# Question on version 9.0 not critical just curious



## Crotalus (Aug 28, 2012)

Some background first.

I have a ABIT KN8 Ultra motherboard with an AMD socket 939 4200+ dual processor. It has 4 serial ATA 3.0Gb connections on the board. I have installed the maximum 4GB of memory that the board will allow. The hard drive that had the operating system on bought the farm. I thought that this would be a good time to go from 8.2 to 9.0 as I would have a brand new never used hard drive. The new hard drive is a Western Digital model WD1002FAEX. http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf Much larger than needed but it was the only Caviar Black that they had and has a 5 year warranty. 

When I installed it and rebooted the server I ran into this problem http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=28761. I was able to recover the drive by booting from the DVD and plugging the drive in before it booted. I then deleted the partitions and did a destroy with 
	
	



```
gpart delete -i 1 ad4
gpart delete -i 2 ad4
gpart destroy
```
 I now have version 8.3 up and running with no problems.

Here is my question.

If I bought something like this http://www.siig.com/it-products/controllers-storage/serialata/pcie/dp-sata-6gb-s-2-port-pcie.html would a separate controller allow an install of version 9 with out the problems of the old motherboard bios? Would it use the new controller or still revert to the motherboard? Or does it as one post indicated that it is the bios on the drive itself. I don't know. The motherboard bios can not be updated as the company does not exist anymore and I have the latest that was produced.

I have no burning desire to throw away a perfectly good piece of hardware. Just an idea for the future.

Keith


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## wblock@ (Aug 28, 2012)

FreeBSD 9 does not require GPT.  It will work just fine with MBR partitions.  They can be created from the installer: http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=149210&postcount=13.

GPT versus MBR might not be the problem.  Jumpering the drive to limit the SATA mode might do it.  (Incidentally, that's a nice drive.)


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## Crotalus (Aug 28, 2012)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> FreeBSD 9 does not require GPT.  It will work just fine with MBR partitions.  They can be created from the installer: http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=149210&postcount=13.
> 
> GPT versus MBR might not be the problem.  Jumpering the drive to limit the SATA mode might do it.  (Incidentally, that's a nice drive.)


I did find that earlier. I was frustrated and wanted to get the thing running again. That is why I went to the 8.2 version. I still have another server running 6.2. It does everything I need but it's days may be numbered.

I still don't understand what the real problem was. Would a newer control work with GPT without any problems?

Just confused!

Keith


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## wblock@ (Aug 29, 2012)

The controller should not care about GPT or MBR.  A RAID controller might misidentify old data on the disk as RAID metadata, or the newer drivers in FreeBSD 9 might be trying to switch to a SATA mode the motherboard controller can't actually do.  Or possibly the motherboard BIOS is seeing the GPT partitions as something else, or assuming a GPT disk will have a UEFI software partition.

In summary: it's unlikely to be something a new controller would solve, and $50 would be better spent towards a new motherboard anyway.  So just use MBR.  It may help to erase the first and last 40 blocks or so on the drive before trying to install, just to make sure no old partition tables are left in place.


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