Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 16:52:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: jmd17@columbia.edu Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SYSINSTALL/FDISK Message-ID: <200210162052.g9GKq9h21592@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <F128DKvPEkGhAj5p1Fj0000050f@hotmail.com> from "John Daniels" at Oct 16, 2002 02:53:43 PM
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> > Hi: > > Please read the whole post before replying. Yes, I know that > DOS allows 4 PRIMARY Partitions and the history and purpose > of an EXTENDED Partition. > > I am installing 4.7-REL on a PC with one PRIMARY and one > EXTENDED partition. The PRIMARY partition is FAT and I have > W98 there. The EXTENDED partition is empty as it was originally > set up to be a place for FreeBSD. Unfortuneately, I now > understand that FreeBSD needs to be in a PRIMARY partition. > (EXTENDED was recommended by the disk's customer > service rep was was familiar with Linux but not BSD) Sounds like you have all the answers. Why the question. > Also, SYSINSTALL's FDISK program says that one should put > FreeBSD in a partition labeled as "unused". However, the > "Change Type" command lets me change the EXTENDED > partition to FreeBSD. I tried it and it seemed to work (I could > even make it "bootable") but I decided not to proceed because > I don't know what is going on behind the scenes: is it really > changing the partition to PRIMARY or just making a label > change (is that the same thing)? I don't want to wind up > with a disk that is unuseable. And if it is making the > change from EXTENDED to PRIMARY, is this something that > the BIOS will be OK with? I doubt the BIOS will care. It will probably work. But, if you are concerned, get yourself a copy of Partition Magic by Power Quest. It is available in most places that sell PC and software, including Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Use it to clean up everything and leave the extra space not in your first slice (DOS primary partition) as unused space. Then let the fdisk in sysinstall turn that space in to a FreeBSD slice. Basically, FreeBSD fdisk/disklabel/newfs is quite happy to overwrite any type of space with a slice and partitions/filesystems whether they are already in use or not, if you tell them to do so. The fdisk basically just rewrites the disk's slice (DOS partition) table, thus determining how the disk space is divvied up. It will read and report existing use, but you can tell it to redivide that space any way you want. Of course, if you modify space already in use, that previous stuff is going to be trashed (most likely), but it tells you how each piece is being used so you can be careful. The fact that an empty piece (slice/DOS partition) is identified as set up to hold extended partitions means little as long as nothing is really there. ////jerry > > Alternatively, should I use the SYSINSTALL/FDISK "Delete" > option on the Partition and then create a new partition/slice > instead of "Change Type"? > > If SYSINSTALL's FDISK program will not do what I need can you > direct me to a tool can I use to change the EXTENDED partition > to a PRIMARY partition? > > Thanks, > > John Daniels > > > FYI, SYSINSTALL's FDISK screen is: > > Disk Name: ad0 > Disk geometry: 4865 cyls/ 255 heads / 63 sectors = 78156225 (38162MB) > > Offset Size End Name PType Desc. Subtype > Flags > 0 63 62 - 6 > unused 0 > 63 12594897 12594959 ad0s1 2 fat 11 > 12594960 65561265 78156224 ad0s2 4 extended 15 > 78156225 9135 78165359 - 6 unused 0 > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! > http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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