Well this may sound a bit strange but works really well and it is:
Have four seperate partitions,
1: Ubuntu system files (known as "/" )
2: Ubuntu home directory (named "/home")
3: Windows system files and programs (C
4: Share NTFS partition
as the latest versions of Ubuntu support NTFS very easily its the best to go for as windows can interface with ext3 (which is the Linux standard) it really likes to fragment things (Linux doesn't fragment period)
The reason for having /home separate is that stores all your program option data when, like most people moving to linux, you break the system beyond repair you can just reformat the "/" part and all your settings, documents, etc.. in "/home" are safe.
Ubuntu should pick everything up fine. You'll need to configure your printer but that will be about it. Just to warn you but in the newest version scanners will not work due to some mistake that still hasn't been fixed.
Good luck! you might want