While I now have stopped booting XP after about 5 years of saying I would, it may pay just to create the recovery DVDs in case you want to sell computer & buyer wants Windows. Or, we see many users with that one application that does not run in Ubuntu and want Windows dual boot back. (Often with new hardware virtual install may be better, but you cannot do that with the OEM version.)
The vendor recovery DVDs are just an image of your drive as purchased. If you have housecleaned a lot of cruft normally included, run many updates with many reboots, and added software you may want a full back up.
Backup windows before install - post by Mark Phelps
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1626990
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Another suggestion by srs5694
Make your own Windows repairCD (not vendor recovery):
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/w...em-repair-disc
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1114725.htm
Then you can install Ubuntu or dual boot as you have the original software available just in case.
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