Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:48:34 -0600 From: freebsd@dreamchaser.org To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install Message-ID: <416E2142.8090909@dreamchaser.org>
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Hi all,
Trying to install 5.3b7 on the second slice of a Seagate ST380013AS
SATA 80G drive.
Drive was originally partitioned from NT to have an 8G NTFS slice
at the front, with the rest left open for FBSD.
When I boot off a CD (image created from downloaded iso image),
start the install, and go to allocate the freebsd slice, it reports
155061/16/63 ad4
and says the geometry is invalid
If I go ahead and attempt to partition, I see
Geometry ad4 9729 cylinders/255 heads/63 sectors = 156296385 sectors
(76316MB)
Offset Size(St) End Name PType Desc SubType Flags
0 63 62 -- 12 unused 0
63 16386237 16386299 ad4s1 4 NTFS/HPFS/QNX 7
16386300 139915188 156301487 -- 12 unused 0
F1 help suggests running tools/pfdisk, for which there appears to be
no documentation, but which appears to be a very old tool applicable
only to disks smaller than 8G and not using LBA.
Questions:
1. Is the geometry (155061/16/63) really invalid?
Given the 1024 cyl limitation, it doesn't look to me like the
modified geometry (9729/255/63) assumed? by fdisk is any better,
since both 155061 and 9729 are > 1024.
In any case, the drive uses LBA, so why is this an issue and
even being reported?
2. Do I really want to reset it? Is that even relevant when LBA
is being used?
3. Is pfdisk and geometry even relevant for disks > 8G?
Decided to abort the install until I had this straightened out, but
I'm guessing I should just forge ahead and disregard the geometry
complaints?
Thanks for any insights,
Gary
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