Take heart - my experiences mentioned above did not involve serious surgery, and from previous forays into the Linux world I was able to emerge triumphant.
The challenges were getting the disk partition mix correct in the Mint installation, and installing the wireless driver for the new Ubuntu in my Lenovo S10. A few lines of command line work was required for this bit - based on some internet research where someone else had been there before and was kind enough to share.
I'm sure your installation will work out well.
FOR