Flashing ? on Dual-Boot MacPro

I'm having an intermittent issue on a large number of our Mac Pro's. We have 96 Dual Boot Mac Pro's we use in a lab environment. When booting up some of these machines they hang at a grey screen (prior to the apple logo) for about 5 minutes. Then they eventually display a flashing question mark. To get around this issue we have been holding the option key and choosing the desired OS. This works as a temporary fix, but it's not a good long term solution.
Our Dual-Boot Setup is as follows: Dual Hard Drive
- HDD1 has 3 partitions
• Macintosh HD (Mac OS X Student Partition)
• Boot Partition (My Mac OS X Admin Partition)
• System Drive (Windows XP Student Partition)
- HDD2 has 2 partitions
• Student Drive Mac (HFS+ Data Drive)
• Student Drive PC (NTFS+ Data Drive)
40 boot automatically to Windows XP
56 boot automatically to Mac OS X
Resetting the startup disk in System Preferences seems to fix the issue temporarily, but never permanently. I haven't been able to diagnose specific machines having this issue more then others. They are all the same spec and same software build (imaged with ASR and WinClone).
Anyone out there have a solution?

none standard partitions. Having XP and more than one other user volume. There are a GPT and one or more hidden EFI (200MB and 128MB) also. So there are 5 or more partitions instead of just 4 that Windows Master Boot Record can handle, and it is last one.
I don't like having Windows and Mac OS on same drive.
Having data partitions on #2 drive is something I would always do.
My guess is that the Mac partition was original just one, and was then divided or shrunk to make for a 2nd partition which is causing trouble. Same thing happens if you shrink Windows partition to then have, say, XP and Vista or something.
Using 3 or 4 drives would make it all work easily, and WD Caviar 500GB $49 each or better are my first thought (just bought Black series and it is not as fast as 640GB model but still good).
Shame it can't be don't in VM and with hardware virtualization.
- just rebooted my Mac Pro to Windows 7 and it is about 45-60 seconds, or about the same as either of the PCs sitting here also running 7 RC - from on to desktop.

