Dual Boot (Win XP / Linux) Reconstruction

<p>I decided not to wait until April...</p>
<p>Downloaded and burned an Ubuntu 7.10 Alternate CD. Reinstalled Windows (snore, 1 hour of installing, 2 hours of updating and faddle). Installed Ubuntu 7.10.</p>
<p>Uh-oh. No I didn't. The Ubuntu CD was corrupt, and instead hosed everything again.</p>
<p>Reinstall Windows while using the Mac to download and burn an Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD.</p>
<p>The live CD passes the self-test, but then is no longer recognized as bootable by the laptop.</p>
<p>Use the installed Windows to download and burn Xubuntu 7.10 live CD. At the same time, installed Quickbooks and Openoffice, and de-bloated the tiny (10GB) Win partition. Even used the 'compression' feature to squeeze 2.5 GB free space.</p>
<p>Install Xubuntu 7.10 - Success! Lots of adding and updating, but it's done. The laptop is usable again.</p>