From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jul 30 16:40:45 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A7FD037B400 for ; Tue, 30 Jul 2002 16:40:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net (snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.62]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6891143E3B for ; Tue, 30 Jul 2002 16:40:42 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cjcarri@earthlink.net) Received: from pool0753.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([209.179.194.243]) by snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 17ZgbZ-0002fC-00 for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Tue, 30 Jul 2002 16:40:42 -0700 Subject: Can FreeBSD make a hard drive unbootable by other OS's ? From: Cherie & John Carri To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Evolution/1.0.2-5mdk Date: 30 Jul 2002 04:42:51 -0700 Message-Id: <1028029372.19653.15.camel@bilbo.ourhome.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message