Dual boot WinXP and FreeBSD 5.3

[Scott Bennett]

     Tom Connolly <tomc at cqg.com> wrote:
>Scott Bennett wrote:
>>      Tom Connolly <tomc at cqg.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello list.  I wish to put FreeBSD 5.3 on a new hard drive and have
>>> it dual boot with the existing Windows XP system (separate HD).  Can
>>> I just simply go through the FreeBSD install and have it install the
>>> FreeBSD boot manager/loader on the XP drive?  I can't risk doing any
>>> damage to the XP system as it has a thermal analyzer program on it
>>> that won't run on FreeBSD (otherwise I would have no use for XP at
>>> all).  I would like to know if there are any "gotchas" or anything
>>> that could be a problem. I would really like to hear comments from
>>> anyone who has set up such a system. 
>>> 
>>      What hardware would this be on?  For example, if it's a Dell
>>      computer as shipped by Dell, then, yes, there is a potential
>> problem.  
>
>Yes, in fact it is a Dell.  It's a P4 3.5 GHz machine but I have
>reformatted the disk using a clean Windows XP Pro disk (not from Dell).
>Will this solve this "hidden" partition thing as I have removed the old
>partitions during the reformat process?

     Sure, but if you're not running some poorly designed piece of software
like Norton Ghost, it probably isn't an issue anyway because you only need
one partition for FreeBSD in addition to the three partitions Dell shipped.
You wouldn't have any partition table entries left over, but you would have
enough.
>
>> Dell ships its computers with three primary partitions
>> already allocated and populated: a (hidden) service partition, the
>> Windows XP partition, and the Windows XP system restore data
>> partition (also hidden).  That leaves only one unused primary
>> partition entry in the Master Boot Record.  If you use Norton Ghost
>> to back up your Windows XP system, you will discover that Norton
>> Ghost has an undocumented misfeature that will appear when you
>> allocate that last unused partition table entry to FreeBSD (or to
>> anything else).  Norton Ghost expects to find an unused primary
>> partition entry for its own temporary use while doing a full backup. 
>> (Grid only knows why it would need *any* kind of partition table
>> entry, but it refuses to do the backup if it doesn't have one
>> available.)  The Windows XP system restore partition can be changed
>> from a primary partition to a logical partition, and Windows XP
>> doesn't appear to care.  However, creation of a logical partition
>> entry chain ties up one primary partition entry in the MBR, so
>> converting the system restore partition alone doesn't buy you
>> anything.  If you then also convert the Dell service partition to a
>> logical partition, Windows XP will no longer complete its startup
>> procedure because there is at least one module (HAL.DLL) that its
>> boot/startup routines will try to load from the service partition,
>> which the startup routines aren't smart enough to find if it's a
>> logical partition. Dell's technical support people eventually told me
>> that the only way around that problem was to wipe out Windows XP and
>> reload it from the CDROMs that they shipped with the computer.  
>
>I have wiped out the system but with my own copy of WinXP Pro.  Will
>this work?

     I don't know why not, but, as noted above, it shouldn't have
mattered anyway for what you have and want to do.
>
>> But
>> if you do that, you may then have trouble reinstalling Norton Ghost
>> and getting it to accept the fact that you do already have a paid-for
>> license. 
>
>Don't have Norton Ghost so I'm not too worried about that.

     So you probably don't need to keep a spare primary partition table
entry around unused.
     Best of luck to you!


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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* Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
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