Recover Disk Space From Optane
 

I puchased a 2 year old Lenovo C940 laptop that used the Optane memory management system. In order to install Fedora 38 Cinnamon, I had to go into the BIOS and disable Optane. That seemed to go well and I got F38 installed dual booting with Windows. However, at the time I did not notice that there is 28gb of space left over from Optane. "Gparted" identifies that space and the larger 450gb plus space that I am now using as two separate disks. Gparted was able to make an ext4 partition on the 28gb "drive" and it is usable. The 28 gb "drive" is identified as /dev/nvme1n1 and the large 450 + "disk is /dev/nvme0n1p1. I can use the space as a separate "drive" if necessary, but I would like to bring them together as one if possible? Does anyone know how to do that?

I'm mildly surprised that worked, but I have zero experience with the technology.

Your best solution might be to format it as a pv and add it to your LVM configuration. Preferably as a cachevol front-end as it (Optane) was designed for. Did you do a LVM install for Fedora ?.
Could be an interesting project.

I looked up the description of Optane. It is actually a block of non-volatile memory situated on the motherboard close to the CPU. The Optane feature of the BIOS can use this block of memory as a cache for actively used disk data. Apparently the system that you have set up recognizes this cache memory as a SSD.

If you want to combine /dev/nvme1n1 and /dev/nvme0n1p1 then I suggest that you might be able to do so with Logical Volume Manager.

Anaconda offered a "standard" (I think that was the term) install which is ext4 partitions. I created standard /, /home, and swap. I left Win10 alone after shrinking it's volume to about 120gb.
What is "pv"?

This is something that doesn't have to be done. We are only talking 28gb and I can store files there. But if my 512 ssd is actually split, it would be nice to put it back together. Gparted sees two drives of 477 and 28gb. Maybe the 28 is the space on the MB you mentioned?? If it does no harm, I can just use it that way or ignore it.

The 28 is the space on the motherboard. It is not part of your SSD.

Thanks. It's not much but do you know if it is safe to use it for storage purposes?

I don't know whether it is volatile or non-volatile memory. You could try writing a file to it and then shutdown and power off. See if the file is still there when you power up again.

Yup. I created an empty folder there rebooted and it was still there. So, unless you can think of any down sides, I'll try putting some non-important stuff there and see what happens. I'll wait a few days to call this solved.
Thanks

Sorry it took so long to get back. Yes the 30 gb "Optane" segment is on the ssd and is usable after reformatting it. After disabling Optane in the BIOS and turning off secure boot (not sure if the latter was necessary) I reinstalled everything. Windows was reinstalled with my wifi turned off. This resulted in an incomplete (from Microsoft's point of view) install, but left me with a "local account" (no Microsoft password needed) and with no Optane drivers and Bitlocker is disabled. Once windows was rebooted and the wifi turned on the uninstalled apps etc got caught up and setup proceeded as normal. I then reinstalled Fedora 38 with no issues. All is working without Optane, Bitlocker, or the need for an MS password. I don't use Windows often and I don't need those "features". However, I understand that without Bitlocker it will be best to install some malware protection.

The 28 gb "drive" is identified as /dev/nvme1n1 and the large 450 + "disk is /dev/nvme0n1p1.

The /dev/nvme1n1 would indicate a second SSD drive while /dev/nvme0n1 would be the first SSD detected by the system. The /dev/nvme0n1p1 entry would be the first partition on the first physical drive. You don't indicate but seem to be saying you have only one physical drive? If you have a 450GB partition and an additional 28GB that would add up to what would be seen on a 512GB drive. This is due to the difference in using GB and Gib.

Yancek. If it helps, this is the same as or very close to what I have:
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Optane-...2598871&sr=8-9
Thanks