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Date:      30 Jul 2002 04:42:51 -0700
From:      Cherie & John Carri <cjcarri@earthlink.net>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Can FreeBSD make a hard drive unbootable by other OS's ?
Message-ID:  <1028029372.19653.15.camel@bilbo.ourhome.org>

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Hi all,
  I had FreeBSD 4.2 installed on an old PC I use as an intranet web
server in my classroom. It was the only operating system installed on
that machine, and I started the FreeBSD install by erasing all
partitions on the hard drive (an old Western Digital 4.3 Gig IDE drive),
then using FreeBSD's sysinstall to create the partitions for the FreeBSD
installation.

  For various reasons, I am now attempting to use this hard drive on
another PC. The drive shows up normally in the BIOS, and I was able to
install Mandrake Linux 8.2 on it with no problems; using a shareware
utility called Boot It Lite, I was able to verify that the drive does
contain the 4 Linux partitions I created during the Linux install
(/boot, swap, /, and /home). However the PC will not boot from the hard
drive. (Yes, the BIOS is set to boot from first the floppy, then the
CDROM, and then the hard drive in question. Yes, the /boot partition is
completely below 1 Gig to avoid any LILO issues).

 I belatedly remember reading something about FreeBSD being able to
create a terminally incompatible hard drive for other operating systems
- is that what has happened here, and if so, is there a way to fix it?

 TIA for any help on this. I'm really hoping I don't have to throw this
drive away...while tiny by todays standards it's more than ample for the
use I intend.

-John Carri


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