From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jan 17 10:32:21 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from clmboh1-smtp3.columbus.rr.com (unknown [65.24.0.112]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C88DC37B6C9 for ; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 10:31:56 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.iowna.com (dhcp065-024-023-038.columbus.rr.com [65.24.23.38]) by clmboh1-smtp3.columbus.rr.com (8.11.2/8.11.2) with ESMTP id f0HITZ701665; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:29:35 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3A65E460.4885A416@mail.iowna.com> Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:28:48 -0500 From: Bill Moran X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: MMustang68@aol.com Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Disc Partition References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG MMustang68@aol.com wrote: > > Hi, > > I have a partitioned disc C: & D:. I am running Win 2000 on C: and Win > ME on D: I would like to install FreeBSD on my C: drive it is about 6 gigs > and I am not worried about deleting an info on this disc. > > I do not understand which disk to choose or what the 4 messages on the > FDISK Partition Editor are. Please let me know what to choose if I to > install FreeBSD on my C: drive and if possible let me know what they all > mean. Here is what I see.... > > Offset Size End Name PType Desc > Subtype Flags > > 0 63 62 - 6 unused > 0 > 63 13831902 13831964 ad0s1 2 fat > 11 > 13831965 6168960 20000924 ad0s2 4 extended > 15 > > 20000925 4725 20005649 - 6 unused > 0 > Your message isn't well explained, so my answer might not be correct, but I'll explain as best I can and see if it answers what you're asking. The first 63 blocks and last 4725 blocks are unused because you're using a DOS parition scheme. I don't know the details of why DOS partition schemes waste this space, but they do. When I say, DOS, I mean any version of Windows as well, since they all use the same partition scheme. First thing to understand is that what BSD calls a "slice" is = to what DOS calls a "partition" What BSD calls a "partition" doesn't really exist in DOS, BSD partitions exist inside BSD slices. If that's not confusing enough, I don't know what is. From here on out I will use BSD terminology for clarity The First slice is your C:, looks like it's about 6G or so and it's formatted FAT (DOS filesystem) Second slice is your D:, it's an "extended partition" (no information about format) and about 3G or so in size. If you want to delete the C: slice and replace it with FreeBSD, do this: use the down arrows to highlight the FAT slice and hit the "D" key to delete it. Then scroll back up to the top of the screen (where it says "free") and hit "C" to create a new BSD slice. (choose type BSD) Use all the space it will allow. You should now see something similar to what you saw before, except the first slice will be labeled "FreeBSD" Now you're done with this screen. press "Q" to exit. You'll next enter the partition editor, You want to create all your partitions on the first slice. Use "A" to auto-create default size partitions - read up about what each parition is for so you better understand what each is used for, but for now the defaults will be fine. When prompted, select "booteasy". booteasy will allow you to select which OS to boot as the system is starting. Warning! There's an outside possibility that the OS on your D: drive will be unbootable after this (unlikely, but possible) so make sure you're serious about not having any important data that could be lost before continuing. Hope this helps. Bill To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message