Installing Win 11 on separate drive on Win 10 T520

[freeagent]

Like others, I have a Thinkpad that doesn't meet the Windows 11 upgrade requirements. But if it could be installed, then hopefully the
W10 license transfers. Going to W10 LTSC adds a licensing issue.

This is my current setup:
Win10 on 256Gb mSATA C:drive with 96Gb free.
Data on 256Gb E: partition of 500GB SATA SSD. Second D: partition is formatted but unused.
16GB USB thumb drive formatted.
UltraBay can have 256GB 7200rpm drive, but not in place.

I saw this post in this thread. It seems straight forward, but before I screw up, have some questions!

Re: T430S won't install Windows 11
#5 Post by rojoblancojr » Mon Nov 11, 2024 1:07 am

Installing Windows 11 on Unsupported Devices:

1. Download Windows 11 ISO:
Go to the Microsoft website and download the Windows 11 ISO installer.
Does this just go to C:Downloads?

2. Extract the ISO File:
Extract the contents of the ISO file to a folder or a specific location on your device.
Does it matter where this is?

3. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
Search for "cmd" in the Start menu, right-click it, and select "Run as administrator."

4. Navigate to the 'sources' Directory:
In Command Prompt, change the directory to the folder named sources within the extracted ISO files.

Run the Installation Command:
Type the following command and press Enter:
setupprep.exe /product server

Start Installation:
Ensure your device is plugged in, as the installation may take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.
During installation, you may see prompts referring to Windows Server. However, once complete, it will be a Windows 11 installation.

What I am not sure about, is how to have the Win 11 installation get into drive D: and if that will be bootable without some other action. I used to have Win 7 in a similar partition and chose which drive to boot to using the T520 F12 key.

Using the Windows Server setup process bypasses checks for UEFI, TPM 2.0, and an 8th Gen or higher CPU, allowing Windows 11 to be installed on devices that would otherwise be unsupported.


My other thought was whether or not it would be better to create a bootable USB thumb drive and to disable the mSATA drive and install to the D: drive partition.

[freeagent]

Like others, I have a Thinkpad that doesn't meet the Windows 11 upgrade requirements. But if it could be installed, then hopefully the
W10 license transfers. Going to W10 LTSC adds a licensing issue.

This is my current setup:
Win10 on 256Gb mSATA C:drive with 96Gb free.
Data on 256Gb E: partition of 500GB SATA SSD. Second D: partition is formatted but unused.
16GB USB thumb drive formatted.
UltraBay can have 256GB 7200rpm drive, but not in place.

No responses yet. I guess activity here is low anyway and this is a busy time for many. Anyway, I have moved on. I cloned Win10 system from mSata drive to the spare partition on the 500Gb SSD. Chose that from BIOS and am able to boot using the new location. I will disable or maybe remove the mSATA drive and keep it as backup in case things go wrong or Win11 does not work well on T520.

I created a working folder on the data partition of the 500Gb SSD and extracted the Win11 iso there. I also have Rufus 4.6 there ready to go!

Now I have to decide whether to go with the method rojoblancojr posted or to use Rufus 4.6! Any suggestions welcomed! Probably get to this later this morning.

[TPFanatic]

I give up on windows 10/11. Its a multifacted marketing scheme to encourage people to

1. buy new PCs they dont need
2. buy new hardware they dont need
3. buy new software they dont need
4. collect digital data to sell to advertisers
5. gives a window for producers to sell more crap

My p71 runs 10 only for maximum compatibility with rtx 3060 egpu so i can play with that.

Everything else is going back to DOS.

[freeagent]

Like others, I have a Thinkpad that doesn't meet the Windows 11 upgrade requirements. But if it could be installed, then hopefully the
W10 license transfers. Going to W10 LTSC adds a licensing issue.

This is my current setup:
Win10 on 256Gb mSATA C:drive with 96Gb free.
Data on 256Gb E: partition of 500GB SATA SSD. Second D: partition is formatted but unused.
16GB USB thumb drive formatted.
UltraBay can have 256GB 7200rpm drive, but not in place.

I saw this post in this thread. It seems straight forward, but before I screw up, have some questions!
Snipped

I used the method in previous post. It (server method) was the most simple of all the methods I had seen. No need for Rufus or any USB drive. I did clone my W10 system mSATA drive to a new partition, and removed the drive. If I reinstall that drive, I will be able to boot either W10 or W11. But so far W!! seems to work fine on this old T520!

[TPFanatic]

good for you I know that 11 is just NT 10 which is just NT 6 with more bloat. For giggles I tried 11 when it was first released on my R61 which officially supports NT 6. Just as the bloat of NT 6 made people go back to NT 5, the bloat of 11 effectively killed the machine and my desire to ever subject myself to its nonsense ever again.

I tolerate 10 Pro on my P71 and X230 because I effectively neutered about 60% of everything wrong with 10 Pro. The remaining 40% continues to rear its ugly head whenever I turn off my Firewall that I just give up trusting Big Brother Microsoft to keep the P71's best interests in mind and I will eventually put NT 6.1 or NT 5.1 on the X230 because I don't care anymore. I used to have NT 6.1 on the P71 and it worked great except for enjoying TB3 and my eGPU.