After reading about the major changes in the new GRUB2 I decided not to risk installing 10.04 on my then existing computer. It was set up to dual boot 8.04 and Windows XP, and since I was two generations behind on both of them (and the computer was old), I decided to start over from scratch with a new machine. So I threw some money at the problem in order to avoid bigger problems.
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 570 (~$500) which came with Windows 7 on a SATA hard disk. I also purchased another SATA hard disk (320Gb, ~$50). I opened the 570 and moved the SATA DVD drive from port SATA1 to SATA2 and the Windows drive from SATA0 to SATA1. Then I installed the new SATA drive and plugged it into SATA0 (the primary master).
Then I installed Ubuntu 10.04 from a live CD (downloaded previously from the Ubuntu site and installed on a CD). It installed on the new drive with no problems. Then, when I rebooted, the boot choice screen had entries for booting both Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7. Both worked as expected.
I assume that the Windows disk was not touched in this process and that I could go back to the original (shipped) configuration if I wanted to. I haven't tried this...
I hope this is helpful to you...
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