So, if I get an SSD to put in my Lenovo T430's optical bay, will I be able to boot into Windows from that extra drive?
There is a ham radio email app that has only been written for Windows, though some Linux ports have been attempted.
The program is RMS Winlink. I've tried to use WINE, but it is too much work for my elder head.

I was about to say no, it won't even fit, but there are people selling adapters on Ebay.

So, physically the SSD can be connected this way. Next question, can you boot Windows from it. I am a complete noob but since I am interested as well, I did a web search and stumbled upon https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...efi-gpt-system. So yes, you can.

Personally, I would try this with a virtual machine. Use VMM, Virtualbox or VMware to create a VM, install Windows on it from an ISO file or DVDROM, and off you go. You can run your HAM radio program while benefitting from Linux at the same time, and no reboot is required.

To run Windows in a VM, I would recommend 16GB RAM in your Thinkpad. In my case, I also had to apply this little trick https://askubuntu.com/questions/1033...indows-10-1803 to prevent the Windows VM from using all the CPUs (it's distro-agnostic - I have Fedora).

Many laptops have stock choices for those bays. If the OEM did provide a hard drive choice in that bay I'd think you could boot to it. However we may need to know if the optical was ide or sate. Hard to find ide ssd's anymore.

Does the laptop have windows on it already or do you have some version for it? Almost any windows version could run for some time even if you get the iso from Microsoft. I have virtual machines of many versions of Windows for various tasks.

I don't tend to have the luxury of 16Gb but the more the better. Check the minimum hardware requirements for the version of windows you wish to try to decide how well a vm will work.

The T430 I am getting has a copy of Win 7 on it now, and I could put the Linux SSd from my old T61 into the Ultra Bay and choose the Win 7 already installed, at boot time?

I'd guess a hal issue would cause an issue unless the systems are almost identical in every way.

Still depends on if the laptop will support the exact slot you are trying to move.

Hi,

Checking specs for the T430, it shows that the CD/DVD bay supports SATA. I would check for a carrier for that SSD to mount within the bay.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

if you find the hardware to fit it then yes if you are dual booting, grub will pick it up, or if the bios allows booting from your secondary drive bay, or both.


9.5mm SATA Optical Bay HDD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo T420s T430s T410si T420si

this is the same type of caddy I use for my HP laptop.

Thank you BW-userx!