Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 13:37:37 -0500 From: "Andrew L. Gould" <algould@datawok.com> To: "clayton rollins" <crollins666@hotmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [from newbies]: XP + FreeBSD Message-ID: <20040607133737.06a3b074.algould@datawok.com> In-Reply-To: <Sea1-F35bNHXm5SCIHL000226c0@hotmail.com> References: <Sea1-F35bNHXm5SCIHL000226c0@hotmail.com>
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On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:59:59 +0000 "clayton rollins" <crollins666@hotmail.com> wrote: > > On June 6, 2004, <David.Annetts@csiro.au> 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
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