Similar Messages

T400s Linux/Windows dual boot with Linux from Esata Flash Drive

This project is about a dual boot Windows/Linux system without using the normal dual boot changes in the bootloader of the windows hard drive. When I started this I found bits and pieces of information on the web but no complete description so I wrote this post.
I have done a dual boot system on my previous Thinkpad where I had partitioned the hard drive between Linux and windows. For this project I wanted to leave the windows hard drive absolutely intact and unaltered, and boot Linux from a flash drive in the esata port on the back of the T400s. Obviously this uses the F12 boot list function key to boot from the flash. The advantage of this is that Windows is totally unaltered and when I need Linux, I plug in the esata flash drive, hit F12 during the boot cycle and select booting from the esata flash drive. The reason for Esata rather than USB is simply speed. I have a nice fast Linux installation.
I used the OCZ esata flash drive but suspect any of the alternatives will work. It did not need the accessory usb cable because the Thinkpad powered the esata flash directly.
To boot from the esata drive I had to make the following changes in the bios
    I left the esata flash plugged in as I went into the bios
    Bios>config>Serial ATA and changed the Sata controller mode option to compatibility
    Restart and back into the Bios
    Bios>startup>boot - in my case the esata flash drive showed up as ATA HDD2 and was excluded from the boot order so I had to un-exclude it and move it to the point in the boot order that I wanted.
Next I downloaded a linux installation iso and put it on a CD - in my case opensuse. Then booted from the CD
From now on this instructions are specific to opensuse and yast but can be generalized to whatever Linux is being used.
In my case yast came up with a good set of suggestions for automatically partitioning the flash drive but then crashed during the partitioning itself. So I rebooted and specified the partitions manually.
    A fat32 partition left as a partition which both windows and Linux could see (in my case about 20% of the drive) (/dev/sdb1)
    An extended partition with the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb2) which contains the following logical partitions
    A linux Swap partition of 2GB (/dev/sdb5)
    A linux /home partition –the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb6)
    A linux /root partition of 8GB (/dev/sdb7)
Yast automatically suggested mount points of C,D,E for the windows partitions. Unfortunately because of the way the Thinkpad hard drive was laid out Yast had C assigned the ThinkPad Service partition and D assigned to the SW_Preload (or main windows partition). However there was an edit function that allows for the reversal of those mount points so that the windows C drive is mounted in Linux as Windows/C thereby avoiding confusion. I had already backed up and removed the Thinkpad factory install data so I did not have to deal with that. Yast suggested Windows/E for the mount point of the FAT32 partition on the flash drive, which I accepted.
The yast install configurator made all this manual selection easy, and after the manual configuration the partitioning worked perfectly.
Next step was Linux user configuration which went fine
Next was booting.
In the section management tab
    delete the windows 1 and 2 options (since we are not dual booting directly)
In the boot loader installation tab
    uncheck boot from mbr ( this stops the install from installing Grub and dual boot on the windows c drive
    check boot from root partition (this installs grub and all associated files in the Linux root partition (/dev/sdb6)
I believe that the correct procedure at this point is to click Boot Loader installation details which will bring up the Grub device map. In the device map there will be a line for the fixed hard drive (aka the windows drive) and a line for the esata flash drive. When the installer started up these were in hard drive and esata drive order. However when we boot directly from the flash the esata drive will be grub drive hd0 and the fixed hard drive will be grub hd1. The device map order needs to be changed to reflect this ie the esata drive should be first not second.
I did not do this and ended up initially doing Grub command line editing to boot and later manually editing the grub files using information I had previously learned the hard way and through google.
At this point let the installer go ahead and install Linux. After doing this it should come back and tell you to reboot. Do not do it yet because we need to install the MBR into the flash drive.
I suspect that there is a way of doing this in Yast running from the Live CD but it was not obvious to me so I used the manual method that I have used before.
Open a root terminal
Mount /dev/sdb6 to /mnt/sdb6 (my linux root)
Touch /mnt/sdb6/boot/grub/flag
The purpose of this is when we go looking later at the grub command prompt we need an easy to find unique file
Start grub and do the following
#grub
            grub> find /boot/grub/flag
                (hd1,5)    -- the result of the find in my example
            grub> root (hd1,5)   -- using the result of the find in my example
            grub> setup (hd1)   -- install mbr -- my example parameters - if you get this wrong you will trash some other drive!!!
                  hopefully grub announces success
            grub> quit
Reboot and select the flash drive. In my case I still had the grub devicemap wrong and had to edit the grub commands during boot to tell grub how to find the correct partition and then edit them again after booting
Typical linux install issues that we all always seem to have and can be solved with a little (or a lot of) google research.
As I said at the beginning I now have an untouched windows installation and a nice fast Linux installation. I hope that this will be of some use to someone.

Hi chrissh
i tried this exact procedure... on the exact same notebook (T400s). However, as soon as I set the
   Bios>config>Serial ATA to "compatibility", I cannot use my default Windows installation! I immediately get the "blue screen of death".
I doubt I did anything differently since this is the first step of your procedure and my laptop is brand new!
any idea?

Flash 9 destroys dual boot capability

I use a dual-boot computer, with one partition for Linux (Debian) and one for Windows XP. I can't use Flash on Linux as Adobe has never ported it to that platform. So I put my Flash on the Windows partition. Unfortunately, while I have no trouble with Flash 8 on the Windows partition, when I attempt to open Flash 9 on it it crashes the entire system.
My husband found an article in the Winter 2009-2010 issue of 2600, the Hacker Quarterly magazine; it seems that in CS3, which Flash 9 is part of, Adobe has written its copy protection code in such a way as to cause a dual-boot machine to become unbootable after one uses Adobe software. I don't understand all the technical issues, but as the article states, "even though you have paid Adobe real money for their software, they will still potentially ruin your dual-boot system."
I realize Adobe doesn't consider Linux users numerous enough to accommodate, but by taking my money for their product, the company has an obligation to give me value in return. The value I expect is to be able to use the software I paid for - it's not up to Adobe to decide which OS I should use. At least they could warn people that you can't use CS3 (and probably not CS4) on a dual-boot system. I will now start learning to use Inkscape immediately.

I would get another harddrive and put Linux on one and windows on the other then get a hardware switch to switch between them it's much more stable.

I'm running mountain lion and i want to dual boot in lion.

