Probably a silly question -> phyiscally migrate ssd to new laptop?

[revm]

Hey all,

This is probably a silly question, but I thought I would ask before I go down any specific path. I am currently running EndeavourOS on a ThinkPad P50, but I am getting a new-to-me laptop ( Eluktronics P650RP6-G) delivered later today and will be moving over to that. What I am wondering is if I can just take the three ssds I have installed on the ThinkPad, install them on the Eluktronics, and then start the Eluktronics with a LiveUSB to reconfigure grub, etc.

I know going with fresh install is always recommended, but I have finally got everything the way I like it (software, configs, etc), and I am wondering if I could do this to save some time and frustration. From what I found when I googled, it sounds like what I want to do will work because it is Linux. But before I try it and potentially screw myself up, has anyone else ever tried something like this? Did it work? What did you need to do to make it work? What surprised you? Thanks in advance for any help!

[dalto]

Yes, you can swap drives into new hardware.

If you are using nvidia drivers on the current machine and switching to non-nvidia, it is better to remove the drivers and config before switching.

I would also set any non-essentials volumes to nofail in /etc/fstab so problems won’t stop your boot.

If you have any problems on the new machine, try booting the fallback image.

[revm]

Awesome!! Thank you so much. I was pretty sure this would work, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t having a fever dream or something, lol. Probably going to tackle this over the weekend or first thing Monday. Thanks again!