Tweaking Lenovo IdeaPad S12

I bought Lenovo IdeaPad S12 for $400. This little laptop has 12.1" display, VIA Nano processor, 1GB memory and 160GB hard drive. It's shipped with Windows XP, but I want to install Windows 7 alongside XP, so as to have a dual-boot system.

Shrinking the Recovery Partition

I booted IdeaPad S12 with my own Linux Live CD. In Xterm, I typed the following command:

fdisk -l -u /dev/sda

I got the following output.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xee8a96be

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   217909247   108953600    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2       217909248   281638911    31864832    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3       281638912   312581807    15471448   12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda5       217911296   281638911    31863808    7  HPFS/NTFS

The last primary partition /dev/sda3 seems to be Lenovo's recovery partition. I was able to boot the recovery partition with the following GRUB commands:

root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
boot

Once I boot into Lenovo's OneKey Recovery System, I can use OneKey AntiVirus to scan the laptop for virus or use OneKey Recovery to restore the laptop to the factory state. I rebooted the laptop with my Linux Live CD. Then, I used GParted to shrink /dev/sda3 and changed its partition number to /dev/sda4:

1. Shrink /dev/sda3 to 6 GB.
   
2. Duplicate /dev/sda3 to a new primary partition /dev/sda4.
   
3. Remove the partition /dev/sda3.
   
4. Change the type of the new partition /dev/sda4 to 12.

After that, my partition layout looks like this:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xee8a96be

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   217909247   108953600    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2       217909248   281638911    31864832    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4       299997810   312576704     6289447+  12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda5       217911296   281638911    31863808    7  HPFS/NTFS

I restarted my laptop. I was able to boot Lenovo's OneKey Recovery System using the following GRUB commands.

root (hd0,3)
chainloader +1
boot

Moving Lenovo's pre-installed Windows XP to a logical partition

To reserve primary partitions for other crucial operating systems, I moved the Windows XP partition to the extended partition. This technique is explained in this post. Roughly speaking:

1. Shrink the Windows XP partition (/dev/sda1) by half using GParted. Space is created between /dev/sda1 (Windows XP, type 7) and /dev/sda2 (extended, type f).
   
2. Enlarge the extended partition (/dev/sda2) to the left. A space is created at the beginning of the extended partition.
   
3. Make a copy of Windows XP partition in the space of the extended partition. The new partition will become /dev/sda6.
   
4. Fix the partition numbers with fdisk (switching partition numbers of /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda5). Previously, /dev/sda6 came before /dev/sda5.
   
5. Fix BOOT.INI of the new XP partition (/dev/sda5).
   
6. Boot the new XP partition (/dev/sda5) in safe mode using GRUB or SYSLINUX. Change drive letters in the registry.
   
7. Reboot Windows XP (/dev/sda5) normally and remove the old partition (/dev/sda1).
   

Starting Windows XP with SYSLINUX

Recently, I switched to SYSLINUX. I created a 100MB primary partition (/dev/sda1) formatted with FAT16. Then, in Linux, I installed SYSLINUX.

syslinux /dev/sda1

A new MBR had to be installed, too.

install-mbr /dev/sda -v --drive 0x80 --enable +14

I copied chain.c32 from the SYSLINUX package to the SYSLINUX partition (/dev/sda1). Then, I copied NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI to the SYSLINUX partition (/dev/sda1), too.

I created a text file named SYSLINUX.CFG with the following instruction.

TIMEOUT 30
DEFAULT chain.c32 ntldr=NTLDR

This will let you boot Windows XP in a logical partition.

Installing Programs on Windows XP

I removed the following programs from factory-installed Windows XP of Lenovo S12:

• Symantec Norton Internet Security
  
• Diskeeper
  
• Veriface

Then, I installed the following software:

• Avast Anti-virus
  
• MyDefrag

Installing Windows 7 Home Premium

I created a new NTFS partition (/dev/sda2) using GParted. I set its bootable flag and hid all other FAT and NTFS partitions. Then, I installed Windows 7 Home Premium.

After that, I moved the Windows 7 partition into the extended partition as /dev/sda6. Then, I removed the original partition (/dev/sda2). I rebooted with Windows 7 installation DVD, clicked the Repair option and opened the Command Prompt. I typed the following commands to make the new Windows 7 partition bootable.

C:
bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /enum
bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set {default} osdevice partition=C:

Then, I added the following entry to SYSLINUX.CFG.

LABEL win7
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 6

To make sure that SYSLINUX can boot Windows 7, I typed the following command at the boot: prompt.

chain.c32 hd0 6

Now I am able to boot Windows 7 from a logical partition.

Booting Windows 7 with Software SLIC emulation

There are many ways to emulate SLIC so that Windows 7 can be activated. In my case, I've set up a boot sequence like this.

MBR -> SYSLINUX -> GRUB -> Windows 7

GRUB was patched for the loadslic command which is crucial for Windows activation. The SYSLINUX command to invoke GRUB is like this.

chain.c32 grub=stage2 grubcfg=(hd0,0)/win7.cfg

Then, I created a file WIN7.CFG with the following contents.

hiddenmenu
timeout 0
default 0

title Windows 7 Home Premium
loadslic (hd0,0)/lenovocb-01.bin
chainloader (hd0,5)+1