disk management

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> I have a 250G disk. First partition is WinXp; second is a FAT32 part
> and the third is FreeBSD-5.4
> 
> When I run Powerquest Partition Manager it comes up with an "error 116"
> about a dismatch of CHS/LBA setting on the disk and proposes to set
> things right. Yeah right...
> 
> The first time I let it do so and was not able to boot FreeBSD anymore.
> Have no idea why, but it happened. So I reinstalled and now all's runnig
> fine, except that I want to get rid of WinXP.
> 
> But I'm a little afraid to ruin my fbsd pastition again.
> 
> So let me ask you:
> 
> If I delete the XP partition (i.e. with the fbsd fdisk progam) and write
> the partition table back to disk, will this ruin my third fbsd part?

If you just want to leave the slices the same size and just make 
them FreeBSD space, then you should be able to do that with fdisk
without using Partition Magic.   You will probably have to book
from a FreeBSD fixit CD so that you are not using the disk at the
time it is mucking with it.

> If not can I safely install Win98 (which is LBA) on the first part and
> afterwards put my bootsector back (I know how to do that in 5.4)

You should be able to do that, but I don't do much with MS stuff, so
there could be something weird I haven't encountered.

> The scary part is that there seems to be a misunderstanding of my disk
> by Microsoft programs (using a LBA disk setting) and my FreeBSD (using
> CHS settings). I can only put ONE option on in the bios though ;-)
> 
> Maybe it's better to use non-LBA (*nix) in the bios? Or will that
> disturb futere win isntallations? Waahhhhhhh, why are things so
> complicated.. And yes, I DO need a Microsoft part. It's for gaming.. But
> XP does not suit me well, so I want to go back to 98se SP2 for the time
> being.

Someone other than I will need to respond to those last questions.

////jerry

> 
> Again I want my FreeBSD slice to be safe!
> 
> Any advice on how to handle my harddisk. Recommended utilities other
> than fdisk or what?
> 
> -- 
> dick -- http://nagual.st/ -- PGP/GnuPG key: F86289CE
> ++ Running FreeBSD 4.11-stable ++ FreeBSD 5.4
> + Nai tiruvantel ar vayuvantel i Valar tielyanna nu vilja