I was away for the weekend, but finally got some time to play around with the pi again yesterday. Here is what I got:
The wipefs command removes some bits (at least on /dev/sda1), but takes a long time using the sata hat. Like 30 minutes for one of the commands by a rough estimate (I did not measure). After that I did an sudo fdisk -l, to see what was being registered. This did not always complete. It would show all the ram and the SD card and the old HDD (as /dev/sdb), but not manage to show /dev/sda and just sit there, wasting my time. I established a second ssh connection the pi to get some dmesg, just in case.
You can download the dmesg here: https://filehorst.de/d/dudeoHti
To reiterate: The SSD works well with my ubuntu laptop and directly with the pi using a cheap USB to Sata cable. I can also wipe the file system, remove the old partition, add a new one and format as ext4 using the USB to Sata cable to connect the SSD to the Pi and everything is buttery smooth. The problems only occur when I connect the SSD using the radxa Sata hat. I’m pretty sure by now that the drive is not to blame.
I read somewhere that software hanging issues can occur when the power is weak. I am using the 12V 5A power supply allnetchina send over as a promotion for the kit. That should be plenty strong. However, I am also using the Pi4 8GB version which changed some power supply details. Does your power delivery design work with those changes?
What would you have me do to fix the sata hat board? I would really like to get it to work properly, otherwise I have just wasted a bunch of money.