Hi, my name is Ed and I guess I have a few basic questions about dual booting Win7 and Mint 10. I have a HP Omni Pro 110 machine with Win 7 installed, and I'd like to dual boot it with Mint 10. My problem with this is that I had an HP laptop with Vista installed and I dual booted it with Mint 10 and it worked fine - for about two months, then the motherboard fried. Is this a common issue between Windows and Linux, just a Vista thing, or was my laptop doomed anyway? And, is it safe to dual boot Win 7 and Mint 10 on my new computer? Any help would be much appreciated!

I can't imagine that dual booting windows 7 with Mint or any other OS would cause problems with your motherboard or hardware. You should be able to find numerous tutorials on dual booting windows 7 with Mint online. I expect your laptop motherboard just went bad.

i just installed Mint 12 on my Lenovo i7 W520 (dual boot w/ Win7) and it was a flawless & easy install. All hardware was recognized except my docking station. Yesterday I tried the same install with a custom i5 desktop (dual boot Win7) and on rebooting after installation, GRUB2 failed to load and now there is a black screen that says "Loading Operation System..." No OS ever loaded. Ever.
Our computer guy says that the install 'messed up the Master Boot Record...' The desktop has since been restored and Ubuntu loaded.

Sorry no solutions or definitive answers!

Always use the latest release (of Mint in this case). Later drivers manage things like video chips better. Less heat, less fans, better battery life.
I had a Dell XPS that ate the (integrated) nvidia chip (one m/board replaced without question), then died from (I presume) heat after the warrantee had run out. Just after that Dell shipped an updated BIOS that managed the video chip better - specifically heat management. So I stay up to date on everything these days. I also pull the back off and clean it out twice a year now.

Dual boot should be fine.

Here is a great site with detailed tutorials on dual booting Ubuntu and Windows 7: http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/
And here is a great site for getting started with Ubuntu: http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/
No Linux distro would fry your hardware. It is far more likely that Windows contracted a virus that fouled up your system.

When you know what you're talking about , then make a comment.

I already told you what the problem was.