I use a MacPro 3.1 to run my protools system
i just acquired a piece of gear that doesn't have software drivers for os x 10.8 a Tascam FW 1884
so, what i want to do is dual boot my 4th internal HD to Lion 32-bit
ive partioned it, but when i try to run the installer it wont let me, it says my software version is too new,
forgive me im a mac noob

It would appear you were given a disc image containing an OS X Lion installer. You can't boot from it because it's on a non-writeable disc image. I suggest your go find yourself an 8 GB USB flash drive. You can then clone the disc image to the flash drive. First, partition and format the flash drive using Disk Utility. Setup one partition and format of Mac OS Extended, Journaled. When that is done clone the mounted disk image to the flash drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the formatted flash drive. Source means the mounted disc image.
When it's complete you should be able to boot from it.

Running Dual boot windows 8 and win 7 pro with xp mode installed!! I love it!!

It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
Step 1: using diskmgmt.msc you have to shring the C partition. I shrunk it so I had 80GB remaining as unallocated space.
Step 2: You have to enter the machine Bios adn set the BIOS to Both and UEFI as first
Step 3: Connect your usb dvd
Step 4: Put your win 7 pro dvd in the usb dvd drive
Step 5: Reboot your machine and when it starts press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb dvd drive then press enter
The machine restarts
Message on screen says press a key to boot from cd/dvd
Press space and it boots up the win 7 pro DVD
After files copy and load the setup screen asks to accept the agreement and where to install win 7
BE SURE TO SELECT THE 80GB location
Then follow thru the win 7 prompts to load it.
When the machine restarts you will see a dual boot screen with Windows 7 on top as first selection and Windows 8 below it as 2nd selection.
Make sure to hit enter with windows 7 selected
The win 7 installation completes.
You will see many items with drivers not installed dont fret.
You can load most of the drivers by highlighting the device in control panel/device manager and pick update driver then select BROWSE for DRIVER and be sure to put in drive D:\ which is now the windows 8 drive and hit search.
Many of the windows 8 drivers installed with no issue.
The Realtek driver was an exception .. goto to the lenovo site and pick the x100e tablet and download the LAN driver from there about (4MB). Copy it to flash drive and install it in win 7 from the .exe file. The driver for LAN will install sucessfully. The version of the driver is 7.46 something the 7.11 versions do not workl.
I have only 3 drivers that I could not find - 2 list as unknown and are related to ACPI or power management and 1 lists as USB controller but all the USB stuff works without it.
Be sure to either shutdown the system or sign out of win 8 when your done so you get the dual boot menu. If you shutdown while logged into win 8 the next time you start up it will go right to win 8 until you signout and restart.
Just to let you know an easy way to shutdown is go to the desktop and press ALT + FN + F4 and a shutdown menu comes up on the desktop.
Once win 7 pro is installed you can download the XP mode free from Microsoft and install it.
This is of course AFTER you have ACTIVATED WINDOWS 7 ONLINE with YOUR ACTIVATION KEY(you supply).
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!

It's been many, many years since I don't do dual boot anymore. Don't find the reason to do it, either. Different kinds of virtualization should be enough. Anyway...
dfw1417 wrote:
It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!
WHICH machine?
Cheers.
If I helped you, please give me some kudos! ^^

Convert PXIe-8135 controller to dual-boot Windows 7 and LabVIEW RT

Hello. I have a PXIe-8135 controller that originally was just running Windows 7. We are trying to convert it to a dual boot system to also run LabView Real Time. (There is host computer that will run LabVIEW 2014 with the RT module, and the controller will become a target).
I have created a FAT32 partition on the hard drive of the controller. Now, I’m trying to install the real-time OS with a USB flash drive made using the MAX utility, but I cannot boot using the USB drive for some reason. I keep getting the message “waiting for USB device to initialize”.
In BIOS, legacy USB support is [ENABLED] and boot configuration is set to [Windows/other OS]. I’ve tried removing the drive, waiting, and reinserting. I’ve tried two different USB drives (both 8 GB, different brands).
I’m not sure what to do next. Apart from the USB boot issue, is converting the PXIe-8135 even possible? I read about SATA/PATA hard drive issues with older controllers, but I don't know about this one.
Thanks, in advance, for your help!
-Jeff
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Per Siana's licensing comment, more information on purchasing a deployment license if you do not have one for this target can be found here.
The RT Utility USB key is used to set up non-NI hardware with LabVIEW Real-Time, but you should not need it in this situation to convert to dual-boot (*). Try this:
1. Since you already have a FAT32 partion created, go into BIOS setup and change to booting 'LabVIEW RT'.
2. The system will attempt to boot LabVIEW RT, see that the partition is empty, and switch over into LabVIEW RT Safe Mode. (this safemode is built into the firmware, which is why you don't really need the USB key).
3. The system should come up correctly and be detectable from MAX, and you can proceed with installing software.
4. To switch back to Windows, go back to BIOS setup and choose 'Windows/Other OS'
(*) One area where the USB key is helpful on a dual boot system is with formatting the disk. If you want to convert from FAT32 to Reliance on the partition designated for LabVIEW RT, the USB key lets you attempt to format a single parition and leave the rest of the disk untouched. If you format from MAX, the standard behavior is to format only one RT partition if found, but if not found, it will format the entire disk. Formatting from MAX on a dual boot system is consequently riskier and you could lose your Windows partition.

