Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:33:14 -0400 From: Jud <jud@myrealbox.com> To: jmd17@columbia.edu, Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SYSINSTALL/FDISK Message-ID: <NHYVIF82LQ8YX9741SQUTQKC7IHID.3dadf73a@sparky> In-Reply-To: <200210162052.g9GKq9h21592@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
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10/16/2002 4:52:09 PM, Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> wrote: >> >> Hi: >> >> Please read the whole post before replying. Yes, I know that >> DOS allows 4 PRIMARY Partitions and the history and purpose >> of an EXTENDED Partition. >> >> I am installing 4.7-REL on a PC with one PRIMARY and one >> EXTENDED partition. The PRIMARY partition is FAT and I have >> W98 there. The EXTENDED partition is empty as it was originally >> set up to be a place for FreeBSD. Unfortuneately, I now >> understand that FreeBSD needs to be in a PRIMARY partition. >> (EXTENDED was recommended by the disk's customer >> service rep was was familiar with Linux but not BSD) > >Sounds like you have all the answers. Why the question. > >> Also, SYSINSTALL's FDISK program says that one should put >> FreeBSD in a partition labeled as "unused". However, the >> "Change Type" command lets me change the EXTENDED >> partition to FreeBSD. I tried it and it seemed to work (I could >> even make it "bootable") but I decided not to proceed because >> I don't know what is going on behind the scenes: is it really >> changing the partition to PRIMARY or just making a label >> change (is that the same thing)? I don't want to wind up >> with a disk that is unuseable. And if it is making the >> change from EXTENDED to PRIMARY, is this something that >> the BIOS will be OK with? > >I doubt the BIOS will care. > >It will probably work. But, if you are concerned, get yourself a >copy of Partition Magic by Power Quest. It is available in most >places that sell PC and software, including Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. >Use it to clean up everything and leave the extra space not in your >first slice (DOS primary partition) as unused space. Then let >the fdisk in sysinstall turn that space in to a FreeBSD slice. [snip] A suggestion: Rather than buying Partition Magic for $60 or $70, use BootItNG from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com - shareware, 30-day free trial, $29 if you decide to buy it. Works as well or better than PM, has as many or more capabilities, very well documented, Just Works (tm). Something else you can do with BootItNG is to image your Win98 partition to backup media (got a CD burner?). Then in the vanishingly unlikely event you actually hose Win98, you can fdisk and format with a Win98 startup floppy and use BootItNG to image your Win98 setup right back onto your hard drive - just an extra layer of reassurance. In fact, if you just want to do the image backup, go ahead and use FreeBSD's fdisk, no reason to not to at that point. I'd try "converting" the extended partition first, just because if for any reason that doesn't work, you can then do the delete-extended/create-primary thing. Jud To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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