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I am ready to make the switch to Ubuntu I think. Windows is nice, but it's time to assume control of my system. I have a Yoga 11s and am installing Ubuntu 14.04. Before I do though, in case anything goes wrong, I was wondering if Lenovo OneKey Recovery would still work if I have a different OS on my C:/ drive? There is a "recovery button" on my laptop (a little tiny reset button that you have to use a pen to activate.) You can re-install Windows 8 from this. However, I don't know where the install files for the button are located. If I wiped the C:/ drive and installed Ubuntu would the recovery button still work? Does it run off of the D:/ drive that came pre-installed labeled Lenovo? What I'm trying to say is (sorry for the rambling, just trying to give as much information as possible) if I install Ubuntu and screw up, can I back out easily?

Thanks in advance,

Gabe

Denthil
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  • They're usually stored on a partition labeled "Recovery", or "Tools". It could be that it's the "Lenovo" drive too. They won't be on what Windows sees as C:. Have you read at all into how to manually partition your drive during install? It sounds like the going that route is the best option here. Just to make sure that things are installing where they should and you're not risking anything with one of the auto methods. Although, I'm not sure if grub will mess with the machine's ability to boot into that partition. I'd wait till someone can clear that up. Anyone else have any insight? – amanthethy Aug 09 '14 at 00:57

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I always manually partition when I'm installing Ubuntu to make sure I know exactly what's going on. I recommend first shrinking your windows partition, generally labeled "OS C:" in Disk Management. Then start installing from your Live Media and follow this guide. Just skip "4. Free some space for Ubuntu" since you'll have already done that.

While in Disk Management you should be able to see a partition called "Recovery", "Restore", or "Lenovo". This is where Windows would be restored from.

The guide I linked to above is nice because it has screenshots. But here's a brief summary of what manually partitioning requires. Any specific questions please feel free to comment.

  1. Shrink the Window partition using Disk Management inside Windows by however much space you want to give to Ubuntu and swap (absolute bare minimum I'd say is 15GB).
  2. Boot your Live Media.
  3. At step 4 about operating systems, click "Something Else".
  4. Create a new swap partition in the free space. Making it the same size as your RAM is a good rule of thumb. But leave at least 10GB free for the next step.
  5. Create a new ext4 partition in the rest of the free space and mount it at /.
  6. Once the installation completes, if you can't boot into both follow this guide.
Community
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TheSchwa
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  • I was really looking to see if OneKey would work if I didn't have Windows period. Whether it could re-install Windows for me or not. I would prefer not to dual boot. – Denthil Aug 09 '14 at 04:01
  • Then all you have to do is delete the windows partition after clicking "Something else". As long as you have the "Recovery", "Lenovo" or whatever yours is called partition, I think the button should work. That's just my instinct though, if you really want a definite answer to that you should probably e-mail Lenovo. – TheSchwa Aug 09 '14 at 04:05
  • Well, thanks for the help. I think I'll email Lenovo. I can't vote up your answer, because I don't have enough reputation, but I'll mark it as solved. – Denthil Aug 09 '14 at 04:08
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When you boot from LiveCD, before doing the installation, run utility called GParted. It will show you the real configuration of your disk. Prbably you will see that Windows resides on two patition, not one (a 200Mb one and a big one) and that there is a recovery partition after them and before data partition.

Barafu Albino
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