I've just installed Linux Mint on my new LG gram laptop, and I've discovered that one of my hard drives is encrypted with Bitlocker from a previous Windows installation. The drive, which is listed as nvme1n1p3, is currently unusable, and I want to know if I can format it without having to reinstall Linux Mint. I want to use gparted to format the partition to ext4, and I'm wondering if that will work smoothly or if I should prepare for a complete OS reinstall, which I'm okay with since I don't have important files yet. Here's the output from `lsblk` for more context:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme1n1 259:0 0 953.9G 0 disk
├───nvme1n1p1 259:2 0 260M 0 part
├───nvme1n1p2 259:3 0 16M 0 part
**├───nvme1n1p3 259:4 0 952.6G 0 part (this drive is the one that is encrypted)**
└───nvme1n1p4 259:5 0 1023M 0 part
nvme0n1 259:1 0 953.9G 0 disk
├───nvme0n1p1 259:6 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└───nvme0n1p2 259:7 0 953.4G 0 part /
4 Answers
You're right about the confusion with Windows terminology. Just remember that in Linux, you're dealing with partitions, not drives. You can definitely format your nvme1n1p3 partition using gparted to ext4. It should integrate just fine with Mint. Lots of new users do this, so no worries!
For formatting, both the Disks utility and gparted will work great! Just open gparted and select your partition, then format it as ext4. Keep an eye out for the boot partition though; if you're not having issues, you might not need a full reinstall.
If you're just formatting, you shouldn't need to reinstall Linux Mint. Once you've formatted the partition, it should be ready to use right away, and you can continue working without reinstalling!
When you use gparted, double-check that you're selecting the right partition to format. It shouldn't necessitate reinstalling your OS unless you're having boot issues, but it's good to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong!
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