Dual boot Linux Mint 12 and Windows 7

Hi!, i have a notebook with Windows 7 pre installed, i'm looking for some info about the dual boot and i don't wanna to kill some partition or something :P, so i'm reading this
linuxbsdos.com/2011/06/11/dual-boot-linux-mint-11-and-windows-7/
In that post says that is better to use EasyBCD to add a entry for Linux that installing GRUB in the MBR, because says something about some apps that write in the MBR and can "kill" the GRUB code... is that right?
And about the installation, i have 2 partitions in NTFS, one free and other with the Windows system, i will use that free space to create 3 partitions one with /boot, other with / and other with /home, is this a good approach?? Thanks!

Hello and welcome!

I'd recommend installing GRUB to your MBR unless you have some good reason for not doing so. I've been doing that ever since I moved away from using LILO as my bootloader (8 or 9 years ago) and have never had any problems with it, so I wouldn't consider doing it any other way.

The /boot partition is not necessary unless you have a reason for wanting your boot files on a separate partition. I've done it both ways with success, but currently don't bother with a separate /boot partition. I do like having a separate /home partition, however.

Good luck to you with your dual-boot project.

Thanks for the reply and the welcome :D,
I have a Samsung note, which comes with a recovery partition, i don't wanna lose the reference to that partition, because has drivers utilities and other stuff, so if i replace the MBR with GRUB, can i reference again the partition??, i'm doubting about that... Thanks!

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Originally Posted by LeonardoJegigzem

I have a Samsung note, which comes with a recovery partition, i don't wanna lose the reference to that partition, because has drivers utilities and other stuff, so if i replace the MBR with GRUB, can i reference again the partition??, i'm doubting about that... Thanks!

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I have no experience with that Samsung device so can't speak on it specifically, but back when I ran several different Dell computers they all had a recovery partition that never got corrupted by installing GRUB to the MBR. Hopefully another Samsung owner will chime in with some info for you regarding your particular notebook. Of course, if you have good backups on hand for your system and data, it won't matter what gets corrupted because you can do a system/data restore operation to quickly get right back to where you were.

I can't speak to what your specific computer may or may not do, but the HP I have includes an entry to boot to both the windows system as well as to the Recovery partition and I would expect Grub would do the same in your case. No guarantee? The only reason I can think to not overwrite the windows mbr is if you have a new computer with a warranty and do not have an installation disk for windows. If you ever have to return the computer to the manufacturer, it could be a problem if you have non windows software in the mbr.

That's true, is a new computer, and i don't wanna screw the system/recovery partition, whatever i will try the dual boot, after i had downloaded the drivers and backed up the system,
thanks for the help!