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Date:      Mon, 14 Jun 1999 20:55:57 -0500 (CDT)
From:      "M. L. Dodson" <bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu>
To:        "Ray, Pinaki" <pinaki.ray@dsto.defence.gov.au>
Cc:        "'freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org'" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Formatting Harddrive for Installation
Message-ID:  <199906150155.UAA00435@wotan.611.chedworth.hou.tx.us>
In-Reply-To: <C15155CADE2FD211A4A300062B000EDD20A61E@exchsa5.dsto.defence.gov.au>
References:  <C15155CADE2FD211A4A300062B000EDD20A61E@exchsa5.dsto.defence.gov.au>

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Ray, Pinaki writes:
 > I want to install FreeBSD on my harddrive using the CD-ROM (Walnut Creek)
 > FreeBSD 3.0 Snapshot in my possession.  At present my harddrive has been
 > partitioned in several logical drives and I have installed the following
 > OSs: DOS 6.2 on the first 1GB (FAT16) partition, NT4.0 (Build1381, Service
 > Pack 5) on the second partition 4.2GB (NTFS), and I have left free 4 GB of
 > space for FreeBSD.  I want to know how do I format this space (4 GB) for
 > installing FreeBSD on it.  

The install process will handle that for you.  You will have
complete control over it.

 > Reading through all the files and the Handbook I
 > find that FreeBSD can be installed 'from a MS-DOS partition' (but nothing
 > more). 

That is not important to you if you have a supported cd-rom
drive, and it is tricky.  What that means is that you can store
the installation files on a MS-DOS partition from where they will
be read during the installation.  You could do that if, e.g.,
your cd-rom were not supported.  Almost all recent ones are
supported, however.

 > What does that mean - can FreeBSD be installed on FAT16 or FAT32 or
 > NTFS formats for that  matter ?  

Absolutely not!  Horrors! ;-)  Seriously, no.  FBSD uses a unix
file system format not in any way related to FAT or ntfs.
Probably most closely related to the HPFS of OS/2, but even that
is more superficial than real.  Note that, while you cannot
_install_ on a "Microsoft" file system, you can mount them
read/write (except ntfs is read-only, IIRC) after the installation.

 > Or does FreeBSD has its own formatting
 > tools ? 

Yes.

 > -- In that case will FreeBSD be able to see all of 4 GB (or more if
 > given) as a single partition ? 

Really depends on the ability of your bios to boot beyond 1024
cylinders.  If you can boot it, FBSD can handle it.  Forget all
the DOS-derived limitations and baggage MS dragged behind itself
into NT.  Once you boot, none of that mess is important.

 > Nothing explicitly is stated in the
 > literature I could get hold on.  Please advise me in details how to proceed.
 > Also how shall I edit the NT loader 'boot.ini' so that I am able to choose
 > from DOS, NT or FreeBSD on booting.  

You really should go to 3.2-RELEASE or a recent 3-STABLE
snapshot.  3.0 has all the standard problems of a "dot-zero"
release.  The later ones are really MUCH better, particularly if
you are going to share with NT and multiboot using the NT loader.
Visit www.freebsd.org to get the real scoop.  Ask again on this
list when you have it installed and want to set up multibooting,
or you can probably just follow the FAQ on the web site since you
have everything on one disk.  (The FAQ will be installed on your
local disk if you select the doc distribution for installation).

 > Thank you.

You are welcome!

 > 
 > Pinaki Ray
 > email:  Pinaki.Ray@dsto.defence.gov.au
 > 
 > 
 > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
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 > 
 > 
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