From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 22 19:50:49 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: 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 2C1F716A500 for ; Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:50:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeff.cross@averageadmins.com) Received: from mail4.valornet.net (mail4.valornet.net [69.30.128.23]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF01D43D46 for ; Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:50:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jeff.cross@averageadmins.com) Received: (qmail 13614 invoked by uid 89); 22 Sep 2006 19:50:48 -0000 Received: by simscan 1.1.0 ppid: 13531, pid: 13537, t: 0.9253s scanners: attach: 1.1.0 clamav: 0.85.1/m:31/d:910 spam: 3.0.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.0 (2005-09-13) on mail4.valornet.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=15.0 tests=AWL autolearn=disabled version=3.1.0 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.100?) (66.55.255.50) by 0 with SMTP; 22 Sep 2006 19:50:47 -0000 Message-ID: <45143E87.3020402@averageadmins.com> Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:50:31 -0500 From: Jeff Cross User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (X11/20060914) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jerry McAllister References: <45142A20.5040601@averageadmins.com> <20060922193208.GA41114@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20060922193208.GA41114@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Resizing Partitions, Losing Windows XP... 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: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:50:49 -0000 Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 01:23:28PM -0500, Jeff Cross wrote: > >> I have been dual booting FreeBSD and Windows XP for quite sometime. >> However, I never boot into Windows XP any longer. I can pretty much do >> everything I need to do from within FreeBSD. Is there a way that I can >> wipe out the Windows XP partition, resize the FreeBSD partition, and >> install a standard FreeBSD MBR (no boot manager) without slicking and >> reloading the hard drive? >> >> I really like the way I have my stuff setup within FreeBSD and would >> hate to have to recreate a lot of it as well as install applications >> over again. Could I do a dump of my current FreeBSD partition, reformat >> and partition the whole drive, install FreeBSD, and then restore my data >> to the new partition or would this cause issues? > > That would be one good way of doing it. Just make sure and check > your dumps before wiping everything. (create a scratch space. Cd to it > and read a few things back from the dumps and check them. > > You don't need to reformat the drive - that is too low level for this. > Just fdisk it and put all the disk in one slice - slice 1. Make that > slice marked bootable. Then use bsdlabel (disklabel pre 5.xxx) to > divide up the slice in to partitions. They will need to be the > same partition identifiers (a-h) as used currently. Finally, > use newfs to build filesystems on the partitions (except for swap) > and then restore the dumps to their original partitions. > Make sure you mount the partition as something and then cd in to > that appropriate partition to do the restore. > > You will need to do the wiping and rebuilding from some other > media such as a fixit CD or another bootable disk. You can't > wipe the slice that you are running from. > > > An alternative would be to leave the existing slice alone, but > use fdisk to mark the MS slice as a FreeBSD slice (not bootable) > and then either create one single partition in that slice or > divide it as you choose and use newfs to create file systems. > Then, create a mount point for each new partition you made (put > them in /etc/fstab and mount them up. Then move some of your big > directories in the existing FreeBSD slice over then and made > symlinks to them. That way you would free up room in the FreeBSD > bootable slice, but not have to dump/restore and rebuild everything. > It is quicker and works just as well, but slightly less clean, though > it could be helpful if your file systems are too large for your > backup media. > > ////jerry > >> Any assistance is greatly appreciated! >> >> Jeff Cross >> http://www.averageadmins.com/ >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > This sounds scary, I mean ok, but will doing what you have mentioned in this post do anything for the MBR? Is that why I would be setting the bootable flag in fdisk? I am currently using NTLOADER to boot Windows XP and FreeBSD 6.1-SECURITY. Jeff Cross http://www.averageadmins.com/