From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 7 12:59:29 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 AD55416A403 for ; Tue, 7 Nov 2006 12:59:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) Received: from mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com (mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.199]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 512D043D49 for ; Tue, 7 Nov 2006 12:59:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) Received: from collaborativefusion.com (mx01.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.201]) (TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA) by wingspan with esmtp; Tue, 07 Nov 2006 07:59:28 -0500 id 00056415.45508330.00007B4B Received: from Internal Mail-Server (206.210.89.202) by mx01 (envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com) with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 7 Nov 2006 07:58:35 -0500 Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 07:59:22 -0500 From: Bill Moran To: "Bob Schwartz" Message-Id: <20061107075922.d7c44977.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> In-Reply-To: <000001c7021f$287ef880$0500a8c0@c1> References: <000001c7021f$287ef880$0500a8c0@c1> Organization: Collaborative Fusion X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.2.9 (GTK+ 2.10.6; i386-portbld-freebsd6.1) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Questions on first-time installation (Re: (no subject)) 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: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:59:29 -0000 In response to "Bob Schwartz" : > Hi, > > First, I want to join the lists that you think are best for a highly > knowledgable and experienced PC/Windows user who knows little about unix. > Would you be so kind as to guide me, please? You're on the right list, but it helps to use a subject line. > The install moves flawlessly to fdisk, but I don't understand the screen > print and options that the installation files offer when time to select > where to install bsd. > > this workstation has two intallations of XP and a windows boot manager for > selecting them. Under no circumstances can we afford for this to be > disturbed (at least until we can finally get rid of windows forever!). You should not install on that machine, then. Its not uncommon for first time users to hose other installations. Based on your "under no circumstances" statement, you need to ask yourself two questions: 1) Do I have a complete and reliable backup of my Windows stuff? 2) Can I afford the time to restore from backup if I do something wrong? If the answer to either of those questions is "no" then you should do one of two things: 1) Recruit a trusted friend who has done this before to help. 2) Don't use that machine for your first install. > I've put in an adaptec 2940 and a 146 gig SCSI drive...and this is the drive > I want to install bsd on and play with it to learn, but the installation > process does not appear to tell me how to install on this drive only..and > whether or not if I also install BSD's boot manager, I may disturb the one > windows is offering already. The BSD boot manager _will_ displace any other boot manager, although it works just as well in every instance I've done it. > The box drives are three 73 gig SAS' in a raid configuration. We also don't > want to disturb this. > > I've put in an adaptec 2940 and a 146 gig SCSI drive...and this is the drive > I want to install bsd on and play with it to learn, but the installation > process does not appear to tell me how to install on this drive only..and > whether or not if I also install BSD's boot manager, I may disturb the one > windows is offering already. > > How may I quickly get some help to understand the screen prints about the > drives (they do not appear in the install function in any form resembling > the numbers or sizes of drives this box actually has) and learn how to > install this and get a boot option but without effecting the windows boot > manager already there, please? There's a lot of detail missing here. Have you gone through the handbook section on installation? http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html If that doesn't help with your questions, you're going to have to provide more information. You say you have 3 - 73G drives and a 146G drive, but you don't describe how they are laid out. What kind of RAID? What do you think you should see, and what do you actually see? -- Bill Moran Collaborative Fusion Inc.