I am currently using Ubuntu/Wubi within the XP partition in my X61s.
R&R backups so include the complete Ubuntu.

I would like to move to a standard installation with separate partitions for Ubuntu, and i am wondering about R&R, recovery partition, and backup strategy.

Easiest, quickest thing would be to use something like TrueImage to simply clone the HD to an USB disk, but from other mails in this forum is seems it doesn't always work (but from one post it seems it works if you fix the MBR on the cloned disk with the lenovo tool).
This also would allows the option of giving up the R&R partition and simplify the Linux installation.

What is your experience with backup/recovery with a double boot installation ?

Thanks
Maurizio

If you are looking to clone the disk or a partition, I've had good results with the clonezilla livecd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonezilla

maybe not the most optimal/hands-free but my preference is to use a gparted livecd (e.g. pmagic) and you can simply copy+paste partitions from one disk to another.

gparted will even attempt to get the boot record (whether it is grub or ntldr etc.) this part doesn't always work but most of the time it does. (this may be related to whether the boot loader is on mbr or on the first partition...)