Dual boot windows mac mini

I got a Mac mini and in general I'm happy with it but found out that there's some software I use regularly that is just much better on Windows. They barely support OS X although technically they do. So I would like to dual boot Windows as it seems like this is supported and not crazy.
I followed the bootcamp and some guides I found via Google. I have the mac mini 2014 with 8 gig ram and 1 terabyte of space. I have dual monitors setup and a logitech mouse and a logitech gaming keyboard G110 - both USB. (I also own a wireless apple keyboard which I occasionally use with my iPad). My first problem was a DOS screen telling me I can't boot up on the specified disk but I did get some help off Google telling me to hold down option while booting (this should be in the guides ;p) but it was easy to fix.. however I'm stumped on what's happening now.
When I click the Windows partition, it starts booting up Windows 7 Premium 64 bit setup and all looks good. Then a screen pops up asking me what language/region I am. The default is United states (perfect). On this screen my keyboard and mouse are useless. Or it's frozen. I think the former. I think the computer just can't recognize them. And I cannot figure out a way around this. If anyone can - please help I will be very thankful.
I've tried booting up using the Windows 7 DVD I own and an ISO installed on a USB flash drive per the Bootcamp installer. Results are the same.

Use Boot Camp!! Sounds like you have the install disc. Make sure you completely erase a USB 2.0 Thumb Drive format it as one MS DOS Master Boot Record partition. Download Drivers to it. I checked this box in boot camp only.
Having install disc and driver thumb drive ready. Insert Windows install disc and plug in Thumb drive.
Open Boot Camp uncheck first 2 boxes. Continue
Size the BOOTCAMP partion you want it to be by sliding the bar. Or split your HD is an option.
After that is complete. You will be asked where to install. Select BOOTCAMP partition
Click Drive Options (advanced). Click Format. Click OK. All goes well you click Next and it will format as NTFS
Follow instructions to to install, set up and configure Windows.
GO TO APPLE SUPPORT no where else. PRINT BOOT CAMP Installation & Setup Guide. It is in my binder with my Windows 7 Professional Disc. You'll need this, I'm afraid, to have on hand. When Windows is up and going, Antivirus 1st, Install Windows express updates only. Do not update Apple drivers for Windows. Running Windows 7 Pro on my Mac Mini since I bought it in August. Use it for those outdated programs I can't run on Mac or Windows 8. Love it.
GET THE MANUAL Please. Have fun with it.
Oh, try left clicking your USB Mouse to make it work. If not use keyboard strokes. i.e. I a ccept the license agreement (note that the a is underlined. hit "a" on the keyboard to check box.

Dual Boot Windows 7

Hey guys, I was just wondering what exactly I need in order to successfully dual-boot my Mac into Windows 7. I've got the software for Boot Camp all down and ready, but my only question is finding the right copy of Windows 7 that'll install as a first time. Also, can I install Windows 7, or would I need Windows Vista/XP already installed and then just upgrade the Windows? Thanks, and could you tell me if this Windows 7 product is correct/eligible for Dual-Boot: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/windows-7-home-premium-with-service-pack-1-64-bit-li cense-and-media-1-pc-pc/5130359.p;jsessionid=B5FB2641437C993E1EAE2430E84DAB00.bb olsp-app03-156?id=1219111161659&skuId=5130359&st=categoryid$abcat0508002&lp=4&cp =1
I guess when it says PC disc, it'll work with dual-boot.
Again, thanks!

