Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 09:36:47 -0500 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org> To: "Bob Schwartz" <bob@bschwartz.com>, FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Questions on first-time installation (Re: (no subject)) Message-ID: <44fycvmigw.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <20061107075922.d7c44977.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> (Bill Moran's message of "Tue, 7 Nov 2006 07:59:22 -0500") References: <000001c7021f$287ef880$0500a8c0@c1> <20061107075922.d7c44977.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
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Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> writes: > In response to "Bob Schwartz" <bob@bschwartz.com>: >> 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!<g>). > > 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. Or, possibly, pull out the existing drives with the important "stuff" before attempting the install. But having a critical system without backups is foolhardy in any case. >> 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. It is limited to four BIOS partitions, and no extended partitions. Not an issue in this case, it sounds like. I like the fact that it fits completely in the boot sector. That keeps it from being pretty, but it also means that a problem with one OS won't keep you from booting a different OS.
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