From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Feb 17 11:44:14 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA09815 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 17 Feb 1997 11:44:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from ns.nrtc.northrop.com (ns.nrtc.northrop.com [128.99.0.30]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA09809 for ; Mon, 17 Feb 1997 11:44:09 -0800 (PST) From: johnson@charming.nrtc.northrop.com Received: from charming.nrtc.northrop.com by ns.nrtc.northrop.com (4.1/nrtc-15.6a) id AA18195; Mon, 17 Feb 97 11:43:33 PST Received: from charming.nrtc.northrop.com by charming.nrtc.northrop.com (4.1/SMI-4.1.1) id AA00864; Mon, 17 Feb 97 11:42:18 PST Message-Id: <9702171942.AA00864@charming.nrtc.northrop.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: questions regarding FreeBSD on a notebook Date: Mon, 17 Feb 97 11:42:17 PST Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Hello all, I just got a Compaq Armada 1125 notebook computer with Windows 95 installed on it, and would like to put FreeBSD on it also. (I'd like to be able to boot up either Win95 or FreeBSD, selectable at boot time.) (I've been using FreeBSD for the last few years on another home machine, and think it is FANSTASTIC.) Here's my question: is it possible to install FreeBSD on the Compaq without having to wipe the disk and re-install Win95? Here's one idea: resize the Win95 partition to make it smaller, and then put a FreeBSD partition on the disk. Another (crazier) idea: insall FreeBSD in such a way that the MS-DOS file system on drive C is the root file system for FreeBSD. Something I read in passing in one of the /usr/share/doc files seemed to imply that this was possible. Question #1: Just in case disaster strikes, I would like to be able to re-install Win95 from scratch. Seemingly randomly (phase of the moon no doubt), every once in a while when I boot the Compaq I get a Win95 utility that offers to help me create a set of backup floppy disks that can be used to re-install Win95. It offers to let you back up two separate sets of system files. I used it to back up Win95 (it took 31 floppies!), and would like to back up the other set of system files as well using this mystical utility. So, the question: How do I invoke this `Create System Intallation Floppies' utility??? (One way is to just keep rebooting the machine until that utility magically decides to present itself again :-( ). As far as the first idea goes, here's how I am thinking of proceeding: 1) Use a disk re-partitioning package. I found two to choose from at CompUSA: Partition-It from Quarterdeck, and Partition Magic from someone else. Shrink the Win95 partition using said utility. (I bought Partition-It, and so far haven't been having much luck. On a test Win95 machine I tried it on, Partition-It died horribly every time I tried to run it. (General Protection Fault or some such, and then the application went totally crazy, filling up the task bar with random garbage, making the application window flicker wildly, etc. Quite a show!)) 2) Use the `Custom' FreeBSD installation option, and put a FreeBSD partition out there. 3) Proceed with the FreeBSD installation. Question #2: Does the above approach have a chance of working?? Question #3: Is there reliable freeware that will take a MicroSoft partition and make it smaller? Or do I have to try to use one of these flaky and expensive commercial packages? Question #4: Does the second approach, using an MS-DOS partition that already has Win95, have a prayer? (I sorta hate the second approach based on experience with /dos partitions on my current FreeBSD machine. Weird constraints on file names, weird stuff with protections, etc. Win95 seems to do better with file names than DOS. Is it possible to use the Win95 file system under FreeBSD rather than the DOS file system? Does that question even make any sense? ;-) ) Anyway, as usual, thanks very much in advance for any thoughts or help. Greg Johnson