FreeBSD I LOVE YOU

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2005-01-19 21:10, Anthony Atkielski <atkielski.anthony at wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> I'm gradually migrating legacy aps off my older NT server and I think
> it might be extremely interesting to install FreeBSD on that machine
> once it is free--if only I could persuade it to boot from diskette
> (for some reason, the diskette drive no longer seems to be recognized
> by the OS).  It's an old HP Vectra, but like all vintage HP high-end
> machines, it still works perfectly, after nearly a decade of
> continuous use.

Hi Anthony,

I've seen Windows machines "lose" CD-ROM or floppy drives, on perfectly
working systems.  You may find that booting the installation CD-ROM of
some FreeBSD version locates the floppy drive just fine.

> Can anyone tell me how to install FreeBSD on a machine that is running
> Windows NT and refuses to boot from CD or from diskette?  I don't
> suppose there's any magic program I could run from NT that would start
> a FreeBSD installation, is there?

Your best choise may be to install by physically moving the disk to an
other system.  Then you can return the disk to the Vectra system and let
it boot.

If you are a bit careful during the installation process _not_ to make
configuration changes that depend on the particular sort of hardware the
'install' system has, you shouldn't face any show-stoppers when you move
the disk back to the Vectra.

When the Vectra boots into FreeBSD, you can configure the network
locally and you're set to go :-)

- Giorgos