topic Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac) in Solid State Drives (NAND)

Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

mkush — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:06:27 GMT

I have two D5-P5336 drives in use on my Mac and they are working great. I bought another one (used) but this one is OPAL. I do NOT care about the hardware encryption; I just want to use it as a normal drive. However, when I connect it to the computer, it does not ever present itself to the OS.

I have access to a Windows computer where I used the SST to update the firmware and do a secure erase. I tried running sst start -ssd <drive_index> -psidrevert <PSID> but received a message (sorry I did not write it down) that seemed to imply that the command didn't work because it wasn't necessary. I also noticed that in diskutil, the drive reported negative space available and I was unable to create a partition on it.

Long story short: is there a way I can just use this drive as a normal, non-OPAL drive on my Mac, given that I have access to the SST on a Windows computer to run any necessary commands?

Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

SolidigmGleb — Tue, 19 May 2026 08:53:10 GMT

Dear mkush,

For your Solidigm D5-P5336 SSD, OPAL security state may still be affecting drive accessibility, especially on a previously used drive.

Since you already attempted a PSID revert and observed unusual behavior afterward (such as negative capacity reporting), it is possible the drive still has an unexpected security/ownership state or initialization issue.

At this point, we would recommend:

1) Verifying the drive status again in Solidigm Storage Tool

2) Checking whether the drive still reports any OPAL/locking-related status

3) Reinitialising the drive from Windows before reconnecting it to macOS

Because OPAL configuration and ownership handling can vary depending on the environment and previous usage history, additional troubleshooting may be required if the drive still does not present correctly to the OS.

Best regards,
Gleb
Solidigm Support

Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

mkush — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:48:03 GMT

Gleb, thanks. I need a little help doing the steps you suggest.

First however, I want to ask a basic question: Is what I am attempting to do even possible? In other words, use an OPAL drive as if it did not have OPAL, on a Mac, which has no way to unlock the drive?

Assuming the answer is yes, it is possible:

1. How should I verify the drive status? (Specific command or steps in GUI)

2. How should I check to see if the drive reports any OPAL/locking status? (Specific command or steps in GUI)

Further information:

The revert command I ran was:

sst start --ssd 1 --psidrevert [32 characters from drive, only caps and numbers]

The message I received was:

Status : The selected drive cannot run this feature. Opal/Pyrite is not activated or is in an unknown state.

I wondered if the PSID number was typed incorrectly so I changed it by one digit to see if the error message changed, but it did not. But I double and triple verified that the number was typed correctly so I do not believe that is the problem.

I can secure erase the drive from the GUI, which works very quickly. (Too quickly?)

After secure erasing, Windows disk tools show a size of 4096 bytes, and free space of the same. After initializing, Windows tools show negative free space.

Please advise how to proceed, with specific commands or GUI steps.

Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

SolidigmGleb — Wed, 20 May 2026 11:07:50 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for the additional details.

Yes - an OPAL-capable D5-P5336 should still be usable as a normal storage drive if OPAL locking is not active or has been reset. macOS would only need an OPAL unlock mechanism if the drive were actually locked/enrolled.

The PSID revert message you received: Status : The selected drive cannot run this feature. Opal/Pyrite is not activated or is in an unknown state.

This suggests that SST is not currently detecting an active OPAL/Pyrite ownership state. However, the abnormal capacity reporting - 4096 bytes and negative free space - suggests the issue may be related to disk initialization, partition metadata, NVMe namespace/capacity reporting, or a possible drive fault rather than OPAL alone.

Please try the following from the Windows system with the SSD connected directly, if possible. First, verify the drive status in Solidigm Storage Tool from an Administrator Command Prompt:

sst show -ssd
sst show -a -ssd <drive_index_or_serial>

Next, check the NVMe namespace and health status:

sst show --ssd <drive_index_or_serial> -identify --namespace allocated
sst show --ssd <drive_index_or_serial> -identify --namespace attached
sst show --ssd <drive_index_or_serial> -identify --namespace 1

After collecting the above information, you may also try clearing the partition information from Windows:

diskpart
list disk
select disk <disk_number>
clean

Please be very careful to select the correct disk, as the clean command will remove partition information from the selected drive.

After running clean, open Windows Disk Management, initialize the drive as GPT, and verify whether Windows reports the expected full capacity before reconnecting the drive to macOS.

If the drive still reports 4096 bytes, shows negative free space, or cannot be initialized properly after these steps, the issue is likely not specifically related to OPAL configuration. In that case, we will follow up with you by email to collect the full SST command outputs listed above so we can review the drive, namespace, and health state and determine the appropriate next steps.

Best regards,
Gleb
Solidigm Support

Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

mkush — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:39:11 GMT

Hi Gleb,

Thanks again. I already know what happens when I do diskpart clean. I get the following error: An attempt was made to move the file pointer before the beginning of the file. The drive disappears from diskpart and Disk Management after that. Rebooting the computer gets it back.

How do I send you the output of the commands? I noticed that a case was started for me. I actually replied to that yesterday too (not sure if you saw that). Do I just reply to that email?

Mark

Re: Use OPAL drive like a regular drive (D5-P5336 on Mac)

SolidigmGleb — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:17:25 GMT

Hi Mkush,

Thank you for the update.

Since DiskPart clean results in that error and the drive disappears until the system is rebooted, please do not continue with further DiskPart cleanup or initialisation attempts for now. That behaviour is not expected for a normal partition cleanup and suggests we should review the drive status more closely.

We will reply directly to the case email that was opened for you. That will ensure the information and any attachments stay associated with your support case.

We will review the details you provide through the case and follow up with the next steps.

Best regards,

Gleb

Solidigm Support