[Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

[CornholioGSM]

Hello,
I have got some bitlocker locked ssd's.
Does exists working way how to format it?
I have tested diskpart, disk management, gparted etc...nothing is working ;(

Approx all are pullded from t480/t490 laptops.

...some are not visible in linux

[stj]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

issue an ATA-RESET command and the controllers will reset the security and wipe the flash
finding a utility to do it may take a while though - i'v only seen it done with linux scripts

[CornholioGSM]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

Hmm...i can test it on m2, but nvme is not ata/sata based
Maybe parted magic disc eraser can do it...or maybe with nvme-cli

[stj]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

no idea, not looked at m2 - isnt m2 just usb and sata on a smaller connector though?

[diif]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

Did you find the drive when you ran the diskpart command ?

[ratdude747]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

no idea, not looked at m2 - isnt m2 just usb and sata on a smaller connector though?

No, M2 can also be NVME... and T780/T790 is new enough to use such (my T460s was the first T4xx to support NVME).

[dmill89]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

No, M2 can also be NVME... and T780/T790 is new enough to use such (my T460s was the first T4xx to support NVME).

^This, M2 can be SATA or NVMe (PCI express).

SATA M2 drives have 2 key slots in the connector, and are limited to SATA speeds (6 Gbps) and look like this:



NVMe M2 drives run on the PCI Express bus, have one key slot on the connector and can run at much higher speeds (as fast as the generation of PCI Express X2 or X4 slot the CPU/Motherboard supports depending on how the drive and slot are configured) and look like this:


(Ignore the different drive lengths, that's just packaging and either type of drive can come in either length, it is the connector that matters)



A SATA drive can run in an NVMe capible slot (but limited to SATA speeds), but an NVMe drive cannot run in a SATA only slot (and the different slot keys will prevent it from being inserted).


And The Speed Differences:

SATA:

(yes there are SATA drives with faster write speeds, but the read speed is pretty close to bus saturation)


vs NVMe (Specifically a Western Digital SN850 running in a PCIe 4.0 X4 M2 slot):

[Uranium-235]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

^This, M2 can be SATA or NVMe (PCI express).

SATA M2 drives have 2 key slots in the connector, and are limited to SATA speeds (6 Gbps) and look like this:



NVMe M2 drives run on the PCI Express bus, have one key slot on the connector and can run at much higher speeds (as fast as the generation of PCI Express X2 or X4 slot the CPU/Motherboard supports depending on how the drive and slot are configured) and look like this:


(Ignore the different drive lengths, that's just packaging and either type of drive can come in either length, it is the connector that matters)



A SATA drive can run in an NVMe capible slot (but limited to SATA speeds), but an NVMe drive cannot run in a SATA only slot (and the different slot keys will prevent it from being inserted).


And The Speed Differences:

SATA:

(yes there are SATA drives with faster write speeds, but the read speed is pretty close to bus saturation)


vs NVMe (Specifically a Western Digital SN850 running in a PCIe 4.0 X4 M2 slot):

Yeah Nvme is pretty just a rom-bootable pci-E controller with flash chips on the other side.

M.2 Has x4 pci-e, USB and SATA and blanks for future expansion

But yeah not all cards are keyed for SATA. I have an x4 pci-e board with just a M.2 slot with a sata connector on the end so I can access any type of M.2 drive

It's how they make bluetooth/wifi M.2 adapters. PCI-E x1 is for the wifi part, and USB is for the bluetooth part all on one chip, but that is A+E keyed, vs whatever is the key for Nvme and sata I forget offhand

[keeney123]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

First does the drive show up in Windows file explorer?

[CornholioGSM]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

Soo i have found , that simplest way for format bitlocked ssd is format it in HP bios
...i have used hp prodesk 400 g3


...now will be good to find how to format bios locked nvme

[Mafwele255]

Re: [Q] Format Bitlocked M.2/NVME ?

Soo i have found , that simplest way for format bitlocked ssd is format it in HP bios
...i have used hp prodesk 400 g3


...now will be good to find how to format bios locked nvme

How did you do it

[RepairGenius]

This is a way to do it please watch the movie on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/ORgxPrOr7PA?si=dq5mWv5JAmmWzCcY