Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 11:16:18 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Paul Halliday <paul.halliday@gmail.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dual boot. Message-ID: <20070530151618.GE33564@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <2dab70a30705300317g487d7649hd5f56e13c8233758@mail.gmail.com> References: <2dab70a30705300317g487d7649hd5f56e13c8233758@mail.gmail.com>
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On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 07:17:01AM -0300, Paul Halliday wrote:
> I just installed 6.2 on a 90GB drive. During the installation I
> created the usual partitions and left 50GB untouched. I then rebooted
> ran partition magic to put a DOS FS on the remainder then ghosted XP
> pro onto it.
>
> What is the process now to dual boot this? I have tried booting then:
>
> sysinstall -> configure -> fdisk
>
> then install the bootmanager but when I try to write out the changes
> it errors and says:
>
> ERROR: Unable to write data to disk ad0!
>
> Do I need to start over or can I fix this?
First of all, I don't know what you mean by the 'usual partitions'.
Usual to what?
Do you really mean a couple of slices - one for MS and one for FreeBSD?
In general, you should install MS first and have it first on the disk.
Then install FreeBSD after that.
You don't indicate how you are running sysinstall.
You cannot run sysinstall from the disk that you intend to install on to.
The system will not let you reslice or repartition the active disk/slice.
You would need to run it from an install CD or a different disk.
So, My suggestion is: (since you have partition magic available)
Use Partition Magic to create three primary partitions (Slices in FreeBSD
language)
Make the first on the size you want to use for MS-win and make it NTFS
Make the second a scratch size - maybe 5 GB and make it FAT-32.
Make the third the rest of the drive to be used for FreeBSD and
make it an unknown type, but still a primary partition.
PM will whine about having more than one primary partition, but it will
do it and have no problem.
Then install MS in the first slice (primary Partition)
Install FreeBSD in the third slice ad0s3 or da0s3 (using the install CD)
and during the installation, tell it to make the slice bootable.
There is a selection letter for that. I think it is 'A', but check
on that. I could be remembering wrong. Also, tell it to install
the FreeBSD MBR. That selection is on a separate screen.
That second FAT-32 slice can then be mounted as MSDOS type when in
FreeBSD and be a d: or something like that, drive in MS and then
you can use it to transfer files back and forth. You need
something like this because although FreeBSD can read NTFS, it
still cannot write to NTFS. But, it can handle FAT-32 readwrite
just fine.
Alternatively, you could just make the slice (primary partition) where
where you install MS to be a FAT-32 and skip the second scratch slice.
But, I think most people think NTFS is generally better to install on
than FAT-32.
This and thinking through the initial questions I posed, should help
you get going.
////jerry
>
> Thanks.
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