Linux, XP and R&R questions

I am about to install Linux (most probably Fedora Core 6) on my brand new Z61m. I want to keep the preinstalled XP and the Rescue&Recovery functionality. I have googled for a while to see what people are saying about such a setup and problems they encountered. I still have some questions to ask though.

1. Let say I will allow grub install on the MBR. I understand that I will loose the ability to boot the R&R by pressing the ThinkVantage button at start-up. Will the R&R work as it should when booted from grub?

2. I plan to have a prtition layout similar to:

• XP (shrinked original primary system partition)
• an extended partition containing:
  • NTFS "data-partition"
  • Linux / partition
  • Linux swap
  • Linux /home
• R&R partition

Do you see any problems with the above layout? Will everything work just fine (including the ThinkVantage button) if I installed grub on the BR of the Linux "/" partition instead of the MBR and boot via NTLoader (changing its configuration accordingly)?

3. What if I ever try to restore XP using the R&R - will it allow me to format just the XP system partition or it wil wipe the whole drive to restore the original partition layout?

All the best
Wiesiek

 

Installing GRUB to your MBR will most likely break the R&R partition entirely - you won't be able to get to it by using the Access IBM button or by booting it up from GRUB. This was my experience when I installed Ubuntu beside my Windows partition, at least. There are solutions to this, however; take a look at http://www.thinkwiki.org for ways to restore the functionality of the R&R partition.

I can't really help you with your second question, but as far as restoring the default operating system from the R&R partition goes, I don't think it will let you restore just the XP partition, but I'm not at all certain. Last time I tried to use it, I think I found something about choosing which partition to restore on in a help file, but it's never given me an option as far as I can recall. Things may also be different if you're restoring from a backup, which I've never done.

One word of advice, though: before putting Linux on your machine, make sure you've burned the Recovery CDs and put them in a very safe place where they can't possibly get scratched. Making some extra copies would be a good idea too. I tried restoring XP from the CDs I'd made, and because of one tiny scratch on one CD, I've been stuck using Ubuntu for the past month. It's not horrible, but not being able to use an operating system I paid for because of some miniscule little scratch is irksome.

 

To avoid wasting hours and hours of your time, my suggestion is to use install Linux on VM. You won't run into any of these problems that way.

 

Thanks a lot! I have been looking for the answers to my questions at ThinkWiki but did not find any "stright answer". That's why I am trying to make sure I understand the consequences of installing Linux on my machine. Unfortunately I need XP for the Photoshop work I do when I am away from my main machine. Thank you once again for your help!

Wiesiek