HELP: Difficulties creating a dual boot machine Vista/Ubuntu

[geomantic8]

Hi all,
I've created several dual-boot machines before, but I've never encountered a machine that will not boot from the Ubuntu live CD, nor the Ubuntu ISO loaded on a USB stick. This is a new T61p from Lenovo with Vista pre-loaded.

I've used the Vista disk manager to partition the disk. The first ~6Gb partition is dedicated to the Lenovo rescue & recovery resources, the second partition is ~78 Gb Vista, the third is ~75Gb unallocated. I'm beginning to think I need to blow away the Lenovo rescue & recovery, as I think it's interfering with the ability to install Ubuntu and the GRUB bootloader.

If I blow away the Lenovo r&r, can I safely reclaim the space by expanding the Vista partition? Or, can I use that 6Gb as swap?

Any suggestions? Thanks,
-g8

[Galaxer]

Why do not consider to install UBuntu as a virtual machine? Why do you need dual boot? It is a way far from safe and restore functions of the TP...

[aiiee]

as i said in answer to your question on the other site, use wubi. No partitioning necessary.

[GIFF]

I second using wubi.

Just run the cd (inside of windows), and select "install inside of windows".

Then select a few options. and your pretty much done.

Ubuntu will install inside of C:\ubuntu\

And now there will be a menu when you start up your Thinkpad just select Ubuntu and your ready to go! I love having the option to dual boot.

I have linux in the past but never could get used to it. But this Ubuntu distro makes everthing pretty easy, which is pretty much why I actually USE linux now.

[icantux]

You could always consider using EasyBCD (as a boot manager) and install a full copy of Ubuntu on your machine and still keep full thinkvantage functionality (using the blue button).

Only thing to keep in mind is not to install the grub bootloader to replace the MBR. Install GRUB into your /boot partition instead.

EasyBCD will do the rest for you.