From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 26 15:21:46 2005 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 8684816A41F for ; Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:21:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@kelleycows.com) Received: from sccrmhc12.comcast.net (sccrmhc12.comcast.net [204.127.202.56]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5DF0C43D88 for ; Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:21:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@kelleycows.com) Received: from [10.3.29.200] (c-24-30-114-96.hsd1.ca.comcast.net[24.30.114.96]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc12) with ESMTP id <200511261521240120026p5te>; Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:21:28 +0000 Message-ID: <43887D74.1060304@kelleycows.com> Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:21:24 -0800 From: Christopher Kelley User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (X11/20051107) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Steve Bertrand References: <200511260758.jAQ7wQpX007746@host19.the-web-host.com> In-Reply-To: <200511260758.jAQ7wQpX007746@host19.the-web-host.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Unable to install on large hard drive 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: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:21:46 -0000 Steve Bertrand wrote: >>I have a small partition for the windows system that is 5 >>gig, a large partition for programs and data that is 18 gig, >>and around 15 gig left for fBSD. The installer squawks about >>the drive geometry, and says it will use a more sane >>geometry. I set up the slices and it doesn't squawk about >>writing them, and then attempts to install the system. I >>immediately get an error "Write failure on transfer!" and it >>can't seem to write anything to the drive. >> >> >> > >This may be the wrong approach, but what exactly are you feeding to the >installer in regards to space per filesystem? > >ie: > >- 250m (for /) >- xxxm (for swap) >- xm (for /usr) >- etc etc > > / - 512m swap - 1024m (2x system memory) /var - 512m /usr - the rest (something like 12g or so) This setup has worked for me in other computers, but this is the first time I've had such a large drive, or tried dual booting. >I've ignored those errors in the past, and have had no difficulty. This >has occurred since the 4.x days for me. Mind you, I never have (and god >willing) never will run a Windows system alongside FBSD, but perhaps >trying to feed it what you want for the most of the filesystems, and >when you get to the last, just accept the default block amount that FBSD >provides you with, and let it use the rest. > > That's what I did. It's not writing *anything*, so I doubt filesystem size has anything to do with it. I tried accepting the default fBSD geometry as well as a couple other seemingly "obvious" choices with the same results. >>The good news is, it isn't harming my windows partitions. I >>can easily boot back into windows and everything there works. >> >> > >I'd suggest backing up your data on the Windows partition(s) if you have >anything crutially important (especially if you are not familiar with >recovering data), before you keep hammering at it. > >Steve > > Nothing important on my windows partitions. I have a separate file server where all the data goes. But thanks for the warning. :) Christopher