How old is your Macbook? The majority of them can directly install Windows 7.
Yes, the product you linked to from BestBuy is what you'd need to install Windows 7.
The only additional thing you'd need is a 4gb flash drive to store the Boot Camp drivers on after you first install Windows.
Setting up a Boot Camp partition is pretty straightforward, just start Boot Camp Assistant and follow the instructions. But feel free to post anymore questions if you have any, because there's always a chance of breaking something if you're doing it for the first time

Trying to create dual boot with Windows 7 on Yoga 11s

I was trying to install Windows 2008 server (I said Windows 7 in the title because it's essentially the same) on a Yoga 11s in dual boot configuration with the factory-installed Windows 8 upgraded to 8.1, and as expected it's a pain in the butt.
I ran into the catch-22 that you can only boot from a USB external optical drive in legacy mode, and then Windows refuses to install on a GPT-type partition. Dead end there.
As plan B, I tried installing from my MSDN DVD from within Windows 8.1. It chugged along for a while, but then hung after the second restart. It reached a state where the machine is dual boot, and goes into Windows 8.1 OK, but 2008 server hangs on startup even in safe mode. Probably it's a driver problem. I downloaded all Windows 7 drivers for the Yoga 11s from the Lenovo website, and they would work fine for 2008 server if there was a way to put them in place.
I have been through the process twice before on previous machines. After getting the server OS to install, none of the devices work well or at all, but I could patiently install the drivers using device manager. This is the first time where I can't get the server OS to install to a bootable condition. Is it hopless, or might there be documentation somewhere about how I could manually place drivers in the right folders to enable the OS to start?
Plan C might be to follow Lenovo's instructions to create a UEFI bootable USB flash drive and try to install from that. Would that work better than installing from within Windows 8.1, or just reach the same roadblock?

Reformat that new drive with SL DVD.
Go into SL DVD again, go to Utility Menu and choose DU.
Then try repairing the drive or better yet, just erase the drive (not the volume) and try again.
There are enough changes between Tiger partition scheme and SL that you would want to. RAID arrays built with Leopard will not allow installing SL, they have to be recreated (and can then have Leopard and SL).
Go

HOW TO DUAL BOOT W540 with windows 8.1 / 7

I got my W540 recently with windows 8.1 pro on it. but as all engineers worst nightmare windows 8 has hard time with engineering softwares (for my case TIA Portal for PLC programming software which only support windows 7). so i need to have a windows 7. i prefer to keep my windows 8 and have dual boot system with windows 7 added. But i can't install windows 7. initially due to disk type (GPT), then i changed it to MBR without losing my files (which only was possible if i had deleted the recovery partition- now my recovery is on my flash drive). But there are already 4 partitions on the system (1 for C: drive and 3 for recovery and system files which came originally with the product) , how can i install a windows 7? i can't add another partition because that makes my disk a Dynamic disk (which i don't really know what is). all in all, i really need windows 7 on my system ASAP. If anyone know how to fix this please reply. Thanks guys.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You are limited to four PRIMARY partitions on an MBR disk.
But other than the "active" partition (i.e. the small 100MB "system reserved" partition where Boot Manager is placed from doing a cold Windows install on an empty drive, or the 1.4GB equivalent Boot Manager partition that Lenovo provides along with other tools and utilities), all other partitions on the drive can be "logical". They are not required to be PRIMARY, although Lenovo delivers its partitions that way. But you can change that.
You can have up to 120 LOGICAL partitions on a drive (all of which live inside an originally PRIMARY partition which gets converted to an "extended partition" which houses all of the logical partitions. So if you have at least one logical partition (and thus have to give up one primary partition in order to build that required "extended partitions"), that means you can have up to three remaining primary partitions and up to 120 logical partitions... all on an MBR disk. No "dynamic", and no GPT.
Yes, that means even the Windows system partition itself (i.e. "C") can be on a LOGICAL partition. It's only that one "active" partition (where the BIOS goes to find Boot Manager and its menu, and kick off the rest of the system boot process) which truly must be PRIMARY. That's the only requirement.
So, if you want to use MiniTool's Partition Wizard to carve out sufficient free space for your second Windows 7 partition (by shrinking your existing Win8 partition), you can create one or more logical partitions inside that new free space, and do the Win7 install to one of those empty logical partitions. You can then use a second logical partition in that same free space for "data", if you want.
Note that Partition Wizard can even convert one of your existing primary partitions to logical (i.e. convert it to an "extended partition", inside of which will be then be the original primary partition now converted to logical). You can then shrink or move/resize the partitions on the drive (both primary and logical) however you want, to perhaps make room for additional "logical" partitions inside of that now present "extended partition" which can hold up to 120. You can even convert ALL of your primary partitions except for the one "active" partition (which MUST BE PRIMARY) to logical partitions, which gives you maximum flexibility in having even more than just two bootable OS's along with one or more data partitions, etc., up to 120 logical partitions... plus the one "active" primary Boot Manager "system reserved" partition which must be kept.

