Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 12:46:31 -0800 From: "Geff Hanoian" <boing@boing.com> To: "Mike Smith" <mike@smith.net.au> Cc: <freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS' Message-ID: <007801be507f$72c53cb0$48ff020a@hanoiang.tms.toyota.com>
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Mike,
I may have spoken slightly incorrectly. Perhaps to be more accurate,
it's the bios not allowing the drive to recognize due to the lack or valid
fdisk partitions .... My apologies for wasting everyone else's time. I
have personally experienced this with my HP vectra's at work.
Geff
------
8.10. Will a ``dangerously dedicated'' disk endanger my health?
<snip>
So why it is called ``dangerous''? A disk in this mode doesn't contain what
normal PC utilities would consider a valid fdisk table. Depending on how
well they have been designed, they might complain at you once they are
getting in contact with such a disk, or even worse, they might damage the
BSD bootstrap without even asking or notifying you. Some kind of operating
system that is in rather widespread use on PCs is known for this kind of
user-unfriendliness (of course, it does this in the name of
``user-friendliness''). At least one Award BIOS that is for example used in
HP Netservers (but not only there) is known to ignore any harddisk that
doesn't have what it believes to be a valid fdisk table. When it comes to
booting, it simply ignores such a disk drive, advances to the floppy drive,
and barfs at you with just ``Read error''. Very impressive, eh? They
probably also call this ``user-friendly'', who knows?
<snip>
----
End of line.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To: Geff Hanoian <boing@boing.com>
Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG <freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS'
>> >Just a note for everyone when partitioning your HD for FreeBSD, if you
use
>> >the entire disk "dedicated" instead of using a DOS/other compatible
master
>> >boot record, some BIOS' won't load the FreeBSD MBR and will die. (And,
I
>> >surmise, some BIOS' may think it's a virus.)
>>
>>
>> FYI, this is in the FAQ (somewhere). HP is one of the "offending"
vendors.
>> Apparently the do some sort of "checking" to make sure there are dos
>> partitions on the disk. If dos partitions do not exist the HP vectra's
>> print, "Read Error." User friendliness at it's best.
>
>This is completely and utterly wrong, and I will thank you in advance
>for a) never repeating it again, and b) telling me where it is in the
>FAQ so that I can remove it.
>
>The "read error" message comes from the boot1 code as it is unable to
>locate the boot2 code. The error is caused because the "dangerously
>dedicated" layout contains bogus information which confuses the BIOS.
>Once the BIOS is confused, boot1 doesn't have a hope of locating boot2,
>hence the error.
>
>Other symptoms of this include the BIOS locking up before loading
>boot1 and spontaneous reboots just after reading boot1.
>
>
>
>--
>\\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith
>\\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au
>\\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org
>\\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com
>
>
>
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