Dual Boot Ubuntu 11.04 w/Windows 7

If you don't really need ubuntu to be installed in a separate partition,
Just install it using wubi. It has no problems & works fine.

For this setup.
Install windows first,
Run wubi from your ISO of ubuntu (If it is not there download wubi from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/windows-installer).
select drive to be installed to, size of installation ( 8GB would be fair for normal use ), select user-name & password.
Click install. Wait for few minutes.
It will restart completing installation & you are done installing.
This will work.
You can even give a separate partition, dedicated to ubuntu installation.

What exactly does Wubi do? Does it just install Ubuntu like a program and I have to load Windows everytime to use it? My intention for Ubuntu on my laptop is so that I can quickly load an OS and be on my way, I like using Windows for certain things, but sometimes I don't have the time to wait for all those damn processes to load. My desktop has an Asus P7P-55D EVO board in it, which has "Express Gate" an OS that loads in like 10 seconds so you can quickly browse the web for information, phone numbers, facebok, whatever. That is my intention with Dual Booting Ubuntu 11.04 w/Windows 7.

@Arth - Also, your response was not an answer to the question, simply a work around but not a solution to the problem. If all else fails I may have to definetely use that option, but then what's the point of using Ubuntu if I still have to wait for Windows to load everything?

Thanks though,
Christopher

Wubi installs everything into a file on your Windows filesystem, and adds an entry to the Windows boot loader to start it. It categorically does not require you to boot into Windows in order to start Ubuntu.

Regarding your original question, I expect that we'd need to see installation logs to figure out why GRUB is not being properly installed. I wonder if GRUB is accidentally being installed to the USB disk instead of the hard disk; if so, that would be fixable with 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc'.

No no no......
You got it wrong.
You don't need to boot windows just to start ubuntu.
In simple words, it just will be the thing you want.
You will get option to choose ubuntu at boot screen.
The main difference is that GRUB will not be your default boot loader. Windows will use its loader.
GRUB will be loaded after you select ubuntu from boot screen.
It will serve your purpose. It is same as installing it alongside windows except it will be booting from a large file as its partition (its called loopmount).
It has very minor difference in disk performance (less than a percent) as it has to go through fragments of huge file in actual NTFS file system.
But it will work as fast as it can in normal scenario.
Try it once & you will love ubuntu,
Just because of wubi, it has the easiest way to get it installed & uninstalled.

Thanks for the update Colin Watson, I will have to give that a shot. Unfortunately I think the main complication with dual booting Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows 7 is the "Recovery Console". This 100MB partition that Windows 7 Pro-Enterprise creates upon installation, I think that may be what's causing the malfunction.

I'm currently working on removing/deleting that partition on this new installation of Windows 7, then I'm going to install Ubuntu and see if that possibly works. If that fails to correct the situation, I may have to just give up and use Wubi to utilize Ubuntu.

The problem is, Windows isn't known to be to secure, so if my Windows Installation gets hacked in any way/shape/form, I do not want the person to have access to all my Ubuntu files/information, I don't even want them to know that I'm running Ubuntu. I don't know if there is any security in using Wubi. Please advise.

Thanks,
Christopher

@ Arth - that actually sounds like the best option at this point. I'm going to do one final round of The Installation Game~! and give Wubi a shot~! Also, anyone know how to move that sidebare in Ubuntu 11.04 to like the Bottom so it resembles a "mac dock" rather than having it glued to the side there? That's also annoying, I've tried Compiz Settings Manager, that didn't do anything, and maybe making that box that covers half my screen a little smaller when I click on the "Ubuntu Logo" aka "Super+a", that box?

@Arth - Wubi install only allows me a maximum of 30GB for installation space, any way of reshaping this or making it larger at a later time/date? 30GB is not a whole lot of space, that's like 1/10th of my music collection alone, not to mention movies and pictures and other such files. Granted this is for a laptop with 320GB space, I still think 30GB is way too small to store information on. Please advise.

Thanks,
Christopher

You will probably need cairo dock to be installed for mac-like doc
& select ubuntu classic(at bottom center) while logging in, This will log you on to old ubuntu gnome desktop instead unity.

There are lot more option in ubuntu, than any non linux os, to personalize the appearance (search "ubuntu dock" in images.google.com to see exciting docks.).

No.. You don't need to create a copy of all your music collection in ubuntu.
When you install ubuntu with wubi, it will mount your current(windows) drive to the /host/ folder in ubuntu.
So you will be able to access all your files in windows partition (Even if you can't access some from windows itself) from ubuntu.
One thing you shold know is there is no direct method to access files in ubuntu installed with wubi.

That's awesome~! Windows and Ubuntu are finally working together with the help of Wubi, so now I just need to go through the hassle of installing all my updates for both OS.s now. Thank you everyone for the support in this mattter, don't know why Ubuntu now needs help of Wubi to install properly, but nonetheless I'm glad it finally worked, now I can actually get back to enjoying my system. Again, thanks everyone~!

Thanks,
Christopher

There's no practical difference in security against Windows-based attacks between a normal Ubuntu installation and Wubi. A person with administrator privileges in Windows could in principle access either, although it would be pretty hard work in either case since Windows doesn't have any of the tools required to read Ubuntu filesystems.

I acknowledge that the recovery partition looks like a tempting reason for problems, but I'm not aware of any actual problems installing GRUB related to this and I can't think of a plausible mechanism. (FWIW I have a test system with Windows 7 and Ubuntu installed side by side with no problems.) On the other hand, I definitely can think of plausible mechanisms for problems related to installing from a USB stick.

If you want to isolate Windows in a sand box, and don't need 3D graphics, you could plan to install Windows 7 in a virtual machine hosted by Ubuntu. This virtual machine will allow you to make snapshots, so you could go back in time before Windows was infected.

@ Colin Watson - I ran out of burnable CDs because every time I tried to burn the ISO image of Ubuntu 11.04 to a CD, it would never boot, or it would boot then freeze during installation, or it would boot get through installation and crash on restart, so I just assumed it was something with the burn process and created a USB stick after running out of CDs...LOL I'm going to get more CDs and try burning the ISO image inside my currently running Ubuntu 11.04, then maybe I won't have to use Wubi and be restricted to 30GB for Ubuntu.

Will keep everyone posted,
Christopher

Did you MD5 the ISO image: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM ?
You can also check CD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck