From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 15 18:45:24 2003 Return-Path: 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 D78A616A4CE for ; Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:45:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from out2.smtp.messagingengine.com (out2.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.26]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BA09C43FBF for ; Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:45:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from judmarc@fastmail.fm) X-Sasl-enc: 7wjgqieLoKS0WnNR4DKm7w 1068950719 Received: from jud.dyndns.org (dialup-67.74.79.158.Dial1.Philadelphia1.Level3.net [67.74.79.158]) by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0DF98416122; Sat, 15 Nov 2003 21:45:18 -0500 (EST) To: "Michael L. Squires" , germain@purdue.edu References: <200311152346.hAFNkSv9035956@siralan.org> Message-ID: From: Jud Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=utf-8 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 21:45:21 -0500 In-Reply-To: <200311152346.hAFNkSv9035956@siralan.org> User-Agent: Opera M2/7.30 (FreeBSD, build 505) cc: FreeBSD questions Subject: Re: Dual Booting FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 02:45:25 -0000 On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:46:27 -0500 (EST), Michael L. Squires wrote: >> 40 gigs. Would it be easier to install FreeBSD on the unformatted >> partition >> or the new hard drive for the purpose of dual booting with xp? Also, >> does >> anyone know how to set up a dual boot system or know of a good guide to >> doing >> so? > > I have one system which uses XOSL with separate disks (SCSI) for FreeBSD > 5.1-CURRENT and XP, and another using the standard FBSD boot manager > where the primary disk is all XP and FreeBSD uses the first partition > of the secondary drive. > > Both work fine. Actually, your FreeBSD install can use both the new drive and the free space on the original drive, but if you'd rather have 40GB to use on something else, that's fine. If you install FreeBSD (or at least the root partition) on the new drive and you use FreeBSD's bootloader, be sure to install the bootloader on *both* drives. There are instructions regarding how to dual boot using the Windows bootloader in the FAQ at the FreeBSD web site. I have always found the instructions for doing this with both OSs on one drive easier to understand than the instructions for two drives, but your experience may be different. Other available free bootloaders include the abovementioned XOSL, Grub from the FreeBSD ports system, and the one I'm using now (after having tried all the above except XOSL), GAG, which is very easy and automagic. Jud