[FreeBSD] 6.3-R diskhandling

[Manolis Kiagias]

Manolis Kiagias wrote:
>
>
> Alphons "Fonz" van Werven wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a recent model Toshiba laptop here, dual-booting Windows Vista 
>> and
>> Slackware Linux (not my call, so no flames please). When I got the 
>> go-ahead to replace Linux with FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE, the following
>> happened:
>>
>> The partitioner complained that the found geometry 232581/16/63 is 
>> invalid
>> and it's using a more likely geometry instead. Closer inspection reveals
>> that this "more likely" geom (14593/255/63) is actually the real 
>> geometry,
>> so question 1 is: where did FreeBSD get this other weird-ass geometry
>> from?
>>
>> When installing the boot manager, it hosed Windows' bootability. I could
>> mount and access the Windows partition from within FreeBSD just fine so
>> the partition itself seemed to be okay, but it just wouldn't boot. 
>> When I
>> selected it in the bootmanager menu, it showed a screen saying Windows
>> can't boot and I should use the recovery disk to repair Windows. Since
>> everything on the machine that was even remotely important had just been
>> backed up and Windows was due for a reinstall anyway, I just reinstalled
>> it and no harm was done, but I still wonder what happened. How come
>> FreeBSD's boot manager stopped Windows from booting?
>>
>> The reinstall of Windows wiped away everything else, so I can retry
>> installing FreeBSD. But given the troubles described above, what's the
>> best way to do it? Currently, I'm considering the following:
>> 1. Boot this Live Linux CD I have lying around here and which finds the
>>    correct geometry for the disk right away.
>> 2. Make a backup of the MBR.
>> 3. Create a partition (slice) for FreeBSD.
>> 4. Boot the FreeBSD install disk and run through sysinstall 
>> (partitioning
>>    the slice Linux just created) but don't let it install a boot loader.
>> 5. Boot the Live Linux again and install LILO from there.
>> But if you have any other suggestions I'm all ears of course.
>>
>> Oh, and a final question: the Windows installer creates a partition 
>> table
>> in which partitions (slices) don't end on cylinder/track boundaries. Is
>> this a big deal? Linux notices it but doesn't seem bothered much by 
>> it and
>> FreeBSD appears to act likewise. But I thought I'd better ask, just 
>> to be
>> sure.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Alphons
>>
> When installing FreeBSD and you are asked what boot manager to install 
> select to not install anything. In this way your Vista boot will not 
> be affected.
> If after this you find that at startup you are not given ANY choice 
> but FreeBSD starts automatically, this is simply because it's 
> partition is marked active.
> Boot with a CD like Norton Partition Magic or GParted and mark the 
> Vista partition active. Boot Vista, then download and install the 
> EasyBCD from www.neowin.net
> It is then trivial to add a stanza to Vista bootloader (!) to boot 
> FreeBSD.
>
Sorry the correct link is:

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1


Manolis