Dual boot with Ubuntu 13.0 using bootable USB problem (Y410P)

Hi I recently bought Lenovo Y410P and have been since trying for hours to dual boot with Ubuntu but I was unsuccessful.
I formatted by USB drive in FAT format, and created a bootable usb using Pendrive. Then I changed the Boot Mode to Legacy Support and the boot order so it boots from the flash storage first.
Then it hung on a purple screen like this: http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3509/dgfdgrunningoraclevmvir.png
and the keyboard doesn't work and I couldn't go any further from here.
So I tried to use a different program called Unetbootin, and the problem got worse and it just stopped working at the option screen where you select whether to just try Ubuntu or install it, etc.
I read it somewhere the recent version of Unetbootin doesn't work, so I got the 474 version of it, and finally I was able to select from the option menu and it didn't hang. However when I clicked on Install Ubuntu, it just stopped there for a while, and then the boot failed and moved onto Windows 8 again.
I looked at the USB drive, and I realized the folder and some config files are names isolinux instead of syslinux, so I changed them, and now I'm getting the "SYSLINUX 3.86 2010..." words on the black screen and it hangs there.
I saw a similar message before using Pendrive and it was like "SYSLINUX 4.10 2012...". That was because the flash drive wasn't formatted in FAT (it was FAT32). So I re-checked the drive, but it is indeed formatted in FAT so I'm not sure why now I'm getting a similar message.
It will be much appreciated if you could give me some suggestions as to how to solve this problem.
Thanks

Something else you could try. Not sure it will make any difference.
Skip the boot creation tools and just boot the thing in UEFI mode.
Use the latest (12.10 or later will work, IIRC) 64-bit Ubuntu ISO. Format your flash drive as a single FAT32 partition. Extract the contents of the ISO to the flash drive. Use 7zip for Windows, or your favorite Linux de-archiving tool. That's it.
[edit] I don't believe the partition needs to be set active, but haven't tested that.
Set BIOS boot mode to UEFI. Even secure boot mode should work withe a new enough Ubuntu - but isn't necessary.
Give that a try. If it still barfs at the same place, mess around with the start-up graphics options.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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Dual-booting Ubuntu 13.04 with Windows 8 on a U410

Hi!
I have a U410 on which I would like to dual-boot Ubuntu 13.04.
I've run it up on a live flash drive, everything works OK.
When it comes to the actual install I'm a bit nervous as I've never had a machine like this before, it's only two months old, and I've never had a machine where I didn't have a Windows install disk!
The installer sees the 500 GB HDD, so I assume I can create a partition on that.
Where do I put the boot loader though? It's telling me it wants to put it on the SSD.
Is this where it should go?
Are there any detailed steps listed anywhere?
I'm assuming that because the installer sees all the partitions and disks, I don't need to turn off UEFI or RAID....
Thanks!

