format-nvme-4k.md

Formatting your nvme to 4k sectors

Warning: This will wipe your SSD and remove all the data!

• Create a bootable Linux USB, I'd suggest Ubuntu and Balena Etcher on macOS
• Boot into Ubuntu and connect to your WIFI
• Open up your settings and enable Universe Repo
• Open up the commandline and insert the following commands one after the other:

sudo apt install smartmontools
sudo apt install nvme-cli
sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvme0

After entering the last command you should find the following output in the commandline tool indicating that it is possible to format to 4k sectors:

    Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
    Id Fmt  Data  Metadt  Rel_Perf
     0 +     512       0         2
     1 -    4096       0         1

• Use the following command to format your SSD:

sudo nvme format -l 1 /dev/nvme0