[from newbies]: XP + FreeBSD

[Bill Moran]

"clayton rollins" <crollins666 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On June 6, 2004, <David.Annetts at csiro.au> wrote:
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >This has probably been answered before, but I was unable to find
> >explicit confirmation.
> >
> >The installation guide (2.5.3) states that "You now have the option to 
> >install a boot manager. In general, you
> >should choose to install the FreeBSD boot manager if:
> >
> >    *You have more than one drive, and have installed FreeBSD onto a
> >drive other than the first one.
> >    *You have installed FreeBSD alongside another operating system on
> >the same disk, and you want to choose whether to start FreeBSD or the
> >other operating system when you start the compute"
> >
> >Will installing FreeBSD's boot manager render my exisiting XP
> >installation inoperable?  I have been down this route with Linux in the
> >past with the result that my NT partition was unusable after Linux
> >installation.
> 
> Hi Dave,
> 
> Freebsd-questions is the proper forum for questions; I'm sending my
> answer there as replying on newbies is against the charter. (Also, if I
> make a mistake, it'll get corrected here :).)
> 
> You don't need to subscribe to the list; you should be CC'ed on any
> replies.
> 
> As I understand it, the boot manager allows for one other OS to be
> bootable or for an OS to be booted which is not on the same drive as
> the MBR.
> 
> It should not conflict with XP, afaik, and I've used XP and FreeBSD
> together in the past.
> 
> As a cautionary note, though, I've seen others hang themselves with
> this. (I never figured out what they could have done wrong.) You should
> back up any data from the XP installation you wish to keep, to be safe.

I want to just second this.  I have a number of systems running both some
version of Windows and FreeBSD (including Win XP), so it does work.

I also want to second the "back up first".  I also have a few machines
running Fedora Linux and XP that work fine.  The fact that you had difficulty
probably means that you did something wrong.  It's pretty likely that you'll
have the opportunity to make the same mistake during the FreeBSD install.

My suggestion:
1) Back up anything important on the XP machine before you start
2) Contact your local Linux Users Group (or BSD users group, if you're lucky
   enough to have one ... most LUGs have BSD geeks in attendance as well) and
   find out when their next installfest is.  This is a good opportunity to take
   your computer down and have someone who has done it help you out.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com