From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 16 12:04:06 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 01F2316A401 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:04:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from liladude@aruba.it) Received: from vsmtp14.tin.it (vsmtp14.tin.it [212.216.176.118]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA4BD43D5E for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:04:04 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from liladude@aruba.it) Received: from [192.168.1.2] (87.2.251.219) by vsmtp14.tin.it (7.2.072.1) id 4405B3A70090AE4B; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:04:38 +0100 Message-ID: <44195444.1050607@aruba.it> Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:04:20 +0100 From: Lila User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 (Windows/20051201) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: sub02@freeode.co.uk References: <200603140049.k2E0nQES021139@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using 'incorrect' HD geometry. 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, 16 Mar 2006 12:04:06 -0000 Hi, I'm using win2k an freebsd 6.0 on my laptop too, and I've been reinstalling freebsd pretty often (I'm still tring my way to have it working, so I started with 5.4 and than moved to 4.11 and 6.0) without ever changing my win partition. As you say, I'm always prompted about incorrect geometry, I hit ok and go on, than fdisk show me something like the one you got, with ad0s1 as my win (NTFS) partition and ad0s2 as my freebsd partition. All I do at this rate is to set my ad0s1 to be my active partition (I boot both from the win 2000 booter) than I go ahead leaving the MBR as is and install freebsd in freebsd partition. Unfortunately I've never been able to keep the /usr label as is (I always delete them all and start from a auto layout), and I can't help you if you're willing to keep their data safe. I got this article as model when I first did it: http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2004/10/dual-boot-freebsd-5.html My windows partition was out of order only once, when I forgot to set it bootable, but this is because I actually boot both OS from it: I went back to fdisk, fixed it and got my windows working with no problem. I can't tell you to go ahed with no backup... but I can say your win partition is pretty safe with freebsd fdisk. Regards Lila John Murphy ha scritto: > If I just immediately 'Q'uit the darned thing will it not make any > changes to global drive geometry? It would probably take me several > days to get my win2k installation back to how it is now, if I lost it. > > All I really want is for the installer to use the freebsd slice as is. > > I'm tempted to just try UPGRADING but mergemaster always confuses me. >