From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 2 13:08:19 2004 Return-Path: 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 82D8516A4CE for ; Sun, 2 May 2004 13:08:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lakermmtao10.cox.net (lakermmtao10.cox.net [68.230.240.29]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1EB543D45 for ; Sun, 2 May 2004 13:08:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bob88@bobj.org) Received: from mail.bobj.org ([24.250.218.207]) by lakermmtao10.cox.net (InterMail vM.6.01.03.02 201-2131-111-104-20040324) with ESMTP id <20040502200817.IPEW18696.lakermmtao10.cox.net@mail.bobj.org> for ; Sun, 2 May 2004 16:08:17 -0400 Received: from bobj.wb4jcm.org ([192.168.132.167]) by neti.bobj.org with esmtp; Sun, 02 May 2004 16:08:15 -0400 From: Bob Johnson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 16:08:08 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.6 References: In-Reply-To: X-Source-System: Bob's Laptop MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200405021608.08896.bob88@bobj.org> cc: Jay Chen Subject: Re: Dumb question (dual booting WinXP with FBSD on 2nd drive) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 20:08:19 -0000 On Thursday 29 April 2004 12:27 pm, Jay Chen <"Jay Chen" > wrote: > To Whom It May Concern: > > > > I have a Dell computer with Window XP and two hard disks (76 GB > each). The XP is located on C: and I am planning to install the > FreeBSD on the second hard drive (D: at this time). > > > This is not at all a dumb question, but it is a frequently-asked one. In fact, it's two. The first is how to use the built-in boot manager in Windows to boot FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html#NT-BOOTLOADER The second is what you MIGHT need to do to get FreeBSD to boot correctly from the second drive, although if you've followed the directions above, I don't think you will need it: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/install.html#PANIC-ON-INSTALL-REBOOT > I like to be able to boot either of these two Operating systems with > a selection at the time when I turn on the computer. Unfortunately, > I failed. During installation of the BSD, my understanding is that I > still need to have the Boot Manager residing on C. I guess that that > result a rewritten of the boot related files (boot manager). I can > not boot the XP any more. Do you have any suggestions? Where did I > do wrong? Well, your big mistake was not realizing that XP has its own built-in boot manager, and that you can simply add FreeBSD to the Windows boot menu! I don't actually remember how to fix your problem (and it depends on exactly what you did), but I suspect that (a) booting your Windows install disk will offer you a chance to repair the problem, or (b) someone else has already answered that adequately, or (c) running the fdisk command in FreeBSD and setting the Windows partition to be the active partition will fix it (remember this hint, you may need it!). Good luck, - Bob > > > > Thanks for your time on this matter. > > > > Best Regards, > > > > Jay Chen