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Date:      Thu, 5 Mar 1998 22:40:00 -0800 (PST)
From:      Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu>
To:        Dan Roberts <droberts@gwis.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: converting dos partition
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980305223551.24994Y-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.95.980304163407.8736A-100000@gwis.com>

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On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Dan Roberts wrote:

> I'm having a hard time interpreting the man pages regarding fixed disk
> configuration and want to be absolutely clear how to do this before I end
> up trashing some important data..

See http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/diskformat/

> The system I'm attempting to alter has a single 2.1G hard drive in it,
> currently separated 1/2 freebsd and the other half windows 95.  Win95 has
> outlived its usefulness, and I'd now like to use that entire partition for
> FreeBSD. 
> 
> Current config:
>   Filesystem  1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity  Mounted on
>   /dev/wd0a       49231    16744    28549    37%    /
>   /dev/wd0s2f    843935   740758    35663    95%    /usr
>   /dev/wd0s2e     49231     8745    36548    19%    /var
>   /dev/wd0s1    1023824   405456   618368    40%    /dosc
> 
> The FreeBSD boot manager selects the OS at bootup currently, and the dos
> partition appears to be the first partition.  My biggest worry is that if
> I newfs wd0s1, I'll never be able to boot this machine again.  
> 
> If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could someone give me the basic steps
> I would take to perform this alteration?  (please cc: directly, I'm not on
> the list)

The major problem you may have would be the bootblocks picking wd0s1 as
the boot disk each time.  This could be remedied by dropping a
/boot.config file on each partition to make sure it's pointed the right
way.  You can also blow away booteasy (FDISK /MBR from DOS).  

The procedure is pretty simple tho:

1.  Use DOS FDISK to remove the DOS slice.
2.  Use sysinstall to create the slice and to label it.  Go ahead and use
    the entire thing for FreeBSD as one giant slice. 
3.  Newfs.
4.  Mount into desired location.  Modify /etc/fstab if you want it to
    mount automatically.
5.  Enjoy your new gig :-)

**do** see the diskformat tutorial first however!

Doug White                              | University of Oregon  
Internet:  dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu    | Residence Networking Assistant
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite    | Computer Science Major



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