From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 7 18:36:59 2004 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 8964616A4CE for ; Mon, 7 Jun 2004 18:36:59 +0000 (GMT) Received: from starling.mail.pas.earthlink.net (starling.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.227]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63B3C43D5D for ; Mon, 7 Jun 2004 18:36:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from algould@datawok.com) Received: from 20-74.lctv-b4.cablelynx.com ([24.204.20.74] helo=yoda.datawok.com) by starling.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 3.36 #4) id 1BXOzO-0000ww-00; Mon, 07 Jun 2004 11:36:54 -0700 Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 13:37:37 -0500 From: "Andrew L. Gould" To: "clayton rollins" Message-Id: <20040607133737.06a3b074.algould@datawok.com> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.9-gtk2-20040229 (GTK+ 2.4.0; i386-portbld-freebsd4.10) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: ee791d459e3d6817d780f4a490ca69564776905774d2ac4b6f2799413eb2f018b14dd15de017e43d350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: David.Annetts@csiro.au cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [from newbies]: XP + 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: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 18:36:59 -0000 On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:59:59 +0000 "clayton rollins" wrote: > > On June 6, 2004, wrote: > > > >Hi, > > > >This has probably been answered before, but I was unable to find > >explicit confirmation. > > > >The installation guide (2.5.3) states that "You now have the option > >to install a boot manager. In general, you > >should choose to install the FreeBSD boot manager if: > > > > *You have more than one drive, and have installed FreeBSD onto a > >drive other than the first one. > > *You have installed FreeBSD alongside another operating system on > >the same disk, and you want to choose whether to start FreeBSD or the > >other operating system when you start the compute" > > > >Will installing FreeBSD's boot manager render my exisiting XP > >installation inoperable? I have been down this route with Linux in > >the past with the result that my NT partition was unusable after > >Linux installation. > > > >Many thanks, > > > >Dave. > > > > Hi Dave, > > Freebsd-questions is the proper forum for questions; I'm sending my > answer there as replying on newbies is against the charter. (Also, if > I make a mistake, it'll get corrected here :).) > > You don't need to subscribe to the list; you should be CC'ed on any > replies. > > As I understand it, the boot manager allows for one other OS to be > bootable or for an OS to be booted which is not on the same drive as > the MBR. > > It should not conflict with XP, afaik, and I've used XP and FreeBSD > together in the past. > > As a cautionary note, though, I've seen others hang themselves with > this. (I never figured out what they could have done wrong.) You > should back up any data from the XP installation you wish to keep, to > be safe. > > Regards, > Clayton The most common mistake I've seen is where users do not mark the XP partition as bootable during the partition creation step. I have never had dual booting problems as long as I: 1. marked both the XP and FreeBSD partitions as bootable; 2. installed the FreeBSD boot loader. As long as the user does not delete the XP partition (yikes!), the user can mark it as bootable using /stand/sysinstall after installation is complete. Best of luck, Andrew Gould