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From: Charles Swiger <cswiger@mac.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:27:32 -0500
To: Keith Kelly <c0d3h4x0r@hotmail.com>
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Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
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On Jan 22, 2004, at 6:04 PM, Keith Kelly wrote:
> The motherboard is not old.  It is an MSI KT4 Ultra motherboard, if I
> remember the model number correctly off the top of my head, for the 
> Athlon
> XP architecture.  The BIOS doesn't even explicitly list what mode 
> (LBA, CHS,
> extended CHS) it is using to address the drive -- I just set it to 
> "Auto",
> it detects the device name, and fills out a small listing telling me 
> the
> C/H/S geometry it is using.  The motherboard is already running the 
> latest
> available BIOS update from MSI.

OK, but if the auto mode uses the wrong C/H/S translation, this default 
may be the source of your problem.  What happens when you switch from 
using "auto" to explicitly using "LBA"?

[ ... ]
> I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, Windows XP, 
> Windows
> 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various points, and 
> Windows XP
> continues to work fine :-)

Your error message reflects a BIOS-level failure to find a bootable 
partition.

Do you already have a bootable partition on the system, and are trying 
to install FreeBSD in a second partition?  If so, which partition is 
marked active?

-- 
-Chuck