Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 12:52:07 -0400 From: "Charles Swiger" <cswiger@mac.com> To: <freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD and strange geometries on Inspiron 8000. Message-ID: <00e501c252a1$13071a00$0301a8c0@prime> References: <20020901004804.X94615-100000@voyager.straynet.com>
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Greg Prosser wrote: [ ... ] > Using partition magic (this seems to be the only way I can seem to get > Windows idea of the partition table), I see that it thinks the drive > is 1222/255/63. Printed on the label of the drive is "16383/16/63". > Now, knowing that one of those has to be right, and not knowing how > to make FreeBSD not screw up my partition table, I'm confused. You might have software like the Ontrack Disk Manager mapping the disk geometry in a different way than what the BIOS does, so FreeBSD doesn't understand. If FreeBSD can't find the existing partition table because it's looking at the wrong place, it won't know that there is a partition & free space available. > If I manually set the geometry, it still doesn't expand the rest of > the partition table or see my free space (it being sysinstall). > What's the best path to take to get FreeBSD on this drive? What do I > have to twiddle? (Oh, and I'll add that Dell's BIOS seems almost > useless both for information and any special settings). If that's the case, you're probably going to have to repartition the entire drive and reinstall Windows if you want FreeBSD. If you go that route, use FDISK from a MS-DOS 6.x boot floppy to create two DOS partitions, which will use a geometry that FreeBSD should understand. If FDISK asks you whether to enable "LBA mode", say yes. You might find it easier to install FreeBSD in the first partition and Windows in the second-- at one point, Unix OSes wanted to boot from the first 2 GB of a disk, although that limitation may well have disappeared by now. On the other hand, you first might try checking for a BIOS upgrade to the laptop, and see whether you gain additional knobs to try. Much easier if that works. :-) -Chuck To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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