I have an old pc that I speeded up by installing an SSD to hold LEAP 42.3 and Win7. I was given a newer (not new) pc that I dual boot with Tumbleweed and Win7. Can you give me tips on installing the SSD as a second (boot) drive to speed things up on the newer pc? Once running, I would remove both OS (or at least the current Tumbleweed) from the existing HD and use it for data only.
My concern is that just sticking the SSD into the new hardware will fail because it is not the hardware environment that the SSD “knows.” Perhaps, I should install the SSD and run the Tumbleweed install disc to get the SSD running? I don’t know what that will do to the current Win7 install that is on the SSD. Not sure I care! Every time I have to use Windows, I want to scream! Still, it would be nice to be able to have a dual boot that starts up fast.
I would bluntly build in the SSD in the newer PC, and see if it ( maybe with some BIOS changes ) runs, which it may very well do. Not sure for the Windows install though. If it works, then simply repartition the HDD ( after backing up your precious data.
On 2018-07-03, Prexy <Prexy@no-mx.forums.microfocus.com> wrote:
> I have an old pc that I speeded up by installing an SSD to hold LEAP
> 42.3 and Win7. I was given a newer (not new) pc that I dual boot with
> Tumbleweed and Win7. Can you give me tips on installing the SSD as a
> second (boot) drive to speed things up on the newer pc? Once running, I
> would remove both OS (or at least the current Tumbleweed) from the
> existing HD and use it for data only.
3 points:
Backup your data onto external media before you start. Operating systems and programs are disposable whereas data is
not.
It’s usually a good idea to keep one drive for each operating system on desktop PCs. Does your old pc still have a
spinning drive with a large capacity? If so, by far your best arrangement would be (assuming your motherboard and
computer case support 3):
a) Old HDD: NTFS partitions for data.
b) Old SSD: Windows 7 + programs
c) New SSD: GNU/Linux + programs
Assume the possibility your existing operating systems will fail. As a result, before you start, make sure you have
install/recovery media for both GNU/Linux and Windows 7.
> My concern is that just sticking the SSD into the new hardware will fail
> because it is not the hardware environment that the SSD “knows.”
The SSD doesn’t know the hardware environment - it’s the other way round: the BIOS knows the hardware environment
including the attached drives. If you attach a new hard drive to a free SATA port, your BIOS will pick it up so long as
that port is enabled in the BIOS.
> Perhaps, I should install the SSD and run the Tumbleweed install disc to
> get the SSD running? I don’t know what that will do to the current Win7
> install that is on the SSD.
Make sure Windows 7 doesn’t mount any partitions outside its own SSD at boot time. If it doesn’t, Windows 7 should cope
well with any device changes. However, moving a Windows 7 SSD from one computer to another is potentially hazardous
because it’s encumbered with DRM (such as WPA).
> Not sure I care! Every time I have to use
> Windows, I want to scream! Still, it would be nice to be able to have a
> dual boot that starts up fast.
When you bought your computer, your bought Windows whether or not you wanted to. As a result, you are perfectly entitled
to use it alongside any GNU/Linux operating systems you install.
The cabling and tiny screw were a pain, but I installed the SSD. It is recognized as sdb. Win7 is at sdb1 and Opensuse 42.3 is at sdb5. When the pc boots up, GRUB shows all four OS.
I selected 42.3 on sdb5 and it tries to boot but fails. The screen with the triangle and 3 dots comes up for several minutes then changes to a black screen with only a cursor showing. The cursor moves but the pc is otherwise unresponsive. I have to press the power button to reboot after waiting many minutes, pressing ctl-alt-del and even ctl-alt-backspace with no response. Oddly, Win7 on sdb boots normally, except for the screen resolution (which I corrected) and the fact that I can’t connect to the network. That is probably operator error.
I didn’t try Win7 on sda, but I am posting this having booted to Tumbleweed on sda. I see no reason to keep 42.3 and am inclined to install Tumbleweed via disk into the existing 42.3 partition; overwriting it. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, please post. Alternatively, I might install LEAP 15 on sdb, in place of 42.3. However, I can’t think of a compelling reason to do so, since it will be the fastest boot-up and will likely be my main OS going forward. I’m happy to have Tumbleweed as my main OS with a fast boot on an SSD.
In that case I would install Tw on the SSD. keep the old one for a while and when definitely no longer needed, re-use it for something else. Mind to run the YaST Bootloader module after reclaiming the space, otherwise the 2 old entries will show up in GRUB
It wasn’t an easy path, but I have TW installed on the SSD sdb6. I don’t understand why it went to sdb6 when I told it to use the LEAP partition, which was sdb5. Just a curiosity. I don’t really care.
I want to keep the SSD for the OS only. I can access my docs through Dolphin on sda. Is there an easy way to run programs from sda when I am booted to sdb? I run BOINC in the background and I would like to keep it running on sda. After that, I mostly use Chrome for web browsing and LibreOffice. Can I; should I, keep running programs installed on sda.
I just realized I am using the wrong terminology for this. I simply want to keep my small SSD for the Linux and Win7 OSs; keeping whatever programs I can on the larger, slower, HD sda. I guess what I am asking is how to let TW on the SSD know where to find stuff.