FreeBSD-8 Dual Booting With Pre-Installed Windows 7?

Masoom Shaikh masoom.shaikh at gmail.com
Mon Apr 5 15:26:40 UTC 2010


On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 7:13 PM, S Roberts <stacey at vickiandstacey.com> wrote:
> Hello Masoom,
>
> On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:54:12 +0530
> Masoom Shaikh <masoom.shaikh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 6:45 PM, S Roberts <stacey at vickiandstacey.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi Masoom,
>> >   Good to hear from you..,
>> >
>> > On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:32:57 +0530
>> > Masoom Shaikh <masoom.shaikh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 2:52 PM, Stacey Roberts
>> >> <stacey at vickiandstacey.com> wrote:
>> >> > Hello Leslie,
>> >> >      Good to hear from you..,
>> >> >
>> >> > On Sun, 04 Apr 2010, Leslie Jensen wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-questions@freebsd.org/msg229158.html
>> >> >>
>> >> >> /Leslie
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> > I had a look at the thread - thanks..,
>> >> >
>> >> > The documentation for EasyBCD documentation itself states that
>> >> > its compatible with windows vista - there's nowhere that actually
>> >> > states that it supports windows 7.
>> >>
>> >> I have been using EasyBCD on Win7 + FBSD8 for some 6+ months now
>> >>
>> >
>> > That's great to hear.., Can you confirm that you started off with a
>> > pre-installed windows 7 machine / single disk and then **added**
>> > FreeBSD, please?
>>
>> Win7 was not pre-installed. I have three partitions,
>> part1(c:) - NTFS
>> part2(d:) - FAT32
>> part3 - UFS2, not visible to Win7, visible in Disk Management console
>> as free space
>>
>> Win7 is installed on part1, part2 is data drive so that bot OSes can
>> read/write do not want to use fusefs
>>
>> first install Win7, then FreeBSD, then boot in Win7 and use EasyBCD to
>> add FreeBSD as another entry
>> remember to advise FreeBSD to not touch MBR.
>>
>
> Understood. So for your installation of FreeBSD, selecting "None Leave
> Master Boot Record untouched" actually did work - and you did **NOT**
> find that sysinstall still went ahead and messed with the mbr?
>
> Sorry for the questions, but I recall a recent thread where a few
> people confirmed that this option does not behave as expected,
> and folks ended up with broken windows mbrs.

yes, http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-April/056100.html
thread is actually correct,
for me it is fresh install, in your case it is little tricky to get it straight
for a fresh install you can install FreeBSD first then Win7, and then
use EasyBSD. done.

i guess, i have done that too. i.e. installed FreeBSD after Win7, then
used Win7 CD to repair
but take care, it can fail with that irritating send, don't send dialog box

so here is one trick if you got guts to try :). I recently got saved
with this trick

you have Win7 pre-installed, now free up some space and let FreeBSD
install, select the option "do not touch mbr". Next boot you will find
Win7 gone. Boot from Win7 CD and let it install at same location where
it is/was installed. Setup will warn you of already existing
installation. It might additionally say that it will move old
installation to "Windows.old" folder. Ignore this warning and let
setup continue. If I remember correctly the second option is
Extracting Windows Files(percentage). Let it come to second step and
execute it for a 5 mins, then cancel the setup, ignore all warning and
it will undo all changes, but by that time it will already have fixed
the bootloader problem. After you cancel setup, give it all time it
needs to undo, don't force reboot/power down.

hope this will enable you too install FreeBSD, a great development environment
have fun!

>
> Thanks again, Masoom.
>
> Regards,
>
> S Roberts
>
>> have fun!!
>>
>> >
>> > Tell me something - Which of the 3 FreeBSD boot manager options did
>> > you select, please?
>>
>> don't let FreeBSD touch your MBR, Win7 won't like that
>>
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > S Roberts
>> >
>> >
>> >> >
>> >> > Or, am I missing something?
>> >> >
>> >> > I noted that the link by the responder in the thread also refers
>> >> > to a document that is based on windows vista, but will review
>> >> > this as well.
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks!
>> >> >
>> >> > Regards,
>> >> >
>> >> > S Roberts
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> > Hello,
>> >> >> > Sorry if this has been asked before, but can some point me to
>> >> >> > where I can find info on installing FreeBSD-8 to a windows-7
>> >> >> > pre-installed machine (single disk) in a dual-boot set up,
>> >> >> > please?
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Any assistance is appreciated.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Thanks.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Regards,
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > S Roberts
>> >> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> >> > freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
>> >> >> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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>> >> >> >
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
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>> >> >
>> >
>> >
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>


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