…why not just try either installing another distro like Debian to test it or reinstall Fedora.

I’ll be trying that last since while I did get most of my data off it thankfully (this was a real kick in the ass to get better about keeping backups!) I wasn’t able to get all of it and I would inevitably lose some of my settings. That said it will be my last resort.

Maybe just try cleaning the pins with some isopropyl alcohol first

That’s a good thought, I’ll give that a try. I’m not much of a hardware guy if it wasn’t clear before 😝

Ya, I get

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0         7:0    0   2.8G  1 loop /run/rootfsbase
sda           8:0    1  28.8G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    1   3.1G  0 part /run/initramfs/live
└─sda2        8:2    1    30M  0 part 
zram0       251:0    0     8G  0 disk [SWAP]
nvme0n1     259:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 

when I run lsblk, and

Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: PC SN520 NVMe WDC 256GB                 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B7455548-7C25-4CAD-8783-51BD02CDFD1E

Device           Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1    2048   1230847   1228800   600M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 1230848   3327999   2097152     1G Linux extended boot
/dev/nvme0n1p3 3328000 500117503 496789504 236.9G Linux filesystem
GPT PMBR size mismatch (6579459 != 60437491) will be corrected by write.
The backup GPT table is not on the end of the device.

when I run sudo fdisk -l. (minus the bits concerning other disks)

A corrupt boot partition is one of my new leading theories. I’m really hoping that’s the case actually.

Noted! And ya, funny as it is to have to consider such things it might actually be worth waiting for a trade deal if I do need to but new and can get a stop gap measure in the meantime.

Could the CMOS battery have died in your laptop, which has caused it to not detect the SSD?

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what that is. But I’ll look into it, thanks for the lead!

I wouldn’t necessarily call a new ssd a cheap debugging step (for me anyways), but you raise a good point about putting it in an enclosure; I could use a new external drive anyways. That may be the first step I take.