Please Help!

@fencritter: This is when you may run into problems with the hard drive controller mode. If the live disk cannot see your laptop's drive, you will need to change the controller mode.
 


@wizardfromoz Ah, ok. I have some thinking to do then. Would dual-booting cost me any operating speed? Like, would it slow down a bit?

Also, I can't honestly say I understand very much about specs. However, I believe I've found the model I own here -->https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptop...eries/Lenovo-IdeaPad-FLEX-14IWL/p/88IP8FX1271

I do know my laptop originally came with Windows 10 in S mode, so I had to switch it out of that. The one you sent looks like it comes with regular Windows 10?
 
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@LorenDB I was just looking at your earlier post (#18), and I don't have any external hard drive to back Windows up to. Should I get one before I proceed further? Also I just downloaded the dd tool you suggested. I'll try googling to see how to use it. Also, what does it mean to 'reflash' Windows? I hope I'm not missing any steps...
 
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(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, trips over a rig using Windows 10 in S mode, bats it out of the park)

Would dual-booting cost me any operating speed? Like, would it slow down a bit?

No - maybe a couple of seconds at bootup, recognising both OSes, but then within their own environment, no performance loss, just runs off the same hardware, the same RAM, at different times/sessions.

They do not run simultaneously, and to switch between them you reboot and choose the other, so no memory or other resources has to be shared.

Now, where are we? Linux Mint 19.3 Xfce, I get dizzy some days, going between distros. :D

The one you sent looks like it comes with regular Windows 10?

Quite possibly - I had not made the acquaintance of S mode before, now I am reading up on it, but I would defer to @LorenDB , who has both the same Lenovo, and had used S mode.

Also I just downloaded the dd tool you suggested. I'll try googling to see how to use it. Also, what does it mean to 'reflash' Windows? I hope I'm not missing any steps...

Hold off on dd for the moment.

I am just finishing running updates on a Peppermint 9, then will check something on the live Mint Xfce and be back asap

Wiz

(disappears again, more smoke, sets off the smoke alarms)
 
@fencritter: If you want to keep Windows 10, you'll need a 256 GB storage device of some sort to back up your internal drive to. By "reflash", I meant to restore the backup. Sorry for not being clear on that.
Your laptop appears to be a slightly different model than mine. Mine has an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor. BTW, we'll walk you through using 'dd' if you decide to use it. :)

@wizardfromoz: My laptop actually doesn't have S mode. As I mentioned above, @fencritter appears to have a slightly different model than I do.
 
Aah, I understand. Let me rephrase that @LorenDB is aware of S mode, where I had not encountered it until now :)

I am not sure that I would be jumping into using dd for this purpose.

If the OP installs Linux alongside Windows, Windows will not be deleted, and if anything looks like heading south for the winter, she can first and foremost generate a Windows Recovery stick, using advice from here.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive

If she needs to use the stick, then there is here

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

... if that works OK with the Lenovo.

All we need is to establish how much she has on Windows, eg 16 GB stick or 32 GB stick, perhaps more convenient than a separate drive - although additional storage never goes astray. :)

Wiz
 
All we need is to establish how much she has on Windows, eg 16 GB stick or 32 GB stick, perhaps more convenient than a separate drive - although additional storage never goes astray. :)
Remembering, of course, any personal files need to be backed up separately from the Windows Recovery drive.

The thing of completely backing up the whole drive was the method that I used and found to work.
 
So @wizardfromoz , I was just looking at my System Information, and the only thing I can see that says RAM says 'Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB'. Is this what you were looking for?
 
Remembering, of course, any personal files need to be backed up separately from the Windows Recovery drive.

Thanks, I do remember, but the Recovery stick also offers the option to use Windows Restore, so provided a Windows Restore Point has been set just prior to the operation, all personal files will be restored.

Clonezilla, using the Disk to Image or Partition to Image functions would likely be faster than dd, but it may only be a difference of an hour or so, not sure until we establish how much space is consumed by Windows 10.

...I was just looking at my System Information, and the only thing I can see that says RAM says 'Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB'. Is this what you were looking for?

:)Yes, thanks - that accounts for the use of the S Mode, perhaps, but 4 GB RAM is still fine for running just about any Linux, and Mint Xfce should get up and fly:)

@fencritter as I often say - you are the driver behind the wheel to the vehicle that is your computer, so you make the decisions.

1. If you want to go with installing asap, after which you can install and work with GIMP, then I will start to show you screenshots of how to run the install.

2. If you want to hold off a little and secure an image or clone of Windows, then I will tell you how to establish how much space is consumed by Windows currently and that will allow an educated choice of what to use to clone a full clone, or clone an image, and what medium to use to perform that to, whether it be a full new drive or USB stick of a particular size.

Cheers

Friday here in Oz, so

Avagudweegend, all
 
@fencritter: It appears that your laptop may be a slightly different model than mine. My laptop has 8 GB RAM, so there may be some slight differences between the two. However, I should be able to help you out still ;)
 
That's fine - you'll just need to get that drive, and then @LorenDB can walk you through it.

Cheers

Wizard
 

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