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Date:      Tue, 21 Jun 2005 07:23:15 -0500
From:      Ryan Sommers <ryans@gamersimpact.com>
To:        Benjamin Sher <delphi123@zebra.net>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: After Install -- Where is FreeBSD? -- Follow-up
Message-ID:  <42B806B3.7060604@gamersimpact.com>
In-Reply-To: <000f01c575bc$0c4ad760$6401a8c0@dell1>
References:  <000f01c575bc$0c4ad760$6401a8c0@dell1>

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Benjamin Sher wrote:
> Dear friends:
> 
> Just for the record, I have two primary HD. Windows is installed on the
> first (ad0) and FreeBSD on the second (ad1).
> 

A few things...

1) Welcome to FreeBSD, don't get too discouraged over these issues, 
everyone had/s them the first time they move to an opensource os. The 
rewards from perseverance will be great.

2) What happened is FreeBSD installed the Master Boot Record (MBR) on 
ad1. The MBR is responsible for holding the CPUs hand so it can begin 
booting the OS. It also holds the partition table. When your computer 
boots the first thing that executes is the BIOS. When that is finished 
it loads the first sector, the MBR, of the first BIOS boot device to a 
very specific memory location and begins executing it. In your case the 
first boot device is your WinXP drive. You need to change the boot 
device to the second harddrive, change your harddrive order, or write an 
MBR to the first disk that will handle booting from multiple disks.

3) This mailing list isn't the preferred place for these sorts of 
questions. In the FreeBSD world current@freebsd.org is the mailing list 
for issues pertaining to the FREEBSD-CURRENT CVS branch. This boils down 
to the head of the development branch where all new code and patches are 
applied. It also means that FREEBSD-CURRENT can, will and does break 
often but the skill set of those running it is such that they can deal 
with it.

A more appropriate list for these questions would be 
questions@freebsd.org. As a newcomer to the OS I would highly recommend 
you subscribe to the questions@ mailing list because reading other 
people's questions will greatly add to your experience and might answer 
a question you had but hadn't asked yet.

4) I'd highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the FreeBSD 
website, the developers have done a fantastic job and there is an 
enormous amount of information on it. I'd make the FreeBSD handbook your 
best friend as it will answer a ton of questions for you.

Handbook: 
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html

Mailing Lists: 
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL

FreeBSD Newbies page: http://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies.html

Have fun!

-- 
Ryan Sommers
ryans@gamersimpact.com



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