Hello,

We have been buying and deploying the T-series since the T430s. Our regular process was to maintain deployment images with bootable Acronis TrueImage. Starting with the new T470s, we have had incredible trouble with our deployment.

If we can get the computers to boot to the Acronis CD (using a USB CD drive), then it won't see the external USB HD connected in a different USB port. We tried switching to bootable USB thumb drive of CloneZilla, and the computer won't see the thumb drive no matter what BIOS settings I change (Secure Boot disable, Legacy Mode on, etc.). We tried removing the NVMe hard drive to use it without the laptop involved but cannot find an adapter that works for this drive.

We have had to set up a new WDS server simply so we can use PXE LAN boot (the only bootable alternative that works). Only problem there is that with the Sysprep limitation, we want to be able to clone the HD before running Sysprep, but we can't figure out a way that works.

I've never had so much trouble going from one generation to the next. Has anyone else had these issues with boot devices? Am I missing something?

I can't speak for the T470s, but I use Clonezilla all the time on my T470. The only difference is that I have an HDD and not an Nvme drive, which could indeed be the issue in your case. My BIOS is set to Legacy + UEFI, Boot Legacy first, Secure Boot disabled.  I find on various computers I sometimes have to try different things. Try the most current Clonezilla release, so the latest hardware is supported.  First try the Stable and Alternate stable Clonezilla releases on a USB stick using Tuxboot to install them.  Tuxboot was recommended by the developer of Clonezilla and usually fixes the non-bootable issue. If neither one works, try YUMI UEFI Beta (You can put both the Stable and Alternate Stable releases on the same USB stick). A UEFI bootable USB is sometimes required.  In yet other cases I have found that only older versions of Clonezilla will work with specific hardware. As I will also be installing an Nvme drive as soon as my bracket/cable arrives, I would like to hear back if any of the above resolved your issue.  Like you, I have found that no one has an external enclosure that supports "pcie" based Nvme drives, so I will need to image the HDD to the Nvme.

Hi pjc123,

Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply. I had tried Tuxboot with no luck yesterday. Today, I've been testing out YUMI UEFI Beta and enjoying it. At first, I continued to have no luck. Finally, I stopped using the pack of cheap thumb drives I was using and moved to a nicer SanDisk and suddenly the T470s sees it as a boot device. So the combination of your suggested BIOS settings, better quality thumb drive (FAT32), and created with YUMI UEFI Beta (Clonezilla AMD64 stable) is working so far. It really does seem like these particular NVMe SSDs are taking us into uncharted territory with limited 3rd party support. I think we'd have a much easier time with HDDs, but it's hard to go back to the slower performance.

Great to hear and thanks for the info.  For USB drives I switched a while back to Sandisk Ultra for everyday storage and Sandisk Extreme for high performance, like when running Linux from them. I have like 6 of them and never suffered a failure. Also, I keep a stick around with YUMI regular (BIOS) in addition to YUMI (UEFI).  I keep various Linuxes installed on each so I can fix new as well as very old computers.

I know this may be a silly question  - how do you disable the UEFI and Secure boot in the T470s?

Thanks.

-John

@JonnyMordoc.

In the T470, those settings are in the BIOS.  Someone else will have to chime in if they don't exist on the T470s for some weird reason.