Using Install CD To Prepare Hard Disk

[Alex Zbyslaw]

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 05:28:22PM -0500, Tim Daneliuk wrote:

>I would like to use the CD install menus to only prepare the hard
>disk (Partition, Label, Format) without actually installing anything on
>the drive.  Can this be done?  There seems to be no "None" option for
>Distributions, and I cannot find the right magic to make the installer
>go ahead and prepare the drive w/o resorting to at least a minimal install.
>
Does the "Post install configuration" not give you all the menus you 
want?  It doesn't matter whether you have anything installed or not - 
you can fdisk, bsdlabel and newfs from the sysinstall interfaces you 
know and love.  And you won't be prompted to install any packages 
because you're not on a scripted install pathway.

If you have bsdlabel and fdisk files which you are trying to replicate 
then the live filesystem and native tools may be easier, but if you want 
to play around with sizes etc. without resorting to a calculator then 
sysinstall has always done the business for me,

--Alex