Regarding Factory Restore Partition and Dual Booting

[drailing55]

Hi, I'm looking at buying a cheap T410 to dual boot with, but it comes with a "factory restore partition". I'm a bit of a noob to this all, but will that cause any issues with me attempting to dual boot some sort of Linux?

Thanks!

[MisterB]

I'm not sure the restore partition will affect dual booting other than occupying a primary partition and disk space but installing Linux will more than likely affect how the restore partition functions.

Installing Linux is likely to overwrite the mbr and disable access to the restore partition on boot up by pressing F11. If the T410 comes with Windows 7, there is a Lenovo utility to make a set of recovery disks consisting of 1 boot CD and 2 DVDs. If you make these, you can use them to completely restore the hard disk to the factory state complete with restore partition.