reinstalling on SSD, adding /home (and swap???) later, was: Safest way to resize windows partition before installing

[Liam Proven]

On Sat, 11 Jan 2020 at 22:41, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:
> 2) copying to the SSD the install already made on the drive does not
>    look the most productive option in my specific case, regardless of
>    metadata and similar:
>
>    a) working with the UBUNTU DVD from Linux Magazine gave me no
>       problems, and was a quick/painless process, no problem in
>       repeating it AFAICT

I'd probably agree. I think Ralf is too paranoid here.

OTOH, if it were me, I'd just download a fresh copy.

>    b) I configured/configured almost nothing on the HD post-install,
>    so I wouldn't have to recover anything on that front

OK

>    c) but I want to customize /modify the install wrt the first time
>    anyway, AND I have to create a swap this time, and remap the whole
>    / of the first HD install as /home

Bad plan.

Make a new home, migrate your data.

Ownership & permissions are issues and will ruin your day and maybe week.


> For all these reasons, reinstalling from scratch from the DVD to the
> HD, with different options, and then doing
>
>     mv /home/home/marco /home/marco
>     rm -rf /home/usr /home/bin /home/sbin etc etc...
>
> seems much more efficient overall. Or not?

Nah. Not worth the effort. I vote against this.

> The real issue at this point is this:
>
> Initially I had completely missed the fact that the T430 has this
> option. Don't know why.

Oh dear. Bad research. You should have asked.

> That's why I bought the 2.5" SSD, and the
> caddy.

Augh! :-(

> I need to have the SSD for the OS, and the HD for /home. I
> could send back the caddy and get an mSATA (which kind??? That's a
> separate topic though) for the OS, start looking around for RAM... and
> reuse the SSD in my desktop, something I was planning to do anyway
> after getting the laptop done.

Consult thinkwiki.org. Get the measurements.

It's what I did. Not hard. Beware, mSATA is not the same as NVMe.

> BUT: I am going for an SSD (and yes, more RAM as NEXT step) to make the laptop as fast as possible, but I read e.g here:

Ram is the easiest, quickest and cheapest part. Do not postpone it.

> https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/6k4zzl/t430_upgrades_msata_or_full_size_ssd/
>
> https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/Why-ever-go-with-SSD-over-mSATA-for-primary-drive-T430-T430s/td-p/854581/page/2

SATA 2 vs SATA 3 makes no material difference. You would not be able to tell.

This is nerd point-scoring for gamers, overclockers and other gullible
types with too much money.

> a) that the mSATA interface in the T430 is SATA 2, not 3, but b) the
> performance hit is not so noticeable in real world conditions, so just
> get an MSATA and be done with it

Yes, this.

> At this point, my questions have become:
>
> 1) what is your experience/feelings/advice wrt the mSATA being only
> SATA 2? How slower will it actually be wrt an SSD installed in the
> main bay, or in the caddy?

Nothing noticeable. Measurable with sophisticated benchmarking tools only.

Hint: never use these unless you suspect something is wrong. They only
serve to make you unhappy.

> 2) if going with mSATA in SATA2 slot, where to put swap? Still in the
> HD, I guess. No?

Yes, on the HD.


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