From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 16 10:01:58 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D0881065672 for ; Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:01:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from tower.berklix.org (tower.berklix.org [83.236.223.114]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A09CA8FC15 for ; Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:01:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mart.js.berklix.net (p57BCF67C.dip.t-dialin.net [87.188.246.124]) (authenticated bits=0) by tower.berklix.org (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id q1GA1mc0091838; Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:01:53 GMT (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (fire.js.berklix.net [192.168.91.41]) by mart.js.berklix.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id q1GA4bmt018446; Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:04:56 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fire.js.berklix.net (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q1G8tJoB007264; Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:56:39 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from jhs@fire.js.berklix.net) Message-Id: <201202160856.q1G8tJoB007264@fire.js.berklix.net> To: Chip Oakley From: "Julian H. Stacey" Organization: http://berklix.com BSD Unix Linux Consultancy, Munich Germany User-agent: EXMH on FreeBSD http://berklix.com/free/ X-URL: http://www.berklix.com In-reply-to: Your message "Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:14:03 EST." Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:55:19 +0100 Sender: jhs@berklix.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Technical Support Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:01:58 -0000 Chip Oakley wrote: > Hello, > > I am upgrading to BSD from windows. > > I am having complications with an old password from Windows that I cannot > remember. > > I created an ISO Boot CD on another computer and installed it and made sure > to set the BIOS to boot from CD, to no avail. There's 2 types of PC boot CDs I believe, FreeBSD changed to the newer method in last year or so I think (maybe just for 8.* ?), so if yours is an older PC it might be looking for the other sort. You could try a few years old (eg 6.* or probably 7.*) FreeBSD CDROM for interest to see if that boots. > Is there a way to access the executable files from the CD Question not clear. You can access to read & execute all files from CDROM, by using the LIVEFS (live file system) option. To access files on the MS partition[s], If fdisk shows the MS still present you can also mount the MS file systems from BSD (regardless whether BSD is booted & running from CD or hard disk) For that you would need either mount -t msdosfs ..... if its an older FS or mount -t ntfs -r ..... if its a newer NTFS it only support read only mode, That mount command calls eg /sbin/mount_msdosfs /sbin/mount_ntfs Thats where they are on a hard disc. If FreeBSD hasnt installed yet, you'll find them I recall under something like /mnt2/sbin/mount_msdosfs (I think the cd is already mounted) If you want to write individual files on an MS NTFS you need ntfs-3g which is partly broken (one error noted in my http://berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/laptops/shrink/ & a lot easier to run from a hard disk working system. > and overwrite > windows for my BSD installation? Well if you just wanted to trash the MS & not recover data ? that's easy, the fdisk within BSD install should do it, but you could always try something like dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 count=1000 DO NOT TRY THAT ON ANY SYSTEM WITH ANY DATA YOU VALUE Cheers, Julian -- Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com Reply below not above, cumulative like a play script, & indent with "> ". Format: Plain text. Not HTML, multipart/alternative, base64, quoted-printable. Mail from @yahoo dumped @berklix. http://berklix.org/yahoo/