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Date:      Mon, 13 May 1996 11:11:38 -0700
From:      Doug White <dwhite@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu>
To:        Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freenet.hamilton.on.ca>
Cc:        dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu, questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: harddisks 
Message-ID:  <199605131811.LAA00465@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 12 May 1996 04:19:21 EDT." <Pine.SOL.3.91.960512041152.21012B-100000@james.freenet.hamilton.on.ca> 

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> > Shouldn't be much of a problem, as long as the root partition is below 
> > 500MB or so.
> 
> I see this number a lot, and I assumed this was because the partition 
> must be below 512MB in order to be bootable.  However, my hdd is split 
> into one msdos partition, 1.1GB, and 430MB FreeBSD one.  The dos 
> partition is first.  The FreeBSD sure _seems_ bootable!  (I haven't 
> actually tried it, because the floppy install bombed halfway and /kernel 
> wasn't copied yet, but the FreeBSD bootloader (is that the right term?  I 
> mean that funky thing where you can enter '?' to get a file list of the 
> root directory, or enter -cCs etc) starts finely).  Does the limit only 
> apply when you install something like OS-BS?

It's a BIOS limitation.  Some BIOSes can't read "EIDE" disks, which are larger 
than 512MB, cylinder 1024 actually.  These need a translator that is installed 
in the MBR to translate the accesses appropriately.  Others, like the Phoenix 
in my Pent, can handle it no problem.  Yours apparently can deal with it.

--------

Doug White                              | University of Oregon  
Internet:  dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu    | Residence Networking Assistant
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite    | Computer Science Major




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