Hi
@Girishhere, and welcome! I have an Acer netbook that seems similar to your Ideapad... it has an Atom N455 CPU and it came with 1 GB of RAM, but I've upgraded my to 2 GB (a bit tricky as I had to remove the keyboard to get access to the RAM). So anyway, this little netbook that I have is 64-bit, and yours probably is also. It doesn't matter if your Windows is 32-bit... companies often put 32-bit Windows on 64-bit computers (it must have saved them a little money).
The memory is your biggest trouble with the Lenovo, but you can get some Linux distros to work... some may be better than others. Your Dell will have an easier time with Linux with 3 GB of RAM. If the Dell is in better working order, use it to make the USB so that you can install onto the Lenovo. You'll need a special program that will put the Linux .iso file on the USB for you and make it bootable. There are dozens of instructions on the web to explain this process...
here is one you can check out.
If you downloaded the Cinnamon edition of Mint, I think I'd suggest that you skip that one because it needs the most computer resources of their various choices. The XFCE or MATE editions of Mint would be a better try, but they may also be a bit sluggish on the Lenovo. But if you want Mint, you can certainly try them out for awhile to see how they perform. Creating the USB for Mint is the same as described above for Ubuntu... and for pretty much any Linux distro.
When you have the bootable USB ready, you can boot the Lenovo on it and run it in "live mode" without installing to test it out a little first. Make sure it sees your wireless internet, and that your sound works. If all is good, you can go through the installation steps and tell it to "erase disk and install Mint" and this will erase your Windows (it will be gone for good... be sure you want this). There are dozens of instructions on the web for this process too.
Here's an example you can follow. But don't get off into the "Something else" partitioning.... stick with "erase disk and install Mint" if you're ready to abandon Windows for good. Also do not choose LVM or any encryption check boxes. And write down your password! Or be sure you remember it!
Once you have it installed you can get a true feel for how Mint works on the Lenovo. If it seems too slow, a few other distros I would recommend to try are
Peppermint OS,
Linux Lite, and
Lubuntu. These may all perform a bit better than Mint as they probably use a bit less computer resources. There are even more distros than these that would also run okay, I think. Installing any Linux distro follows pretty much the same steps as those outlined above. Once you've done this a few times it will become a lot easier... and it will make you more comfortable to then tackle the Dell when the Lenovo is working well again.
Just my two cents for this morning.
@arochester and
@wizardfromoz will also have excellent advice for you, and maybe some other folks will jump in as well.
Cheers