Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 10:04:08 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: mikemcg@ucla.edu Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Dual booting FreeBSD 4.7 and Windows XP Message-ID: <200212161504.gBGF48h14555@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <003001c2a503$fc39b340$1a00a8c0@HOME> from "Mike McGranahan" at Dec 16, 2002 05:06:44 AM
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> > Hello, > > I would like to know what is the best way to dual boot FreeBSD 4.7 and > Windows XP? I found this information ( > http://www.geocrawler.com/mail/msg.php3?msg_id=7963936&list=151 ) regarding > how to use the Windows XP loader, and this information on GRUB ( > http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub/html_node/Booting.html#Booting ) though there > is no mention of Windows XP. > > I have two hard drives in my system, a 20GB which currently has Windows XP, > and a 10GB which is empty. I was considering making the 10GB drive common > storage for both OS' as FAT32. I would then move my data from the 20GB > drive to the 10GB, partition the 20GB drive and install FreeBSD alongside > Windows XP. Besides setting up the bootloader, would there be any FreeBSD > problems with this configuration? In what ways could I set up dual-booting > for this configuration, and which method is best? > > Alternately, I could just install FreeBSD on the 10GB drive, leaving the > 20GB/Windows XP drive untouched. In what ways can I set up dual-booting for > this alternate configuration, and which method is best? It depends on how you want to use the system and how much. Where will you use the most disk - in XP or FreeBSD? Easiest would be to leave all the Microsloth stuff along and just install FreeBSD on the empty drive. I guess that won't work with some older BIOSes, but should be OK with recent ones. As long as you don't mind seeing the XP boot slice identified as ???? on the screen for choosing which OS to boot, you can just use the standard boot manager that gets put in by /stand/sysinstall when you do the FreeBSD installation. It will install the boot block and boot manager in the proper place on the boot drive and make things point to the right places. If seeing ???? for Win-XP bothers you, then put in something like grub or another hot boot manager. (For me it seems ironically appropriate - dang invasive surveilance right out of the worst of the cynical Sci-Fi futurist stories) Make sure you don't nuke some piece of XP stuff MS stuck in a hidden place - use a good partition manager if you are going to move any existing stuff around. Do the FreeBSD install last because any Microsloth installation will generally disregard stuff put there by other systems and wipe out or rewrite whatever it chooses without regard to what you want or try to tell it to do. But FreeBSD is better mannered. > > Are there any online documents that address this, or would be insightful? > > Thank you for you help. > > Mike McGranahan > > Worst case scenario, I could use the alter the BIOS to control which drive > boots. Sure would be the worst case. And it is completely unnecessary. ////jerry > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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