Thinkpads Forum

Finally ordered my s10 10 min before.
And as a loony i am, started looking for fresh install guides.

I remember bookmarking and learning par coeur the great tutorial i found here for re-installing win XP on X41, even weeks before i received my x41.

Now after 4 years i'm on the same mission.

So, (i have not seen such topic on this small sub category);
is there anywhere else to look for such a tut,
do you guys have one lying around easy to explain/write,
should i follow the same old instructions for x41,
or,
is there no hidden partitions, junk software and such to make this operation unnecessary (i highly doubt it).


man i'm glad i finally ordered a netbook, and its ibm (kinda), pheww..


cheers

Ok, no one have any idea about this than, so, on to my next question;

How or if can one use S10 or any other laptop as external hd?

Lets see what you gonna say about that..

cheerio

I don't have one, but I do know there is a recovery partition. I doubt there's much bloatware.

As far as fresh installs go, easiest would probably be to remove the HDD and plug it into another computer, repartition the drive into one partition rather than two, make it bootable, and copy the i386 folder from the XP CD to the HDD.

Otherwise, you could use an external CD Drive, a flash drive, or some other bootable source. Well, I suppose this would be easier. But if you don't have an external CD drive, the above method works if you don't want to buy one.

I have a China Spec S10, and I have installed a Mtron 32GB SSD (previously in my HP2133)

The original s10 80GB drive was partitioned by the factory into something like C:-32Gb, D:-32Gb and hidden recovery - 16GB. ( as best as I can remember)

I used Acronis to copy the drive proportionally, ending up with 12, 12 and 6.

Then using Easius Partion Manager (Brilliant tool) I blew away the hidden drive and increased the C & D to suit. ( I use an external back-up method, and the S10 is not used to store any critical data)

I hope that info is useful

There is no reason to do a fresh install on an S10, unless it is a Linux model and you want to switch out OS's. The XP load from the factory is VERY trimmed down compared to every other Thinkpad factory build I've seen. I'd even go as far as to classify it as Spartan. In fact there is no Thinkvantage, and I beleive the only Lenovo applications are power management and one button recovery. The only way I know of to use another machines drive is to share it over a LAN. Google for more information.

When I handled one in a store it did not have the burdened feel of other more powerful laptops, making it easily as peppy as most of them.

So I would agree with Harry that if you are going to use the stock HD there is no reason to do a reinstall.

I am interested in the same info for replacing the drive with a 500gb drive.. Is there a nice place to go to see the maximum capabilities of this laptop? Will it run a 500gb drive, 2x 2gb ram?

I just received my unit Friday but was and kinda still is, very sick to play with it or even surf for replies..

Its a nifty little thing.
Kb layout is looking fine after 10 mins., maybe except that right shift key, otherwise i do not see it will causing any problems to a former thinkpad user. Maybe a little getting used to for more than size 11" owners..

While opening, closing and adjusting the angle of the lid the screen flickers, that would have never happened on x41, but with almost 1/3 price tag, i guess that's expected too.
However the fan noise might get on my nerves in the future.

Now on to the replies;
I think i'm just gonna plug it in to my pc with a dvdrom and see what happens. One of the reasons i have bought s10 was to use it as a portable hd, and if i cant make it work that way, after a lot of offs and puffs, i might end up buying an external cd/dvd rom. But i do not see why it shouldn't..

Harryc, you have mentioned that the xp is very well trimmed.
Well thats a start, but its not the Os i'm worried about, even if you load everything it will be 10ish gig max, but the other software that comes with the built in sys (sticky norton)
And as was was suspecting, after i booted up, what do you see, from my original 160gig there were only 96gig to play.
Dont know about you but this is not even in my wildest dreams of wastable hd space..

i mean my x41 had 40gig and thinkwantage, xp and other bloatware were only occupying 15ish gb at first boot up, and i couldn't bare it for 1 day, how can i stand to that extravagance.

I have read somewhere that you can use the C: drive (the one with "driver" folders in it) besides the big one too, but my only problem is not the space you see.. My shrink says i got some problems with this cleaning, neatness, obsessive compulsive issues, no surprise she made that discovery after hearing my formatmaker@..email (true story)

All the info i'm looking for is:
If i have an original xp cd,
an external dvdrom,
net connection,
another working pc lying around,
and a twisted mind;

How and where to collect the data to bring the S10 to factory state after clean install (such as making recovery cds before formatting or downloading all necessary drivers, self extracting and loading gizmos from the net)

How the unhide recovery partition if its hidden, delete recovery, C and D partitions and make them into one (if latter is basic xp, no need to explain)

As there are no thinkvantage kinda software update manager, how to install drivers, in what order. (first bios, than mb, than vga, than tpad, power manager, camera....)

And last but not least, how to reinstall factory state if its not easy as recovery cds plug n play..

Yeah, i'll keep surfing, but in the mean time if you encounter on such a thing don't hesitate to share the info (or link) here too, please

thanx for the input guys, much appreciated.