SSD not showing in list of drives

[Ed Stevens]

Hi, I have been using Clonezilla to image my operating systems for years and it has made my life much easier, thank you for making such a great piece of software.

I have just bought a used computer and when I tried to image the ssd like I usually do it didn’t show in the list of drives, in its place was the following:

mtdblock0 32mb

I searched the internet for solutions and have tried both the latest stable and alternative releases of Clonezilla, one gave the same result of mtdblock0 and the other showed no boot drive at all. I found a thread suggesting to use expert mode but trying that didn't work for me either.

I have 2 questions if I may:

-Can you offer any advice on how to remedy this? Perhaps something I missed in expert mode as I have always used beginner mode? I would very much appreciate it.

and also

-Do you happen to know where this mtdblock0 issue stems from? Is it on the motherboard or bios? (I can’t find an answer to this online and can see no relevant settings in the bios menu). Or is it on the ssd (if I clean the drive and install a new operating system will I then be able to image the drive with Clonezilla as normal?

Thanks very much and thanks again for making Clonezilla.

[Ed Stevens]

I just realised that I stupidly misspelled mdtblock0 when it is actually mtdblock0. I have edited my post to correct this.

[chuck]

Hi Ed

Your drive controller may be configured in RAID or VMD mode instead of AHCI mode required for Clonezilla. Please see this FAQ :
https://drbl.org/fine-print.php?path=./faq/2_System/136_VMD_disk.faq#136_VMD_disk.faq

Chuck

[Ed Stevens]

Hi Chuck, I will try that as soon as I've got the computer in front of me again.

Thank you very much for your help.

[Ed Stevens]

Hi Chuck,

I found a setting in the bios to change from RAID to AHCI mode and that enabled me to image the drive, thank you so much for your advice. I thoroughly searched through the bios multiple times but could find no settings for VMD anywhere.

I tested it quite a bit with both the latest stable releases and the older alternative version I have been using long term.

On the alternative stable versions, the ssd showed up in the list of drives and mtdblock0 was also there, while the latest stable showed the drive without mtdblock being shown in the list.

Do you think there might be a setting for VMD hidden somewhere in the bios under a different name or do you think changing it from RAID to AHCI is the only thing change that's required?

Thanks again

[chuck]

Hi Ed
You should be good to clone once you change the controller to AHCI.
You may need to restore the setting to RAID after cloning to be able to boot your PC.
Enjoy.