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From: "David Markle" <davidmarkle@comcast.net>
To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 12:54:42 -0500
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Subject: Wrong Geometry Disk Problem (Seagate ST3200822A - 200 GB)
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Hello all,
 
I have a problem installing FreeBSD 5.2.1 onto a Seagate Barracuda
ST3200822A - 200 GB ATA/100 Hard Drive.  Being a bit gun shy from a
previous geometry problem mis-install where I almost lost some serious
data, I am reluctant to just "try" things until they work.  So here goes
...
 
Using the Seagate disk tool, I created a 120 GB NTFS partition and a 200
MB FAT16 partition.  Installed Windows XP on the 120 GB part.  I want to
put FreeBSD on the remaining space (~80 GB).
 
The Seagate HD utility states the following:
 
LBA Sectors are 390,721,968.
Standard 512 bytes per sector.
 
XBIOS Physical (and HD Spec Sheet from manufacture) (what BSD FDISK Sees
too).
C    16383
H    16
S    63
 
BIOS 
C    24321
H    255
S    63
 
When the FreeBSD CD boots and enters sysinstall, I get the usual drive
geometry error.  I've extensively searched google for some sort of
method to calculate the true drive geometry with little success.  
 
1. Is the above BIOS info correct ??  
2. Ultimately, do I want the drive geometry to match up with the LBA
sectors ??
3. Can anyone point me towards something that correctly calculates any
drive's TRUE geometry ??
 
Any help is greatly appreciated...
 
david markle