Lenovo X Series ThinkPad :: Error When Trying To Format 22GB SSD

The SSD originally came partitioned into two volumes. One of them was about 8GB and what it was originally used for. The other partition was about 14GB and was used by ExpressCache.
 
After formatting the primary partition on the other drive and reinstalling Windows 8.1, I decided to delete the two partitions on the SSD and to instead create a single 22GB partition to be used by ExpressCache.
 
ExpressCache was working perfectly until I enabled bitlocker.
 
Then the machine started playing up and I later learned that bitlocker was incompatible with ExpressCache. So rolled back the encryption on the main drive and uninstalled ExpressCache. Since I am not going to be able to use ExpressCache with bitlocker, I would now like to format the 22GB SSD with NTFS and assign it a drive letter.
 
This is where I have started running into problems.
 
Even though I do not have ExpressCache installed or running and I do not yet have bitlocker enabled, windows keeps failing when I try to format the drive.
 
I have tried to use a variety of tools to format the drive. All of them get stuck at 0%.

Tools I have tried include: diskpart, windows format, EaseUS partition manager and MiniTool Partition Wizard
 
Various tools I have tried report that the disk is healthy.
 
I have used diskpart to remove the partition and create a new primary one.
 
When I try to format the partition using diskpart, I get the message:
 
"DiskPart has encountered an error: The parameter is incorrect. See the System Event Log for more information."
 
The event log reports the following warning as a result of attempting to format the drive:
 
Event ID: 129
Source: storahci
Message: Reset to device, DeviceRaidPort0, was issued.
 
Event ID: 153
Source: disk
Message: The IO operation at logical block address d8 for Disk 1 (PDO name: Device0000036) was retried.
 
Event ID: 129
Source: storahci
Message: Reset to device, DeviceRaidPort0, was issued.
(This last warning will appear four times - roughly 30 seconds apart)
 
Is this a driver issue?
 
I have tried installing the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver" and then formatting the drive, but it still gets stuck at 0% (this time however it doesn't report any warning in the event log) so I have resorted back to the Standard SATA AHCI Controller . How I can get some use out of my 22GB SSD?
 
It is a Toshiba THNSNX024GMNT