From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Oct 2 09:12:34 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA21616 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Fri, 2 Oct 1998 09:12:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from usin.com (rainier.illuminetss7.com [192.246.48.20] (may be forged)) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA21611 for ; Fri, 2 Oct 1998 09:12:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dbaker@illuminetss7.com) Received: from mailgate.illuminetss7.com ([192.246.48.181]) by usin.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id JAA21780; Fri, 2 Oct 1998 09:12:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ccMail by mailgate.illuminetss7.com (ccMail Link to SMTP R6.01.01) id AA907344826; Fri, 02 Oct 98 09:13:51 -0800 Message-Id: <9810029073.AA907344826@mailgate.illuminetss7.com> X-Mailer: ccMail Link to SMTP R6.01.01 Date: Fri, 02 Oct 98 09:15:45 -0800 From: "Dan Baker" To: , Subject: Re: Switching from Win95 (yuck) to FreeBSD (mmmm) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG FreeBSD can mount, read and write Dos Partition.... BUT it cannot be booted from a DOS partition. This would be a bad idea anyway, as FATFS has no file ownership or permissions. It's also slow and wasteful of diskspace. DOS Will only boot from controller 0, drive 0, partition 1 (drive C:) so it shouldn't be moved. Drive 1 (D: and E:) should be repartitioned for BSD with a single partition using the entire drive, and then the regular slice arrangement. 4G is a lot of disk space for a FreeBSD desktop machine, unless you have some pretty heavy-duty applications on it (database, multi-media, CD writing, major programming projects, web/ftp server, etc.) Since Windows apps bloat so badly, you may want to leave the E: partition where it is and just recreate the extended partition as a FreeBSD partition. The process is very easy when using sysinstall. Easier by a long shot than fdisk. One way to squeeze a little more performance from the machine would be to use FIPS or Partition Magic to free up about 256M of Drive 0 (C:) to use for the root and swap partitions as so: Drive 0 Slice 1 Windows C: (1.3 G) Slice 2 FreeBSD root (128M) swap (128M) Drive 1 Slice 1 Windows D: (2G) Part 2 FreeBSD var (128M) home (512M) usr (1G) usr/X11R6 (remainder) Note: I am making some assumptions here about your machine and the amount of swap needed, the types of applications you want to install, etc. Your Milage May Vary Dan Baker ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Switching from Win95 (yuck) to FreeBSD (mmmm) Author: "Bart (The Good Guy) Trzynadlowski" at Internet_mail Date: 10/2/98 6:45 AM Ok, I have outgrown Windows 95 in many ways now and I need FreeBSD. I have 2 hard drives with 3 partitions: 1. C (1.6g) 2. D and E (4g total) Windows is on C. I read the installation procedure and I think i can do this: Shut Down to MS-DOS mode in Win95 Start the installation as described on freebsd.org BUT: Does FreeBSD really read my DOS partitions so I don't have to have to reformat ANYTHING? even my D/E drive? And if it can, does it handicap FreeBSD in any way? Does it have native support for the DOS partitions or will I be slowed down? back to the installation: When i get FreeBSD running or even before i start installing it, i could rename or remove my Win95 directory thus being able to configure FreeBSD to boot on my system... Later I'd like to stick Windows on the D/E drive or something so itd only boot when I want it to. And if FreeBSD DOESNT reformat anything and keeps the partition windows should still be able to access my C drive and FreeBSD my D/E drives, right? Thanks, Bart "The Good Guy" Trzynadlowski "Screwy ain't it?" 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