Windows and Linux on a T60p on separate hard drives?

[Dark Energy]

Hi everyone!

After much prevaricating, I'm going to purchase a T60p in the next week or so. Primary purpose will be a work machine - running assorted scientific codes, giving presentations, and watching movies/playing games in hotel rooms to keep myself occupied . In that sense a (fairly loaded) T60p fits the bill perfectly.

HOWEVER, this also means that I would like to be able to run both Windows and a flavour of Linux (probably Debian) on the machine. Furthermore, due to some rather... unfortunate experiences in the past dual booting off single hard drives resulting in the loss of critical data, I would strongly prefer to run windows and linux on separate hard drives.

Looking at the lenovo website however, I'm not really sure what I should do/buy in order to do this in the most optimal fashion. Having come across this excellent forum via google, I thought I would ask and see what the assembled wisdom here has to say.

Ideally, what I would like is a windows install on one primary hard drive, and a linux install on a 'spare' primary hard drive, and swop them back and forth as need be. I'm not sure that this is even possible though - is it possible to swop the primary hdd in a t60p easily? If so, how do I go about purchasing a 'spare' primary hard drive, as the lenovo site seems curiously uninformative on the subject?

Another option would be to have the Windows install on the primary hard drive and a linux install on an ultrabay hard drive (which I believe I can boot from). Again though I'm not sure what to do - the lenovo website seems to sell hdd adapters for the ultrabay, but no actual hdds... am I missing something here? If I need to buy a hdd from a separate source, are there any brands that people would recommend/warn against?

Many apologies of this has been asked before - I did do a search but I'm a bit of a newbie at these forum things and so may well have missed it....

[dfumento]

I have been running dual boot Windows/Linux for years off of a single disk w/o problems. I wouldn't worry about it, just make your backups.

Best to use the standard Linux install for Thinkpads:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=31975

You may not need a T60p, do you need the faster graphics processor which takes more battery power?

You might just want to get an aftermarket 100 GB 7200 HD at www.newegg.com

Since you are running scientific code, make certain it is a Core 2 Duo unit as opposed to Core Duo.

[CodedoC]

It's a pain in the [censored] to swap the main hard drive because you have to remove 5 screws (one for the slot cover on the side of your T60p and the other 4 on the internal HD tray)--but you'll need to do it at least once during install of your Linux OS.

You need the $76.50 ($49 if purchased with a system) ultrabay HDD adapter tray (P/N 26R9246) which you can purchase from Lenovo's website by entering this part number at http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... logId=-840, OR you can try their agressive sales department directly and probably get the $49 price or even better since they now make calls to customers offering discounted prices lower than their online advertised prices and are negotiable as well! I've been dealing with Jon Stanley at (877) 338-4465 ext. 6466.

Even with the HDD adapter, you will initially need to install the Linux OS from a CD or DVD so that means that you'll have to either use an external CD/DVD drive or put the new HD in the main HD slot (removing 5 screws) so that you can insert the DVD drive in the ultra bay slot. Note that there is virtually no postive feedback when you slicde the SATA drive into the main HD slot. Just make sure you don't put it in up-side-down.

With Debian, I had no luck with a recent install, but you may need to go into your BIOS and change the SATA drive from AHCI mode to Compatibility Mode, or else Debian (and many other flavors of Linux) may not recognize it. Once you get it running, you may be able to switch back to AHCI mode. With Fedora Core 6, you are good to go in AHCI mode from the start. The only major things you will need to install later are the IPW3945 wireless drivers and sound card drivers. There apparently are ways to get the fingerprint reader to work despite Lenovo's failure to provide a driver for the SUSE Linux they are now offering on the T60 series.

Once installed, you can re-install your original hard drive and place the other SATA drive in the ultra bay. When you boot the computer, you will need to hit the Thinkvantage button and wait for the option screen so that you can press F12 to enter to boot device menu. From there you can select your ultrabay hard drive. It's quite simple actually and makes no permanent changes to your BIOS boot preferences. The only real problem with this solution is that you won't be able to have a CD/DVD drive in the ultrabay slot while you're running Linux.

Regarding the purchase of a second hard drive, take note that Lenovo will charge you over $180 just for UPGRADING your 100GB 5400 RPM HD to 7200 RPM. They want a whopping $380 or more if you buy one as a spare. From either ZipZoomFly (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=100808) or newegg.com, you can purchase the SAME hard drive outright for about $150. The only difference is that the Hitachi drive that Lenovo will sell you comes with their sticker on it. Must be one hell of a sticker!

Best of luck. Go Fedora 6!!!

CodedoC

[laundromatt]

my understanding is that if you have a hard drive in the regular spot, and a hard drive in the ultrabay, you won't be able to boot from the hard drive in the ultrabay. if that's true, then an ultrabay adapter won't help much. of course, if i'm wrong about this, hopefully someone will corect me.

i think your best bet would be to get a second hard drive from newegg, and then get the hard drive caddy (not the ultrabay adapter) from ibm or wherever. put new hard drive in new caddy, install into thinkpad, install whatever linux flavor you want, and swap it out with the windows hard drive/caddy when needed. this way, you won't have fiddle around with as many screws.

[Dark Energy]

Thanks guys for some INCREDIBLY helpful posts!

I'll be purchasing imminently, and will come back here and detail my debian linux adventures

[CodedoC]

Fortunately, I can absolutely confirm that you can boot off either the main hard drive or the ultra-bay hard drive when both are installed as I had pointed out in my previous post. Just press the blue Thinkvantage button when the computer starts and follow the options. Be quick, because you don't have much time to press that blue button.

[bazciscor]

I have a Z60t and would like to install Debian on an external hard drive I'm running XP with no problems - and, like the original poster - I too have had issues with two operating systems on the same HD. Another reason I'd like Debian on a secondary HD is - because I'm a newbie regarding Linux. I am, however, very much attracted to it, and would like to learn it, but in an environment in which I can't do harm to my other OS (been there, done that) . I've been unable to find direct answers to what I want to do (this forum, Linux forums and online), but have only come close.

Now, I'm at the point of installation - how to direct the Debian install to the external?

Please, any constructive advice is appreciated...

[smugiri]

It's a pain in the [censored] to swap the main hard drive because you have to remove 5 screws (one for the slot cover on the side of your T60p and the other 4 on the internal HD tray)--but you'll need to do it at least once during install of your Linux OS.

This is a great approach.

To make things even easier, you could simply buy a 2nd caddy and drop the 2nd HDD in that so that each HDD gets its own caddy.

The other thing I would do is replace the regular HDD screw with a thumbscrew of some kind to make the process of removing and replacing the HDD that much easier.