formatting disk for FreeBSD : Detecting IDE Primary Master ... [Press F4 to skip]

[Peter]

iH,
   Sounds to me like the BIOS doesn't see the disk at all;
disk too big for bios?
I remember having to "boot" [manager] from an old HD with the actual OS on
a new big HD that the bios would not see/boot from.
formatting does not matter as bios does not see the disk anyways.
I'd look into a controller, or update firmware.

]Peter[

> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:48:07 +0000
> David Larkin <david.larkin at whitburncc.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hi Guys,
>>
>> I'm trying to  install FreeBSD  6.3 on an old PC.
>>
>> I have  bought a  new Maxtor DiamondMax 80Gig  disk,  to replace the old
>>  one. I will have only one disk in the PC.
>>
>> I am  looking to build using boot floppies and FTP.
>>
>> There  is  no CD  drive on  the PC.
>>
>> When I turn the PC on the BIOS hangs with the message
>>  Detecting  IDE  Primary  Master ...  [Press F4 to skip]
>>
>> However, by holding down  F4, I was able to boot using the floppies
>> boot.flp , kern1.flp , kern2.flp & kern3.flp
>>
>> This detected disk and I selected standard configuration, and the FTP
>> installation all went to plan.
>>
>> I got message saying installation was successful and I added users and
>> set root password.
>>
>> However, when I reboot (without floppies) I still get the message
>>  Detecting  IDE  Primary  Master ...  [Press F4 to skip]
>>
>> and when I go into BIOS , it still doesn't detect  the IDE disk.
>>
>> How do I format disk so BIOS  recognises it ?
>>
>> I read something about using DOS fdisk , but I haven't got DOS floppies.
>>
>> Can I format disk using boot or fixit floppies ?
>>
>> Thanks
>
> Some further info ...
>
>>From sysinstall, I  did Configure  --> Fdisk
>
> It shows
>
> Disk name : ad0
> |Disk Geom:  9729 cyls/255  heads/63 sectors = 156296385 sectors(76316MB)
>
> Offset     Size        END           Name  Ptype  Desc    Subtype Flags
>      0     63          62            -     12     unused   0
>     63     156296322   156296384     ad0s1 8     freebsd   165
> 156296385  5103        156301487     -     12    unused    0
>
>
> hope this helps
>
>
>
>
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