I am having trouble installing Ubuntu 13.10 on HP Envy 4-1046tx ultrabook. When i bought this, it came with windows 7 pre-installed, but i upgraded it to 8 and now recently to 8.1. But somehow, i feel 8.1 is slower or something went wrong with the upgrade and made my system slow. I want to try Dual booting Ubuntu 13.10 with windows 8.1

The system recovery drive has windows 7 recovery files. SSD has 4GB allocated to windows 8 (i think for hibernation/rapid start). 25GB of SSD is free and i want to install ubuntu on this SSD pointing it to "/"

I will also shrink the windows partition (the only other partition available apart from recovery & SSD) to free up 100GB and allocate this space to "/home" during ubuntu installation.

I tried the above steps while on windows 8, but not successful. Ubuntu installation went fine, but the grub was not loaded. I tried to deploy linux via EasyBCD, but after that also, selecting linux in the boot would load grub on command prompt and do nothing.

While ubuntu installation, i also deleted the raid drivers with sudo dmraid -rE, but still ubuntu didnt recognize my windows.

I think i am missing some steps, so this time i want to do it right with proper info before starting the process.

My requirements:

• dual boot Ubuntu with windows 8.1
• c:\ shrinked windows with 300GB on sda1, 100GB for /home on sda1 & ubuntu installed on 25GB SSD volume sda2 (this is mSata i think)
• GRUB or EFI that helps me load both OS properly without breaking anything
• SWAP partition can be added if needed on sda1 (4gb?)?

I have backed up my drive and have a 16GB usb3.0 with ubuntu loaded. I hope i have mentioned everything i need and know.. All i need now is some guidance and what to do right so that this installation goes as planned :)