I recently purchased a cheap NVMe SSD and decided to run a capacity test using H2testw, since I have trust issues. Unfortunately, with just two minutes left on the writing process, I accidentally bumped the USB-C M.2 drive holder, and now my SSD is showing 0 bytes of space. I'm not sure what steps to take next. I have a Sabrent 2TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2242 SSD and an Inland brand M.2 to USB-C read/write device. I'm using a Lenovo K14 and Windows 11. Thankfully, there are no important files on the drive, but the drive manager can't seem to initialize it. I'm comfortable using either Windows or Linux for recovery, but Windows would be easier for me.
2 Answers
If Disk Management can't recognize the drive, Windows might not be able to help either. You could try using commands like 'lsblk' followed by 'wipefs' on the drive to see if that yields any results. After that, tools like GParted or 'mkfs' might help, but it's a bit of a shot in the dark if the drive isn't recognized at all.
I once had a Sabrent M.2 that reported 0 bytes just a few months after I got it, and it turned out to be completely dead. First things first, open the enclosure and make sure the M.2 SSD is seated properly; it might have come loose. Also, if you didn't apply thermal pads for heat dissipation, that could be an issue. M.2 drives can get really hot, and if they were operating without proper cooling, that could have caused the failure. If reseating doesn't work, consider getting an RMA from Sabrent. They've been pretty good about replacements in my experience.
I got mine working fine, but I think it just got disconnected when I bumped the enclosure. It’s probably good to test things out before assuming it's completely dead.
I tried 'wipefs' too, but it didn't change anything. My drive is still showing 0 bytes in 'lsblk'.