Samsung N150 Plus netbook for Windows and Linux
Quick look at the hardware
The N150 Plus comes with 10-inch screen, resolution 250 GB disk, 3 USB ports (one with "permanent" power), Fast Ethernet port, and VGA HD-15 port.
Initial view of the disk
2011-03-25. I first booted into a Linux installation system (it happened to be Fedora 14) and did Ctl-Alt-F2 just to view the layout of the netbook partitions as supplied. Note that Fedora 14 fdisk uses the -u option by default, so Start and End information is in sectors. I then mounted each partition read-only and checked the used space and contents. I then just rebooted without installing a linux system at this stage.
The partitions look like a Recovery Partition on sda1, a boot manager partition of exactly 100
MiB? (sometimes called the
BitLocker? partition I think) on sda2, a Windows C drive on sda3, and a D drive on sda4.
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 41945087 20971520 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 41945088 42149887 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 42149888 126035967 41943040 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 126035968 488392703 181178368 7 HPFS/NTFS
# df --si
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 22G 15G 7.1G 68% /tmp/sda1
/dev/sda2 105M 26M 80M 25% /tmp/sda2
/dev/sda3 43G 17G 27G 39% /tmp/sda3
/dev/sda4 186G 96M 186G 1% /tmp/sda4
# ls -l /tmp/sda1
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Jul 28 2009 EFI
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 15 2010 Restore
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 14 2010 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 8192 Aug 3 2010 SystemSoftware
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 8192 Aug 3 2010 WinClon
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Apr 24 2007 WinClon.WCL
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Jul 28 2009 boot
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 383562 Jul 13 2009 bootmgr
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 481680 Jul 13 2009 imagex.exe
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4292936480 Aug 3 2010 init.w01
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 1835910353 Aug 3 2010 init.w02
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4292991703 Aug 3 2010 init.wcl
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 25 Aug 3 2010 init.woo
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Sep 21 2009 sources
# ls -l /tmp/sda2
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4096 Aug 3 2010 BOOT
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 2 2010 System Volume Information
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 383562 Jul 14 2009 bootmgr
# ls -l /tmp/sda3
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 14 2010 $Recycle.Bin
lrwxrwxrwx. 2 root root 60 Jul 14 2009 Documents and Settings -> /tmp/sda3/Users
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 14 2010 Intel
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Jul 14 2009 PerfLogs
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 8192 Aug 14 2010 Program Files
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4096 Aug 14 2010 ProgramData
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 2047 Aug 14 2010 RHDSetup.log
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16384 Aug 1 2010 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4096 Jul 14 2009 Users
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16384 Dec 3 09:20 Windows
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 24 Jun 10 2009 autoexec.bat
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 Jun 10 2009 config.sys
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 1062518784 Dec 3 09:19 hiberfil.sys
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 1073741824 Dec 3 09:19 pagefile.sys
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 159 Aug 1 2010 setup.log
# ls -l /tmp/sda4
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 14 2010 $RECYCLE.BIN
drwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug 14 2010 System Volume Information
First Windows boot
I then booted the netbook, without a network. The netbook boots into Windows 7 Starter, asks for a few details: language, localisation, name of primary user and computer, initial Windows Update setting, and then goes into an Install process which takes 20 minutes. Then there's a prompt from Easy Partition Manager to choose relative C and D drive sizes. I chose the minimum C: drive size of 40 GB, making the D: drive 172 GB. This operation took about 1 minute, after which Windows was available. As the partition manager recommended a reboot, I did this straightaway. A process then ran called Easy Speed-Up Manager which took a bit over 15 minutes. Looking afterwards, the Partition Manager has converted the C: drive from exactly 40
GiB? to exactly 41
GiB? , which is an odd thing to do after I asked for 40, and the D: drive is 171
GiB? . See next section for sector counts.
Quick look after first Windows boot
Rebooted into a linux installation system again on CD, to see what's happened.
The Easy Partition Manager has converted the C: drive from exactly 40
GiB? to exactly 41
GiB? , which is an odd thing to do after I asked for 40, and the D: drive is 171
GiB? .
It has conveniently created an extended partition for us at sda4, which contains just one logical partition sda5: the D: drive (which is empty).
At a quick glance, again mounting read-only, partition sda1 appears unchanged, partition sda2 now has a BOOT/BCD.LOG file, and partition sda3 as the C: drive has been updated
(maybe to include new programs) by the first-boot installation.
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 41945087 20971520 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 41945088 42149887 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 42149888 128133119 42991616 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 128133120 488394751 180130816 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 128135168 488394751 180129792 7 HPFS/NTFS
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LawrenceLowe - created 25 Mar 2011