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I’m expecting delivery of an N150 Plus with 3G on Saturday. I’ll be installing Linux, but I’d like to be able to sell it on in the factory state. I’m going to try to get the Windows tax refunded.
Therefore I’d like to image the HDD in its factory state, i.e. before booting for the first time. I’d appreciate any help with the following:
Am I right in assuming that on first boot, a system restore partition is created, and a few bytes on the HDD changed so that this can only be done once (in the way of Thinkpads)?
Is there any reason I won’t be able to boot from a USB DVD drive, or USB stick (by changing boot order in the BIOS) BEFORE the first boot from the HDD, and thus clone the HDD in its factory state?
Any other info on N150 partitions, or tips from someone who has done this?
Just a thought… switch it on, let it do it’s stuff.
Then install a new HDD and stick Linux on it. (Sure, you’ll likely void the warranty, but…)
@__spc__ 107988 wrote:
Just a thought… switch it on, let it do it’s stuff.
Then install a new HDD and stick Linux on it. (Sure, you’ll likely void the warranty, but…)Well, to achieve what I want I could put in a new HD before letting it do its stuff… but I’m looking to do it more elegantly.Thanks though.
Phoenix BIOS in the one that makes such job unpleasant, because it detects and boots only devices which are “generic” pendrives.
Any other stuff like mass storages on cell phones or even integrated card reader are useless in means of booting.I’d simply recommend using Hiren’s boot cd (I prefer 11.0 restored edition) made bootable from pendrive, and use Norton Ghost for backuping entire hard drive.
You can save the backup file through network (either to a network share, or by connecting to other machine with Ghost running) or to some mass storage, but I don’t think it is a good idea.I wanted to get the pre-first-run backup, but got no classic USB stick. I recieved one long after, so I made a backup of already partitioned and installed Windows7, and then wiped out recovery partition and installed XP there.
I connected a Lite-On USB DVD drive, pressed F2 on first powerup, disabled HDD in BIOS boot sequence, set boot from USB DVD, and booted from Puppy Linux 5.2.
The partitions as from factory are as follows:
sda1, ntfs, label=RECOVERY, 15GiB(3GiB used), type 27
sda2, ntfs, label=SYSTEM, 100MiB(33.59MiB used)
sda3, ntfs, no label, 40GiB(15.42GiB used)
sda4, ntfs, label=TEMP_PART01, 177.79GiB(17.18GiB used)**(**EDIT: Probable mistake – I think sda4 from factory was empty, and that the 17.18GiB data here is my images!)
I am assuming that sda1 is a “recovery partition”, and not a “hidden protected area”, even though it is accessed by pressing F4 on boot.
I am assuming that the contents of sda1 expand to fill sda3 when the recovery process is used?
I am assuming that when one first boots from the hdd, sda4 is set up as the user data partition?
I then installed partimage, and made images of sda1, sda2, and sda3. These image files were written to sda4, then copied to my desktop pc.
Tomorrow, I will make images with dd, (belt and braces, you know).
I will post updates as I go.
simplesimon – Type 27 is a hidden partition Type 07 is unhidden.
My deduction is that sda4 becomes the D: drive after the C: to D: ratio drive split is determined by the setup process.
Sda1 Recovery contains 3GB which will be the Winclon (SRS) software.
Sda2 is the Windows 7 small 100Mb partition.
Sda3 could be the image which is transferred to the Recovery partition on setup?
Sda4 likewise, this could also be the image as well although it is strange that there is 15GB and 17GB on both Sda 3 and Sda4.Are these figures after you imaged Sda1 to 3 into Sda4 as that would explain the 17GB in Sda4. I would have expected Sda4 to be empty.
It would be interesting to know what the data contents are on the used portions on sda2 to 4.
Hope this helps
simplesimon – Type 27 is a hidden partition Type 07 is unhidden.
Yes, I meant “hidden” as opposed to “protected”, i.e. filesysyem marked as hidden rather than being “protected ” by the BIOS.
Sda1 Recovery contains 3GB which will be the Winclon (SRS) software.
I would think that it also contains the compressed files needed to install Win7?, though I could easily be wrong.
Sda2 is the Windows 7 small 100Mb partition.
The “SYSTEM” partition, comparable to the /boot partition in *NIX, I think? As this is the first visible partition, the BIOS boots from this when HDD enabled, right?
Sda3 could be the image which is transferred to the Recovery partition on setup?
I think this is your actual Windows installation. Before I ever booted from the HD, this had folders such as “Documents and Settings”, “Intel”, “Program Files”, “Users”, “Windows”.
The hidden recovery partition had 10.5 GiB used after setup, so I think you’re right that the contents of sda3 are copied to sda1 as “recovery” data.
My deduction is that sda4 becomes the D: drive after the C: to D: ratio drive split is determined by the setup process….
Sda4 likewise, this could also be the image as well although it is strange that there is 15GB and 17GB on both Sda 3 and Sda4.That’s correct. During setup, I was asked to decide how to divide the remaining space between C: and D:
The minimum size it let me set for C: was 40GB. Having done that the partitions as listed by fdisk -l were identical to the factory state described above (Though not the contents of course).
I thought that setup would “link” the “Users” data folders on C: to D:, so that all user data was on D:, but it hasn’t done so.
although it is strange that there is 15GB and 17GB on both Sda 3 and Sda4.
You know, I think you’ve almost certainly identified a blunder on my part. I think I must have already started writing images to sda4 when I wrote my first post! Sorry!
Anyway, I’ve made partimage copies of sda1, sda2, and sda3 after first setup, and I’m now taking dd images as well. Once I’ve done that, I’ll zap windows, install some sort of LINUX, and ask for the a refund of the “Windows tax”. There was no option to refuse the terms of the EULA. Swine.
Once I’ve played with it for a while, I’ll try to restore it to factory state and report back here.
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