Install on Samsung Netbook NC110

[Packwood1]

I am ready to install Ubuntu 11.10 on a Samsung NC110 netbook, but reading other posts leaves me with a few concerns.

Here is my current Partition table.

Partition File System Label Size Flags
/dev/sda1 NTFS SYSTEM 100MB boot
/dev/sda2 NTFS WIN7 (C) 67GB
unallocated 5MB
/dev/sda4 extended 147GB lba
/dev/sda5 NTFS Data
/dev/sda6 linux-swap 4GB
/dev/sda7 ext4 13.68GB
/dev/sda3 NTFS SAMSUNG_REC diag
unallocated 5MB

I have created sad5, sda6 and sda7. All the other partitions were as supplied although I shrunk sda by 20GB to create space for Ubuntu. I want to install Ubuntu to sda7. However I do not want to disturb sda3 the Samsung recovery partition. This is accessed on Boot via the f4 key.

Reading various posts there seems to have been issues with the installation corrupting the MBR. How can I avoid this?

I started the installation and stopped at the step where it asks for the "Device for bootloader installation". What should I select here?

Has anyone succesfully installed Ubuntu on this netbook?

Thanks.

[zvacet]

Install Ubuntu on sda7 as you planed and I think right answer for device is sda.That way grub will become your bootlader.You will be able to boot both OS.

[Packwood1]

That was my initial thought.

However my concern is that making Grub the bootloader on sda will overwrite the MBR and then make sda3 (the Win7 Recovery partition, accessed through the F4 function) inaccessible at start up.

Thnaks.

[zvacet]

Grub should be able to see all partitions,but you can also try Easy BCD http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

[Packwood1]

Thanks, the EasyBCD solution worked fine. I put 11.10 on sda7 and Grub in the same partition. Just needed to create an entry with EacyBCD to provide the start menu for Ubuntu.