it often picks up drives this way better.