From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 19 02:19:18 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDA4416A404 for ; Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:19:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from amarendra.godbole@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.238]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9852E13C455 for ; Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:19:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from amarendra.godbole@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id s18so395991wxc for ; Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:19:17 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=Sj96O2Xn1kNvOJkK3SEvoZRKFQj12m6jHsIocB6+ErtLSRBg5Po/YVWIcl2arBj+lzdKhf2RRqO7q8J+EPbTH+6i8OIsKAq6G5euTy1N8ODdicpaOyS8DS4ihWSz3WlWPzQSYsVjyMyxJh8CAFEsBjBTJXyc0V/hd8EdHgfSFIo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=ucR7gBZ8NaBWAE09EsLupF9osk7kd6O8GhvhJG4179XL4tJaI37bviDshjDv/5iUcyz20q6e8zLXXP4otRH7ePYmJ1OIka3U7qwcuOobw7QYsqKfX6ZEBHiP3g75cu/ByJ6coC8mSxcFUos3/VVCNxgC0Qz5Rnk8xWsV2Nq+jTA= Received: by 10.70.60.7 with SMTP id i7mr2301524wxa.1176949157567; Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:19:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.100.91.16 with HTTP; Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:19:17 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <294439d20704181919h16b0c83fsd6481653d51d5c0c@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:49:17 +0530 From: "Amarendra Godbole" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: [solution] Re-installing Windows *after* FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:19:18 -0000 Hi, I recently came across a problem where I had to re-install Windows XP on my laptop, which already had FreeBSD on the second slice. I am sure many must have faced this issue, and hence I am posting this solution that I adopted to re-install Windows (okay, here I already have two slices, first for Windows and second for FreeBSD). Typical disk setup: 40G HDD on Dell Latitude D400 laptop. First slice (partition on Windows parlance) of 15G and second slice of 25G for FreeBSD. Pre-condition: Windows slice already exists. This procedure typically applies to re-installing Windows. Steps: 1. Re-install Windows in a normal way, making sure you don't touch the FreeBSD slice of the machine. Since Win does not honor the MBR, it will install its own MBR after the installation, thus hiding FreeBSD. 2. After step 1., boot the machine from FreeBSD boot CD-ROM (CD 1) of your release. Mine is FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE 3. In sysinstall, go to the Fixit mode, and select the option for "live" FreeBSD system. You will now get a prompt something like: "Fixit#" 4. Run the following command: boot0cfg -B ad0 This command re-installs the boot0 boot manager on disk ad0. It will properly detect both OSes', and re-install the MBR appropriately. 5. Reboot. You will now be greeted with the very famous prompts: F1 DOS F2 FreeBSD Hope this helps. Similar thing (re-installing grub) can be done for Windows and Linux dual-boot, when Win kicks off grub. -Amarendra