From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 21 21:22:15 2003 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 545B416A4BF for ; Thu, 21 Aug 2003 21:22:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from galilee.polands.org (CPE-24-208-57-240.new.rr.com [24.208.57.240]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0BE943FAF for ; Thu, 21 Aug 2003 21:22:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from djp@polands.org) Received: from sheba.polands.org (sheba.polands.org [172.16.1.33]) by galilee.polands.org (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h7M4MCNP080237 for ; Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:22:12 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from djp@polands.org) Received: from sheba.polands.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sheba.polands.org (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h7M4MCwd038053 for ; Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:22:12 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from djp@sheba.polands.org) Received: (from djp@localhost) by sheba.polands.org (8.12.9/8.12.9/Submit) id h7M4MCwd038052 for questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:22:12 -0500 (CDT) Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:22:12 -0500 From: Doug Poland To: questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20030822042211.GA38002@polands.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Subject: Backup and restore advise sought 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: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 04:22:15 -0000 Hello, I'm building a dual-boot (FreeBSD 4.8 / Windows) workstation for a friend. Initially, he wanted FBSD/WinXP so I gave approx 1/2 of the hard drive (the 1st half) to FreeBSD and the 2nd 1/2 to Win. I've installed, configured, built a custom kernel and brought FreeBSD up to -STABLE. I've also installed and and configured a bunch of big apps (mozilla, openoffice, eclipse, mysql, apache, tomcat) and I've got several hours of work into it. I really don't want to do it again. I installed WinXP onto the 2nd half of the disk and began to config it when I come to find out he has a "friend's" WinXP CD. I told him that it will be unusable after a certain amount of time if he doesn't register it and his "friend" has already registered that particular product ID. So he wisely decides not to continue with WinXP and wants to go back to his legitimately licensed WinME. Problem is, now the Windows slice is 1/2 way into a 20GB hard-drive. I'm quite sure that the Win9x/ME line cannot boot if past a certain sector on the HD. Attempts to install WinME continually fail just as the OS is about done formatting the Windows drive. I'm afraid that I have a drive layout that I can't work with in Windows. My proposed solution is this: dump each FBSD partition to backup device, and re-partition the drive. This time put the Windows stuff at the front of the HD, and FBSD at the rear. BTW, I'll recreate the FBSD slices at least as large the original slice. Since I've never used dump/restore I've got some questions. 1. I'm concerned that the FBSD partition names will change. i.e., / was ad0s3a may now become ad1s3a and so on. 2. I'm using GRUB as boot loader pointing at HD(0,0,a) for FBS and HD(0,1) for Win. That will probably change. 3. Is there anything else about dump/restore that may present a gotcha with this solution? 4. Is there a better way? I remember reading about an OpenBSD "ghost" for Unix. -- Regards, Doug