Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1999 17:04:30 +0100 From: Rico Pajarola <pajarola@cybertime.ch> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de> Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS' Message-ID: <3.0.32.19990207170425.0092c9e0@shrike.overmind.ch>
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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 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). 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 :) Sorry if this was a bit too loud, but I just don't want to see DD go away. Rico -- An NT server can be run by an idiot, and usually is. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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