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Date:      Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:33:39 -0500
From:      Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu>
To:        David Larkin <david.larkin@whitburncc.org.uk>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: formatting disk for FreeBSD : Detecting IDE Primary Master ... [Press F4 to skip]
Message-ID:  <20080126003339.GA45016@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20080125224807.233a2a14@sparrow>
References:  <20080125224807.233a2a14@sparrow>

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On Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 10:48:07PM +0000, David Larkin wrote:

> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'm trying to  install FreeBSD  6.3 on an old PC.
> 
> I have  bought a  new Maxtor DiamondMax 80Gig  disk,  to replace the old  one. I will have only one disk in the PC.
> 
> I am  looking to build using boot floppies and FTP.
> 
> There  is  no CD  drive on  the PC.
> 
> When I turn the PC on the BIOS hangs with the message
>  Detecting  IDE  Primary  Master ...  [Press F4 to skip]
> 
> However, by holding down  F4, I was able to boot using the floppies
> boot.flp , kern1.flp , kern2.flp & kern3.flp
> 
> This detected disk and I selected standard configuration, and the FTP installation all went to plan.
> 
> I got message saying installation was successful and I added users and set root password.
> 
> However, when I reboot (without floppies) I still get the message
>  Detecting  IDE  Primary  Master ...  [Press F4 to skip]
> 
> and when I go into BIOS , it still doesn't detect  the IDE disk.
> 
> How do I format disk so BIOS  recognises it ?
> I read something about using DOS fdisk , but I haven't got DOS floppies.
> Can I format disk using boot or fixit floppies ?

I don't think that message comes from FreeBSD.
This sounds more like a BIOS issue than a disk "format" problem.
The only exception would be if no MBR was written, but then it
would give different messages - something about no OS or boot device.

Try going in to your BIOS and checking boot order and such.
You want it to be floppy first and then CD (if you had one) and
then the hard disk[s].

You could boot up and run the fixit floppy and just look at the
disk with fdisk.   Just do  'fdisk ad0'  and see if it gives
reasonable values for the drive and the slice you created for FreeBSD.
Make sure the slice is marked to be bootable.
Then look at that slice with bsdlabel   'bsdlabel ad0s1'   and
see if it sees partitions in that slice.   If so, the disk is
probably just fine.

If the BIOS is old, it might be something like the disk being
too big for it or having some thing about it the BIOS doesn't 
recognize.  In that case you need to upgrade the BIOS.

////jerry


> 
> Thanks
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