From owner-freebsd-stable Mon Feb 8 11:14:34 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA13996 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 11:14:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from redbox.venux.net (redbox.venux.net [216.47.238.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA13988 for ; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 11:14:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from matthew@venux.net) Received: from thunder (net177138.hcv.com [209.153.177.138]) by redbox.venux.net (Postfix) with SMTP id D7CC32E207; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 14:15:09 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.1.19990208141224.009b16a0@mail.venux.net> X-Sender: mhagerty@mail.venux.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 14:15:49 -0500 To: Andre Albsmeier , Rico Pajarola From: Matthew Hagerty Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS' Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, Andre Albsmeier In-Reply-To: <19990208065559.A16209@internal> References: <3.0.32.19990207170425.0092c9e0@shrike.overmind.ch> <3.0.32.19990207170425.0092c9e0@shrike.overmind.ch> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG You can add Intel Server Boards to that list, and yes, they have a Phoenix BIOS. If the BIOS does not recognize the MBR it seems to write its own MBR that basically stops the machine from booting and just displays an error. I had quite a time with this, what a pain in the a**. Matthew At 06:55 AM 2/8/99 +0100, Andre Albsmeier wrote: >On Sun, 07-Feb-1999 at 17:04:30 +0100, Rico Pajarola wrote: >> At 14:54 99.02.07 +0100, Andre Albsmeier wrote: >> >Just to add it for reference: Machines from our company (Siemens) also don't >> >work with dangerously dedicated disks :-( They have a thing called Phoenix >> >BIOS and I have got plenty of them... >> > >> >Interesting, all these "well known" names (Compaq, HP, Siemens) seem to have >> >problems with it... >> Most of these well known names have their own, 'improved' BIOS. They do >> more sanity checks on everything, which in some rare cases can make life >> easier and 'safer', but in most cases they are a nuisance. There are other >> ways to get problems with a Compaq BIOS than DD, eg a brand new >> unpartitioned disk :( there are ways around those problems, but it can be a >> real nuisance even if you're just installing win95 (as if win95 alone >> wasn't enough of a nuisance) >> So if it doesn't work, it's not because DD is a bad (or wrong) thing, but > >No, DD isn't a bad thing. I prefer it over NDD because it's simpler. > >> the BIOS checks for something it just should not check (ie it should only >> look at the signature on the master boot record, and if it is ok, it should >> load it without any further tests). >> Those 'well known' names should fix their broken BIOSes, as they've always >> caused problems with non-dos (=fat16) OSes (yes, even win95b with fat32 was >> a problem with some vendors BIOS). > >I hope not because this is the reason I need for buying other machines :-). >You can trust me, it's hard to buy non-Siemens PCs if you are working at >Siemens... > >> You've been warned that DD may not work for you, and no one foces you to >> use it. You know which BIOSes are likely not to work with it, and there >> actually are cases where it can make one's life easier :) > >_I_ know that it doesn't work with machines from above companies, and _I_ >know what to do against it (_I_ don't use them). I just wanted to add >another name to the list in case someone needs it in future. > >> >> Sorry if this was a bit too loud, but I just don't want to see DD go away. > >So do I. > > -Andre > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message