got my laptop

should i dual boot with vista? or should i just install linux and be done with windows? its an HP dv6810 lappy, and it comes with a recovery partition, so i figure if i run into any problems i'll be ok...should just go with linux mint?

 

i say go for it.

 

Go for it

 

its tough leaving windows, but i should be able to use the recovery partition if anything goes wrong....um, if i install using the "guided: use entire disk" option, will it override the recovery partition?

 

Yes it will, do not choice that option.

 

for some odd reason, my linuxmint recovery cd gave me some error, and then loaded but did not load a gnome or anything, so i restarted, and it wouldn't load windows, but i recovered my PC and i'm back...that was a little freaky there oh and it said it was going to use low graphics mode because it couldn't determine my card or something like that..it was really weird, considering i didn't have a problem using the live cd on my desktop

 

What was the error, when did it happen?

 

it happened right after the loading screen went away, i don't remember the exact error, except that it said WARNING: and that it wasn't loading something that it was supposed to.

 

And it screwed up Windows?

 

it said that some hardware config was changed, not allowing windows to load,i had the option of loading windows, or restoring. I restored.

 

Hmm, odd.
(filler)

 

yeah, i don't know if i want to try the live cd again, i could just make another one...i just don't know what the problem could be

 

It could be your CD, did you verify it?

 

I think you should copy that recovery partition before fooling much with Linux. Make sure you've got a backup in the event something really goes wrong during your install and you lose Windows.

 

Make sure you grab the key for Vista off your machine before you mess around anymore. Use magic bean finder or whatever it was called, if you google it you should be able to download it. If worst comes to worse you may need to use an actual Vista disk to reinstall since it might format the recovery partition.

What graphic card is the machine using? If its new it should be able to start with graphics in live cd mode. If things keep going wrong you might need to try out regular Ubuntu since sometimes they change things in Mint. Mint is a good distro but I've noticed it can be a bit quarky at times (like ubuntu doing things right off the bat and mint having problems doing the same thing like wifi cards and graphics).

 

yeah, im going to buy some new cd-r disks today to get my recovery disks, and I'll be sure to get my key. Also, my graphics card is older, Geforce Go 7150m

 

i have the key now. If anything happens, this key will work to reinstall a version of Vista? like i said i'll be burning some recovery cd's later.

 

Yup, it'll work 100%.

 

nice, i'll still get my recovery cds, and then i'll just get the ubuntu live cd, and i should be good to go

 

get cdrw just in case anything goes wrong

 

it wouldnt let me burn iso images(for linux) on cdrw, so i don't know if it will let me put the recovery stuff on there