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How to upgrade a Thinkpad T23 (2647-3RG) from Win2000 to Linux (SuSE 8.0 or RedHat 7.3) 


Disclaimer: all work performed by the user at his/her own risk

    • This is for a multi-partition, double-boot system (eg if you want to keep using dictation under Windows and later exchange documents between the Windows and Linux versions of OpenOffice - www.OpenOffice.org)

     
  • Get an EZ-Gig hard disk transfer kit from www.apricorn.com 
    • (available from sales@drakecs.co.uk); the cable is the important part - you will not need the software
  • Get a new hard disk (www.ibm.com has installation instructions; sales@drakecs.co.uk provide HDs with caddies along with the Apricorn cable and software;  the original HD cover is available from IBM - useful but not absolutely necessary)
  • Get the Acronis OS selector programme (www.acronis.com)
  • Get the Acronis Trueimage programme for Windows (www.acronis.com)
  • Create a boot CD using the Acronis OS selector programme
  • Format the new HD as FAT32 using the Acronis OS boot CD
  • Create a partition image of your original Win2000 HD, ideally on an independent backup HD, and deploy from there to new HD using the Apricorn cable (you will need two of those if both external hard disks are connected via PCMCIA; do this before you deploy (from an Acronis image using the Apricorn cable) or install (from a boxed CD set) the Linux partition(s)
  • Use the Acronis OS boot selector programme boot CD (you've created) to install this programme on the new HD
  • Create at least one FAT32 partition for exchanging data between Windows and Linux (this partition will be readable from 'both worlds')
  • Create a 1GB Linux swap partition and a 4-6 Gb ext2 partion for Linux as hda4 (this is for SuSE, RedHat requirements are somewhat different; I prefer SuSE as it recognises the data exchange partition automatically)
  • Install Linux from CD; chose the Lilo boot loader and hda4 
      You can later deploy such a Linux partition from an Acronis partition image to a different HD using the Apricorn cable (the bootloader configuration will need to be recreated in this case after booting up using the manual installation function of the SuSE installation CD and then Yast: "restore original boot loader configuration")
       
  • The Acronis OS boot selector will recognise the different partitions and operating systems
  • VMware 3.2 and a Win2000 guest operating kit work nicely with the SuSE 4GB kernel (2.4.18) and installation of a network version of PegasusMail 4.01 on the data exchange partition (see above) allows running PegasusMail as an e-mail program (in parallel to KMail) alternatingly in both "worlds" while sharing the same (!) mailbox


Additional points

    • Price tag for the non-GPL software mentioned (academic band, excluding HD): appx. £350
    • Recommended HD size: 40 GB
    • Data safety: excellent, images of all partitions can be stored on normal CD-Rs
    • Time required for upgrade (including writing of disk images): 1 working day