FreeBSD install corrupts neighboring partitions

[Jud]

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 21:21:15 -0700, paul beard <paulbeard at mac.com> wrote:

> Brett Glass wrote:
>> I'm attempting to install FreeBSD 4.8 on a system which will boot it 
>> and also Windows 2000 Server. I've done this with two multiboot 
>> utilities: the simple boot manager that comes with FreeBSD and V 
>> Communications' System Commander.
>>
>> In both cases, I have found that when I install FreeBSD it corrupts 
>> neighboring NTFS and FAT partitions. After the install, the OSes in 
>> these partitions fail to boot or the partitions become entirely 
>> unreadable. Whether I tell FreeBSD not to install an MBR or whether I 
>> tell it to install its boot manager, the result is the same: 
>> Neighboring partitions are being corrupted to the point where one can 
>> not get to data on them.
>>
>> I realize that dual booting is not common, but I need to do it on this 
>> laptop. Has anyone else on the lists encountered this problem?
>
> I have dual-booted this laptop (an IBM A20p) with Win2K and a succession 
> of Linux, NetBSD, and FreeBSD. Other than the annoying problem of a 
> couple years back when IBM chose to label its hibernation slice with the 
> same ID as FreeBSD uses, thereby rendering FreeBSD unusable, it's worked 
> just fine.
>
> Sounds to me like the partitions are overlapping or otherwise not being 
> kept away from each other, but its hard to know for sure without any 
> information off the system.

I've had many different multi-boot configurations involving FreeBSD 4.x 
and 5.x versions, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Linux, and QNX on various hard 
drives.  Currently FreeBSD and Windows 2000 share a RAID-0 array, while 
Gentoo Linux and Windows 98 reside on a third disk.  Though I'm not 
particularly tech-savvy, I have never had a single problem with FreeBSD or 
Linux "corrupting" a Windows install.  I guess without more information, 
we can't be certain that anything is corrupted; if it is, that FreeBSD is 
doing the corrupting; or how whatever is wrong might be fixed.

Please send more info.

Jud