Using a windows recovery partition

[Jeat]

Hi, I'm looking to install Ubuntu instead of my current Windows Vista. When I bought my laptop it came with a recovery partition that will return my laptop to factory conditions (ie Windows). I wanted to know before I uninstall windows if this will still be usable in case something goes wrong?

Also, I've seen a few people mention /home partitions. What i got from some brief googling is that people recomend one partition in which ubuntu is installde, one for programmes to be installed in and another for files. Is this correct and if so how large should i make each of these partitions? (my hardrive is 160gbs?)

Thanks

[b2bwild]

I guess the recovery drive is around 10 GB, its nothing but a protected NTFS partion in Vista. If you are completely removing Vista remove your whole partiton table because this NTFS partion not worth to keep in Ubuntu.

You will need some basic partitioning on your PC.
which will have two partitions swap and / (root)

The size of your swap space should be equal to twice your computer's RAM or whichever amount is larger than memory inverse to increasing RAM size., but no more than 2048 MB (or 2 GB).

Rest all to / (Root)

Seperate /home if you want to isolate the space users can use from system. however it wont be needed until there are more than 4-5 users on PC.