Adventures with the Lenovo Ideapad S10-2 Netbook - Part 6

Moving Lenovo S10-2's Windows XP to a Larger Hard Disk
Drive and Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) Linux
as a Dual-Boot Netbook

As a guide to users of the Lenovo Ideapad S10-2 who wish to set up their netbook as a dual-boot Windows/Linux system, I outline the steps below:

1) Make sure that netbook is connected to AC power. Start Windows normally and defragment the current hard disk drive.

2) Create a backup of the current Windows XP using the OneKey Rescue (OKR) system - double click OKR icon on desktop and follow instructions. Do not exit OKR when the backup is done.

3) Create a recovery disc set from the backup image created in step (2) above using the OKR. Use an external DVD drive to create the discs on blank DVD's.

4) Once the recovery disk have been created, remove the last disc used from the DVD drive and then shut off the netbook. Disconnect the AC power and other periplerals from the netbook.

5) Remove the hard disk drive following the instruction given on page 55 of the User Guide (steps 1 to 9). Once the drive is removed, store it in a safe place. That drive can be used to revert to a Windows XP only system if required.

6) Install the new, larger capacity disk drive into the netbook following instructions in steps 9 to 16 in page 58 of the User Guide.

7) Re-connect the netbook to AC power and to the external DVD drive. Using a partition editor like Partition Magic or a Linux based utility like gparted (running from a Live CD like SystemRescue), use the utility to create a bootable NTFS partition (whose size is up to you), on the new hard disk drive. Make sure it is bootable, i.e., the boot flag is enabled - otherwise the soon-to-be restored Windows XP OS will not start properly. Once this is done, either reboot or shut down the netbook.

8) Ensure that you have the first disc - DVD or CD - of the recovery disc set in the external DVD drive and start the netbook. Press F12 while in the BIOS screen and select the external DVD drive as the boot drive. The netbook will bootup using tha recovery disc - follow the prompts once the OKR screen appears to restore the backup to the new hard disc drive. Once the restore is completed, restart the netbook normally and Windows XP's desktop should appear. If not, check whether you did follow step 7 - a bootable NTFS partition must exist before the restore.

9) If you already have created the Ubuntu Netbook Remix USB install media, then you are ready to start installing this on your netbook in the next step. If not, click here and read how to create a USB install media. Note that Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) Linux is only available as an image type file and not an ISO type file. This means that a CD cannot be created for this distribution. This is understandable since the majority of current netbooks do not have a built-in DVD/CD drive. So if you do want to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix Linux on your S10-2 netbook, you need to create the USB install media first.

10) Reboot the netbook with the USB install media plugged in. At the BIOS screen, select the USB thumb drive as the boot drive. Follow the instructions on the screen. You can either try out the UNR without installing anything (i.e., the UNR will run off the USB drive) or you can install the UNR by selecting 'Install Ubuntu Netbook Remix' when prompted during the start. If this is your first experience with UNR, I suggest you try it first without installing it to your hard disk. Even experienced Linux users is encouraged to try out UNR first - the GUI is different from the other standard GUI's like Gnome, KDE, etc.

11) Once you are comfortable with UNR and determined to install it to the hard disk, click (once!) on the Install icon. The Install icon is normally shown in the Favourites desktop (click on the Favourites icon on the left panel) or, alternatively, click on the Administration icon on the left panel, followed by clicking on the Install icon on the desktop. Follow the prompts that appears - choose language, region and city, and keyboard layout. Next the partitioner will start - you can choose the option of having the OS side-by-side (dual boot) and have the partitioner do the hard disk partitioning automatically. Alternatively, you can do a manual partitioning with your own configuration. Next, the user account screen will appear where you have to enter your username and password. Then, on the next screen, you can select whether to import anything from the Windows XP Home. The actual installation will start after the Next button is selected - this will take a while to complete.

12) Once installation is completed you are given a choice of continuing to use the current UNR (running from the USB media) or to reboot. If you reboot, the new bootloader screen will appear, from which you can either select UNR or Windows XP Home operating system.

You now have a netbook that let you have the choice of operating systems; the Windows XP Home or the Ubuntu Netbook Remix Linux. One important thing to note about this netbook configuration is that the OKR button on the netbook no longer function - it now behaves exactly like the on/off button. To carry out backups and restore functions, use a third-party utility. For example, use Acronis Home 11 under Windows - this utility performs all the function of the OKR system with the added benefit of not being tied to a particular setup. It will also perform backup/restore on the Linux partition(s). If you wish to perform backup/restore under Linux, there are numerous such utilities available - the choice is up to you.

Have fun with your dual-boot S10-2 netbook.