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.
From a technical perspective I’m curious - how would they know a drive has been added without physically inspecting the laptop?
Microsoft system administrators have full access to any physical device information, this includes a report on new internal devices or changes. Your company may not be so serious about security, but why on earth are you willing to risk your livelihood on this?
Not just Windows sys admins … I have this access to MacBooks, tablets, and phones in my company.
Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android … If it’s in use in an enterprise environment that knows what they’re doing, they have full access to the device.
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.
Quite interesting. Thank you for the information!
Intel IME can snitch on this kind of thing. Completely independent of the OS too.
CPU/BIOS-level system management engines such as Intel IME/vPro or AMD Secure Technology give device access to IT even if the OS is replaced or the system is powered off.
If your IT staff isn’t utilizing that technology, then when you boot into a corporate-managed OS, they can see any hardware that is currently connected to the system.
If they’re not doing any monitoring at all, you’re fine (but the viability of the business is in question). If they’re doing OS-level monitoring, stick with the USB thing and leave it unplugged when booted into the corporate OS. If they’re doing CPU-level monitoring, you’re already likely flagged.
If you’re unsure how much monitoring they’re doing, attempting to find out may also be a resume-generating event (RGE). Cheers, and good luck!
I’m glad you asked, people provided some great answers.
Good rule of thumb is just don’t mess with company property at all, cuz they’ll know. For example I simply turned a wall TV on one weekend so my skeleton crew had something to do, and I was asked why a few days later. If it’s electronic they can track it.