I currently have a Dell laptop that runs Windows for work. I use an external SSD via the Thunderbolt port to boot Linux allowing me to use the laptop as a personal device on a completely separate drive. All I have to do is F12 at boot, then select boot from USB drive.

However, this laptop is only using 1 of the 2 internal M.2 ports. Can I install Linux on a 2nd M.2 drive? I would want the laptop to normally boot Windows without a trace of the second option unless the drive is specified from the BIOS boot options.

Will this cause any issues with Windows? Will I be messing anything up? For the external drive setup, I installed Linux on a different computer, then transferred the SSD to the external drive. Can I do the same for the M.2 SSD – install Linux on my PC, then transfer that drive to the laptop?

Any thoughts or comments are welcome.

Edit: Thank you everyone! This was a great discussion with a lot of great and thoughtful responses. I really appreciate the replies and all the valuable information and opinions given here.

  • BetaDoggo_@lemmy.world
    8·
    11 months ago

    The drive is visible to the OS so if they have any kind of management software in place which looks for hardware changes it will be noticed.

    • StorageBOPEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Quite interesting. Thank you for the information!

      • EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website
        1·
        11 months ago

        The above alley woke to USB drives, which can get your abused of data ex filtration in the future.

        Only use your own devices for anything beyond a Google search or watching YouTube videos.