I have a 1 TB SSD drive that was taken from a Mac computer. I would like to use this drive in my Linux Mint 20 system or even in Windows 10.

Based on information I found online, I did a "lsblk" and "Gparted" but I don't know what to do next. Truth be told, I am afraid to proceed without the guidance of a knowledgeable person. I have included the "lsblk" and "gparted" Terminal outputs along with the image generated by gpart, below. Can someone please walk me through what I should do next?

Just so you know, I know next to nothing about these things but I am good at following instructions.

Thanks and kind regards

Lsblk and Gparted Terminal outputs:



Gparted generated image

https://i.postimg.cc/DzP0Q3Vq/Gparted-display.png

buffalo soldier,

Welcome to LQ forums.

1. Using GParted, format the drive as GPT for UEFI:
Gparted > Device > Create Partition Table > Advanced > msdos > gpt> Apply.

2. Delete all existing partitions.

3. First, create an esp partition (500MB) formatted as FAT32, click on Apply. Leave the remainder of the drive as unallocated for now.

3. Next and most importantly, right-click on the fat32 partition > Manage flags > Select boot and esp.

Then you need to create 3 Primary partitions (not Logical) in the unallocated space as follows:

sda2 is the root (system) partition (say 30GB) for Linux Mint. Format the Primary partition as ext 4. The mount point is /.

sda3 is a swap partition (Primary) (say 2GB) (do not format it. Do not use ext4, but linux-swap).

sda4 is the home partition (Primary) (remainder of drive). Format the partition as
ext 4 with mount point /home.

Click on Apply.

Close Gparted and boot from the Linux Mint USB or DVD.

See post #10:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...op-4175707592/

EDIT
It is quite likely that the Mac efi partition can be left alone, but since I know nothing about the formatting on Macs, I decided to recommend its deletion and starting from scratch.

The OP's system drive is 1.8 TB so I assume the drive is just for data and not for installing an OS.

I assume your wanting to just wipe the drive and use it just for linux/Windows.

A single or multiple partitions? Just use gparted to create a new GPT partition table and create the desired partitions. For sharing data with Windows I suggest using NTFS.

Thanks for your prompt response.

I ran into a problem at instruction #1.
First, I did not see an "Advanced" option after "Create Partition Table". Then, when I click "Apply" I get the below error message:

https://i.postimg.cc/d178cD0G/Input-output-error.png

And this in the Terminal:

@linux20:~$ gparted
Unit boot.mount does not exist, proceeding anyway.
Unit tmp.mount does not exist, proceeding anyway.
GParted 1.0.0
configuration --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize
libparted 3.3
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda
Also, when I close and reopen Gparted, the SSD disk (sda) is missing. It however reappears when I restart the computer.

Thank you Michaelk. Please see my response to beachboy2's answer.

Thanks

Is the drive connected using a USB adapter directly by a SATA connector?

Do you know what the status of the drive before it was removed?
For a quick SMART test run the command, should take about 2 minutes,

sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda

When complete you can check the status
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda

- Drive is installed inside the computer
- Have no idea what the status was prior to my getting it.


@linux20:~$ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda
[sudo] password
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-100-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/sda: Unknown USB bridge [0x0bda:0x0184 (0x8413)]
Please specify device type with the -d option.

Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary

@linux20:~$ sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-100-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/sda: Unknown USB bridge [0x0bda:0x0184 (0x8413)]
Please specify device type with the -d option.

Any idea on the make / model of drive?

Samsung V-NAND SSD
860 EVO 1 TB
Model: MZ-76E1T0 2018.11

Strange.

How old is the computer? What is its make/model?

There are reported bugs with trim and certain SATA controllers but not with "normal operations" that I can find.

You reminds me of my doctor :-)
I therefore have a very good feeling about the outcome of our interaction.

Thanks for your diligence.

Computer: Dell XPS 8700
Ship Date:August 14, 2014

Information from System Info:

System: Kernel: 5.4.0-100-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una
base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine: Type: Desktop System: Dell product: XPS 8700 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 3
serial: <filter>
Mobo: Dell model: 0KWVT8 v: A03 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: A14 date: 05/31/2019
Battery: Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M310 serial: <filter>
charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4790 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell
rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 57468
Speed: 2694 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2341 2: 2883 3: 3351
4: 2781 5: 2553 6: 2922 7: 3015 8: 2894
Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 745] driver: nvidia v: 470.103.01 bus ID: 01:00.0
chip ID: 10de:1382
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.103.01
direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8c20
Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX] driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fbc
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-100-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Dell
driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell driver: ath9k
v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 168c:0032
IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth USB Host Controller type: USB driver: btusb
bus ID: 3-13:5 chip ID: 0cf3:e004
Drives: Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 937.48 GiB (50.3%)
ID-1: /dev/sde vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.79 TiB used: 937.47 GiB (51.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sde2
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 71 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 34%
Repos: No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deadsnakes-ppa-focal.list
1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/deadsnakes/ppa/ubuntu focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list
1: deb https: //repo.nordvpn.com//deb/nordvpn/debian stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yannubuntu-boot-repair-focal.list
1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu focal main
Info: Processes: 304 Uptime: 7h 03m Memory: 15.59 GiB used: 3.32 GiB (21.3%) Init: systemd
v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client
inxi: 3.0.38

Maybe something will pop out if I see the output of dmesg

dmesg | grep /dev/sda

1 members found this post helpful.

Nothing happens when I type "dmesg | grep /dev/sda" and press enter. (I am taken back to the command prompt.)

Does the drive still show in the output of the lsblk command?

Yes, after shutdown and restart

This at 11:43 PM EST:

:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 200M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 930.7G 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 0 619.9M 0 part
sdb 8:16 0 1.8T 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└─sdb2 8:18 0 1.8T 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom