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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!sgigate.sgi.com!nntp.coast.net!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Making Windows NT & FreeBSD Cohabit Date: 20 Jul 1996 03:53:50 +0100 Organization: Coverform Ltd. Lines: 55 Message-ID: <4sphnu$238@anorak.coverform.lan> References: <31EEDF16.5110@portal.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.coverform.lan X-NNTP-Posting-Host: awfulhak.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Christoff Snijders (hjcs@portal.ca) wrote: : I posted a message on this newsgroup a while ago, : requesting information about whether it was : possible to install Windows NT on my PC (on which I : had Windoze 95 installed in one partition) without : damaging FreeBSD. : Well, no-one seemed to know (or care), so I went : ahead and did it. You probably asked just after the topic was discussed. People tend not to bother on the basis that the asker will either find the current thread or ask again.... : The result? : Well, I installed Windows NT over my Windoze 95 : installation, rebooted the machine, and held my : breath. : The FreeBSD boot manager remained completely : unaffected, and Windows NT installed its boot : manager underneath it--when you press F1 for DOS, : you get the NT boot manager, from which you can : choose whether you want to boot normally or in VGA : mode. Well, it installed it on top really. The F? bit is on sector 0 or your disk :-) Be careful here, the likes of Windows 95 for example rewrites the MBR, blatting the FreeBSD Boot Manager. : I didn't convert the file system to NTFS, because I : was concerned that this would prevent me from : booting FreeBSD ever again. Anyone know for sure? Yep, it's ok. I've never installed NT (I tried once, but that's another horror story), but have a look at your partition table (using FreeBSDs fdisk or Norton DISKEDIT or the like). You'll find that your NT partition is still reported as a DOS partition and starts (probably) at sector 63 (about 1Mb onto the disk). When you convert to NTFS, only the internals of the partition are changed (and the partition ID) - unless NT scribbles, it *can't* upset FreeBSD. The FreeBSD Boot Record is at sector 0, and the rest of the FreeBSD stuff is in your FreeBSD partition (or slice in FreeBSD terms). : So if, like me, you need Windows AND FreeBSD, go : ahead and install NT in your DOS partition! It : works! Good. But bear in mind, if you change to NTFS, FreeBSD won't be able to mount your NT partition any more. -- Brian <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....