I've been using Ubuntu on this computer since 12.04 was released and since this thread wasn't closed I'll provide some closing documentation for other u410 users. Ubuntu is growing in popularity and this should help with new users.
Please note that I bought a u410 Ultra with Windows 7 (intentionally) and things may have changed since the new Windows release.
________Intro________________________
It is best to know how Intel Rapid Start Technology works before messing with your partition table. Windows is installed on the HDD (500/1tb depending on model) with a 2nd partition holding the drivers necessary for one-push recovery. Note that modifying Intel RST, any files on the 30gb SSD or removing the recovery partition with the windows drivers will break one-push recovery. Because of this you should learn how to reinstall windows 7/8 using a USB driver before you continue.
________ Prep_________________
Assuming you know how to install Windows, and you backed up the recovery partition onto your USB drive (or got drivers from the laptops support page on Lenovo.com it is now time to install Ubuntu.
Download the Ubuntu ISO from their website, and download univeral usb installer from here:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.3.6.exe
Usage of the USB installer is pretty straightforward, I can follow through with a how to if a reader needs it.
__________ Prerequisites____________
Now that you have a bootable USB drive, reboot into the computers BIOS and disable 'Intel Smart Response Technology'. This takes frequently used Windows files from the HDD and puts them on the SSD for quicker access. Removing the SSD or modifying it's contents only has the side effect of Windows booting and running a little slower.
Installation
Now you have three options:
-If you primarily use Windows, you can reinstall it onto the 30GB SSD
-Install Ubuntu on the SSD, and leave windows untouched
-Your last option is to put both Ubuntu and Windows on the HDD and not use your SSD at all.
I chose the 2nd option, I put ubuntu on the SSD. In addition to putting Ubuntu on the SSD for SSD speeds, I split my HDD in half. 500gb for Ubuntu and 500gb for Windows.
When I got to "Where to install Ubuntu" I chose custom. Here you will see two devices /dev/sdax (x being a number assigned to the drive, usually 1) and /dev/hdax. SD for SDD and HD for HDD.
The SSD should have two paritions, one is a fat32 partition with the name 'efi'. Dont touch this, it is used to store secure boot keys so the computer will boot Windows. Ubuntu is versatle and can reuse the Windows efi file.
The rest of the SSD is a ~30gb ntfs partition. Since you disabled Intel RST the SSD isn't going to be used at all. So you can install Windows or Ubuntu here for fast boots, it can't however fit both comfortably.
In this guide I will install Ubuntu here, creat an ext4 partition here, and for the mount point choose /
Switch to /dev/hda and shrink the Windows partition to half this size, do this by dividing the total disk space by 2 (the partitioning software counts in increments of 1024 so if you want a different size you can choose so with some simple math).
Most seasoned Linux users recommend making at the very least a 2nd partition for /home. In Linux this is where all your personal data is stored, you can reinstall any Linux distro and if you mount /home all your files will be right where they used to be. Its similiar to having a Data partition or a separate Harddrive for data if you're using Windows. In linux the transition from SSD is HDD seamless, it's all done in the background for you. I have done exactly this.
Now that your Windows partition on the HDD is shrunk down. Creat an ext4 partition in the newly freed space, for the mount point, click the drop down menu and choose /home.
Finish the installation.
________ Jumping through hoops______________
For me, 12.04.1 and 12.04.2 didn't install correctly because it didn't properly use grub-uefi. 12.10 installed and booted fine and when I used 13.04 on release day it didn't install properly (this could've been changed, if you check 'install updates while installing in present day it may go through.
Because of this issue, of not booting 13.04 (raring) I installed 12.10 and ran these commands in terminal:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install updates
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
When you reboot you will see an option for Ubuntu and an entry for Windows.
________ Conclusion / TL;Dr _______________-
My disk scheme looks like this:
SSD:
262mb efi partition
30gb ext4 partition mounted point: /
HDD:
500gb ext4 mount point /home
500gb NTFS partition 'Windows'
I recommend updating Ubuntu Raring and rebooting one more time, updates will push you to the newer 3.8 and 3.9 Linux kernels which a much more power efficient and run well on Sandy and Ivy Bridge Intel computers.
I hope this helps, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I hope this imformation is worth the nasty bump.

975x Platinum PowerUp Dual Boot Issue

Hello -
I have a 975x Plat. PowerUp and dual boot Linux and Windows XP. This process works fine on BIOS 7.1, but fails to boot the Windows disk on BIOS 7.4 and newer. The disk still works, it just can't be started by the Linux bootloader (grub).
I spent a lot of time working on this as a grub issue, but in the end the only thing that affects the problem is revision of the BIOS I am using. (e.g., flash 7.4, Windows does not boot, reboot and flash 7.1, Windows boots).
I also get an issue where I cannot eject the CD drive on warm boot under the same conditions (like a BIOS boot disc, or a Windows boot disc). Works fine on 7.1 not on 7.4 or newer.
I have all 4 ports on the ICH7 controller used for hard drives, and the JMicron controller used for a SATA DVD drive. The issue occurs in IDE or AHCI mode (currently using AHCI mode).
Are these known problems? Are there known fixes? I would like to use a newer BIOS because I have an MS USB keyboard that does not work in DOS mode with BIOS < 7.4 (need keyboard to select OS at boot time).
Thanks,
Chris

