PartitionMagic question

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> I am installing FreeBSD on a laptop with Windows XP Pro. I created empty 
> space with PartitionMagic and installed FreeBSD there making the FreeBSD 
> partition with the FreeBSD partition utility in the install.
> 
> I took the drive geometry from PartitionMagic as the BIOS does not tell 
> it (ThinkPad X30). The installation went well and both OS boot well.
> 
> When I run PartitionMagic it reported 3 errors - different LBA and CHS 
> values - the errors are on the first sector of the FreeBSD partitions 
> and on the first sectors of the next two partitions (seeing from the 
> LBA). PartitionMagic says in all 3 cases that the LBA and CHS values are 
> different. In all 3 cases the CHS value is the same - 15483887 (drive 
> geometry is 5168/240/63). After PartitionMagic repairs the errors 
> everything is OK. Both OS boot well.
> 
> My questions are -
> 
> a) does somebody know why the errors appear?

I don't know why it gets errors.  They each seem to see things differently.
I have never modified disk geomentry for FreeBSD.  I always let it do
what it thinks it wants to do and it has always worked out.  Of course, 
most of my systems are SCSI.  But, on the two or three IDEs, it has
worked out happily and I have used PM to squash the MS slice in each 
of those cases to make room for FreeBSD.   So,...?

> b) is the installation safe after the errors are fixed?

If both OSen boot and run, disk check/fsck and shutdown happily, it is
most likely safe and OK.

> 
> PartitionMagic is listed officially as installation preparation utility 
> and I assume it should be safe to use it afterwards, apart from touching 
> the FreeBSD partition.

You can use it any time to look at the disk and muck with MS type slices,
but it won't know how to treat FreeBSD slices.

////jerry
> 
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