Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 14:15:49 -0500 From: Matthew Hagerty <matthew@venux.net> To: Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de>, Rico Pajarola <pajarola@cybertime.ch> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de> Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS' Message-ID: <4.1.19990208141224.009b16a0@mail.venux.net> In-Reply-To: <19990208065559.A16209@internal> References: <3.0.32.19990207170425.0092c9e0@shrike.overmind.ch> <3.0.32.19990207170425.0092c9e0@shrike.overmind.ch>
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You can add Intel Server Boards to that list, and yes, they have a Phoenix BIOS. If the BIOS does not recognize the MBR it seems to write its own MBR that basically stops the machine from booting and just displays an error. I had quite a time with this, what a pain in the a**. Matthew At 06:55 AM 2/8/99 +0100, Andre Albsmeier wrote: >On Sun, 07-Feb-1999 at 17:04:30 +0100, Rico Pajarola wrote: >> At 14:54 99.02.07 +0100, Andre Albsmeier wrote: >> >Just to add it for reference: Machines from our company (Siemens) also don't >> >work with dangerously dedicated disks :-( They have a thing called Phoenix >> >BIOS and I have got plenty of them... >> > >> >Interesting, all these "well known" names (Compaq, HP, Siemens) seem to have >> >problems with it... >> Most of these well known names have their own, 'improved' BIOS. They do >> more sanity checks on everything, which in some rare cases can make life >> easier and 'safer', but in most cases they are a nuisance. There are other >> ways to get problems with a Compaq BIOS than DD, eg a brand new >> unpartitioned disk :( there are ways around those problems, but it can be a >> real nuisance even if you're just installing win95 (as if win95 alone >> wasn't enough of a nuisance) >> So if it doesn't work, it's not because DD is a bad (or wrong) thing, but > >No, DD isn't a bad thing. I prefer it over NDD because it's simpler. > >> the BIOS checks for something it just should not check (ie it should only >> look at the signature on the master boot record, and if it is ok, it should >> load it without any further tests). >> Those 'well known' names should fix their broken BIOSes, as they've always >> caused problems with non-dos (=fat16) OSes (yes, even win95b with fat32 was >> a problem with some vendors BIOS). > >I hope not because this is the reason I need for buying other machines :-). >You can trust me, it's hard to buy non-Siemens PCs if you are working at >Siemens... > >> You've been warned that DD may not work for you, and no one foces you to >> use it. You know which BIOSes are likely not to work with it, and there >> actually are cases where it can make one's life easier :) > >_I_ know that it doesn't work with machines from above companies, and _I_ >know what to do against it (_I_ don't use them). I just wanted to add >another name to the list in case someone needs it in future. > >> >> Sorry if this was a bit too loud, but I just don't want to see DD go away. > >So do I. > > -Andre > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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