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Date:      Mon, 17 Feb 97 11:42:17 PST
From:      johnson@charming.nrtc.northrop.com
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   questions regarding FreeBSD on a notebook
Message-ID:  <9702171942.AA00864@charming.nrtc.northrop.com>

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Hello all,

  I just got a Compaq Armada 1125 notebook computer with Windows 95 installed
on it, and would like to put FreeBSD on it also.  (I'd like to be able to
boot up either Win95 or FreeBSD, selectable at boot time.)  (I've been
using FreeBSD for the last few years on another home machine, and think
it is FANSTASTIC.)

  Here's my question:  is it possible to install FreeBSD on the Compaq
without having to wipe the disk and re-install Win95?

  Here's one idea:  resize the Win95 partition to make it smaller, and then
put a FreeBSD partition on the disk.

  Another (crazier) idea:  insall FreeBSD in such a way that the MS-DOS
file system on drive C is the root file system for FreeBSD.  Something
I read in passing in one of the /usr/share/doc files seemed to imply that
this was possible.

  Question #1:  Just in case disaster strikes, I would like to be able to
re-install Win95 from scratch.  Seemingly randomly (phase of the moon no
doubt), every once in a while when I boot the Compaq I get a Win95 utility
that offers to help me create a set of backup floppy disks that can be
used to re-install Win95.  It offers to let you back up two separate sets
of system files.  I used it to back up Win95 (it took 31 floppies!), and
would like to back up the other set of system files as well using this
mystical utility.  So, the question:

  How do I invoke this `Create System Intallation Floppies' utility???
(One way is to just keep rebooting the machine until that utility magically
decides to present itself again :-(  ).

  As far as the first idea goes, here's how I am thinking of proceeding:

1) Use a disk re-partitioning package.  I found two to choose from at CompUSA:
Partition-It from Quarterdeck, and Partition Magic from someone else.
Shrink the Win95 partition using said utility.

(I bought Partition-It, and so far haven't been having much luck.  On a test
Win95 machine I tried it on, Partition-It died horribly every time I tried
to run it.  (General Protection Fault or some such, and then the application
went totally crazy, filling up the task bar with random garbage, making the
application window flicker wildly, etc.  Quite a show!))

2) Use the `Custom' FreeBSD installation option, and put a FreeBSD partition
out there.

3) Proceed with the FreeBSD installation.

  Question #2:  Does the above approach have a chance of working??

  Question #3:  Is there reliable freeware that will take a MicroSoft
partition and make it smaller?  Or do I have to try to use one of these
flaky and expensive commercial packages?

  Question #4:  Does the second approach, using an MS-DOS partition that
already has Win95, have a prayer?  (I sorta hate the second approach based
on experience with /dos partitions on my current FreeBSD machine.  Weird
constraints on  file names, weird stuff with protections, etc.  Win95
seems to do better with file names than DOS.  Is it possible to use the
Win95 file system under FreeBSD rather than the DOS file system?  Does that
question even make any sense?  ;-) )


  Anyway, as usual, thanks very much in advance for any thoughts or help.

Greg Johnson



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