this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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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.

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[–] 520@kbin.social 66 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

Danger Will Robinson! Do NOT fuck with company hardware!

You are going to potentially set off a shit ton of alarm bells, and risk your job, by even attempting this.

First of all, almost all such devices come with a BIOS lock. You'd need to get the password before you could even begin this (again, do not do it!)

Secondly, they'll be able to tell something is up from the foreign UEFI entries.

Thirdly, if that doesn't expose you, Intel IME will. Doesn't matter what operating system you're running.

And you're going to create some royal fucking headaches for a lot of people in your company.

Let's start with security. Remember when I said you'll set off alarm bells? Well, I mean some mother fucking alarm bells. Security will have a god damn aneurysm over this, and they will believe you may be doing this to bypass security, possibly for nefarious reasons. A foreign hard drive with its own OS looks shady as shit.

Then there's the regular tech people. You're going to cause various headaches for them too. Not least because under many service agreements, the company itself may not be authorised to open up the workstations themselves. Many workplaces rent their workstations nowadays, and it is not uncommon to see this language in their SLAs.

Then there's the fact that the OS image on the original drive potentially cannot be trusted any more, so they have to wipe the fucker clean and do a fresh image install.

TL;DR, You are giving your company several solid reasons to fire you for cause by doing this.

[–] hellequin67@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

If I even tried to plug a USB into my laptop security would be down on top of me like a ton of the proverbial .... the same way that the only true way to be secure is don't plug into the internet the only way not to piss off corporate is don't f*ck with their stuff.

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