Not sure if this will help: BIOS 7.61 BETA - Flash at your own risk - http://www.msi-forum.de/thread.php?threadid=32518&threadview=1&hilight=&hilightuser=0#post264463

Deleting dual boot OS

i only found one post that was somewhat applicable to my issue of removing a dual boot (http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkStation/Thinkstation-E20-Dual-boot-from-Windows-7-into-XP/m-p/21871... and that led me on a merry chase. if this is useful to anyone else, great - if posting a solution as an FYI is inappropriate and i should wait to reply to someone with the same issue, pls let me know
the situation: my former IT guys installed W7 Pro x64 (thx, Lenovo, for the free upgrade from Vist Business ) on a new partition alongside XP Pro x32 and it worked great, but i only kept using XP for my !@#$%^ genius scanner, which i have never gotten to run under XP Mode/Virtual PC in W7.
one day, after several months of XP inactivity, i decided to boot into it for some reason and had a BSOD. so then i set out to just eradicate the offending OS and its partition...simple, right? not in this case. i found the guys had put the W7 OS onto a logical drive not a primary:
Local Disk (C
156.71 GB NTFS
Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive)
my boot.ini was on the XP partition and W7 uses bootmgr so i poked around and found that EasyBCD should take care of the issue by copying the boot.ini info to bootmgr on C:\ through this link in the SevenForums:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html
again, not so easy. i could not move the bootmgr because of the logical status of the partition and also because the partition wasn't set to active; i converted the partition to active with no troubles under the native Disk Managment but failed when i tried to convert the partition to primary.i feared having to do a wipe and reinstall to tidy up as i saw some (forums unnamed) folks advocating.
i looked into it a bit further and found that i needed to use use a partition tool from bootable media (i used a CD with EaseUS Partition Master - the freeware version ) to convert to primary at boot and then i used the above link to copy the bootmgr to C:\ with EasyBCD
now my OS drive looks like so (the partition is large owing to the GIS files that like living there):
Local Disk (C
226.71 GB NTFS
Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
that solved the problem of the W7 OS being on an inactive, logical drive instead of an active primary - and in future if i set up a dual boot for any other OS, i'll make sure the disk is set as primary before i install and the backwater IT guys here will never touch my machine again
S10 - 642327A

HI Manish_5
"Is it possible to role back to my previous Windows 7 in future" but you have to create now the backup (recovery disk) to later use:
Creating Recovery Discs or Saving a Recovery Image to a USB Flash Drive (Windows 7) | HP® Support
Rollback:
Performing an HP system recovery (Windows 7)

Windows 7 instal dual boot

I'm trying to install windows 7 as a dual boot. I downloaded easybcd to take care of the dual boot start selection. Then proceeded with usb instal which didn't work. So I then downloaded the iso and burned to disk. Which wouldn't load (yes bios had dvd as first boot), but I then just went into windows 8, found the setup, which started. When I clicked update and instal it hung and crashed. But when I hit don't update and install. It did just fine. Went through the whole install and down the list of like 5 items 0-100%.
But now, after rebooting after installing, it just sits at the starting windows screen, with the red green blue yellow windows 'flag' flashing brighter/softer. Its been there for like 20 min. After rebooting, I get options for windows 7, windows 8, or windows installer. If I try 7 I get error right away and it restarts me, if I choose 8 it loads me into my normal windows 8. IF I choose installer, it brings me back to the starting windows screen.
I don't know if its still installing things, as the windows flag is flashing brighter and then softer over and over, but its been again another 30 min and its still there. No % marker or anything.
I haven't installed any drivers (which I have saved on d:/ and on a usb as well) as I haven't had the opportunity nor know when to install them other than after windows starts.
Any help much appreciated.

I tried that, but when I get to the select a drive/partition screen, it that's where it says cannot install on that drive/partition. No option to continue. But, once I get my super raid daughter board and my 3x 480gb crucial m550 msata drives, I will just have one msata set up gpt for windows 8, one set for ntfs and for windows 7, and then the third will have to be my scratch disk. I'll then use my 2.5" 1tb Samsung evo for all data, source files, and use my external enclosure with 1tb Samsung evo for my export. Wish there was a way to get the new gt72 4x m.2 sata daughter board.

Flashing ? on Dual-Boot MacPro

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