Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 16:01:45 -0400 From: "Jud" <judmarc@fastmail.fm> To: "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Rapha=EBl=20Marmier?=" <raphael@computer-rental.ch>, "Dan Harrison" <macman20001@mac.com> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD install corrupts neighboring partitions Message-ID: <20030908200145.7384E76324@smtp.us2.messagingengine.com> In-Reply-To: <B5AF9F6A-E1DC-11D7-96F7-000393D67E4A@computer-rental.ch> References: <B5AF9F6A-E1DC-11D7-96F7-000393D67E4A@computer-rental.ch>
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On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 11:13:28 +0200, "Rapha=EBl Marmier" <raphael@computer-rental.ch> said: > Happened to me as well in the past. With Linux as well. I think I=20 > solved it by installing BSD first and then windows, I'm not sure though. >=20 > Raphael >=20 > Le Lundi, 8 sep 2003, =E0 05:25 Europe/Zurich, Dan Harrison a =E9crit : >=20 > >> I'm attempting to install FreeBSD 4.8 on a system which will boot it= =20 > >> and also Windows 2000 Server. I've done this with two multiboot=20 > >> utilities: the simple boot manager that comes with FreeBSD and V=20 > >> Communications' System Commander. > >> > >> In both cases, I have found that when I install FreeBSD it corrupts=20 > >> neighboring NTFS and FAT partitions. After the install, the OSes in=20 > >> these partitions fail to boot or the partitions become entirely=20 > >> unreadable. Whether I tell FreeBSD not to install an MBR or whether I= =20 > >> tell it to install its boot manager, the result is the same:=20 > >> Neighboring partitions are being corrupted to the point where one can= =20 > >> not get to data on them. > >> > >> I realize that dual booting is not common, but I need to do it on=20 > >> this laptop. Has anyone else on the lists encountered this problem? > > > > Yes. I had it corrupt a copy of Win XP on a desktop I installed it on.= =20 > > My solution, I'm sorry to say, was to get another hard drive and=20 > > re-install Windows on that. If I wanted to use windows, switch the=20 > > hard drives in the OS detect order in the BOIS. :\ > > > > I don't know how practical it is on a laptop, but I wanted to tell you= =20 > > that you are not alone. Just wanted to be careful throwing around the term "corruption," when what may be going on is simply not being able to boot back into Windows, which could have any number of causes. If in fact the Windows partition and MBR aren't "corrupted," then you might be mistakenly wiping perfectly good Windows installations for no reason. The very first thing I'd recommend is to be careful what 3rd party tools you try to use. I've seen many people come to grief trying a mix of them - "If Partition Magic won't do it, maybe my System Commander will work!"=20 Many of these tools fiddle with the MBR in their own peculiar ways, and if you start to mix them together, watch out. Stay away from the fancier "system" tools if you don't absolutely need them. If you use a partition resizer to make room for FreeBSD, make it something easy to use and easily uninstalled like BootItNG, then do uninstall it before proceeding. Once you've installed FreeBSD, if you can't boot back into Windows, use the Windows tools to restore the familiar Win MBR: for 9x, boot from the emergency floppy and run fdisk /mbr; for more recent versions, boot from CD into console repair mode and run fixboot and fixmbr. Another solution is to install a nice, simple, (free!) automagic bootloader like GAG. Above all, as The Hitchhiker's Guide says - "Don't Panic." :) A healthy Windows partition is very possibly awaiting your return.=20 Jud
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