Move system to a "new" laptop - adding a new SDD as root

[marwell]

Hi everybody,

I have a very old Thinkpad W520 and bought a less old Thinkpad W541. I want to move the W520’s first HDD to the W541 and change the layout of the partitions. Does anybody foresee trouble I could run into?

The old system has this configuration:

/dev/sda1 vfat /boot/efi
/dev/sda2 crypto_LUKS (root)
/dev/sda3 crypto_LUKS (cache)

/dev/sdb1 vfat (second efi system partition for windows)
/dev/sdb2 (Microsoft reserved partition)
/dev/sdb3 ntfs (Windows 10)
/dev/sdb4 ntfs (empty)

I want to install EndeavourOS on a new sdd with 1TB, which should have the EndeavourOS encrypted / and a vfat /boot/efi and on another partition the windows system as dual boot.

The W520’s sda (a 2TB HDD) has a complete system on it, LVM on LUKS, with root and home inside. I want to keep using only the home folder making it sdb in the W541.

First I would install the windows on sda, than add EndeavourOS using it’s partition tools making sda2=/, sda3=boot/efi plus adding the old HDD as sdb with /home and /cache. Later I could delete the not needed partitions on the old sda=new sdb, extend sdb2 and delete all folders outside
/home.

At the end the W541 would have a SDD with dual boot EndeavourOS and Windows and EndeavourOS’s /home on the old HDD.

Some questions I have to work on:
Is the installer able to add the existing encrypted LVM on LUKS and using it’s /home partition?
Should I keep using the encrypted /cache partition on the HDD or put it on the SDD?
Or should I keep the old windows making it an external USB drive? I rarely use it…

Any concern or suggestions? Thank you!

[thefrog]

@marwell

First I would install the windows on sda

IMHO you should just keep windows on the one drive remove it and put Endeavour on the other drive and keep them separate. Windows will destroy your boot its not a matter of if but when.

[marwell]

Good argument! Thank.you, @thefrog

[ricklinux]

This is how i try to dual boot always. It’s much easier to deal with keeping them separate.

[riffer]

Yep. Especially on a Thinkpad with it’s generally easy access to drives for switching.

If you use windows a lot also consider throwing it on old hardware and using some form of remote desktop to get in. I do this at tax time when I have to use windows for the tax software.

[marwell]

Considering the problem Windows killing my Linux I decided to keep it on it’s own disk like before.

As I bought a 1TB SSD it would have been a waste only having / on it. So I decided to leave the old 2TB EndeavourOS HDD in the old W520 and only copy still needed files from the home folder to the W541. This is more work but also a home folder without old rubbish.

The Windows HDD I put in the Ultrabay so I can start from sdb with it’s own efi partition. Maybe I’ll make the Windows partition smaller to add a new partition and use it with pictures or videos I use with Linux.

Another reason was that integrate the old encrypted Linux HDD into my new installation didn’t work on the first try.

Thank you @ricklinux, @thefrog and @riffer for your comments, they helped to make the basic decisions!