# SSD partitions not seen by FreeBSD during installation



## ChatNoir (Jun 14, 2014)

Hello all,
I am trying to install FreeBSD. But I have a strange behaviour of sysinstall!

I have three discs, the first an SSD with two partitions one NTFS for Windows 7 and the second empty. The second disc is empty and GPT partitioned. The third for Windows NTFS with some files. I see my discs when installing FreeBSD, the third is well recognized in NTFS, also the second disc. The SSD seems not well recognized, FreeBSD seems not to see the SSD partitions, only one disk of 119 GB!

Did anybody already have this kind of problems? Is it normal or not? What happened? I have aborted the installation because I do not want to lose my first installation. I would like to install FreeBSD on the empty partition of the SSD and also to use the second empty HDD.

Thanks in advance.
Chat Noir


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## wblock@ (Jun 14, 2014)

What version of FreeBSD are you installing?


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## ChatNoir (Jun 14, 2014)

I'm trying to install FreeBSD 10.0!


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## wblock@ (Jun 14, 2014)

FreeBSD 10 uses bsdinstall(), not sysinstall().

If you are trying to install FreeBSD along with Windows, make a full backup of everything you want to keep first.  Or better, install VirtualBox and run FreeBSD as a VM.

What shows on the bsdinstall() partitioning screen?


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## ChatNoir (Jun 14, 2014)

Yes you are right, it is bsdinstall() and not sysinstall(), an error from my side.

But it changes nothing. I have downloaded the DVD ISO image of FreeBSD 10.0 and I'm using the installation software, whatever its name, it doesn't see the existing partitions on the SSD. It is a fact.
I have stopped trying to install on the SSD (a Sandisk) and I've installed FreeBSD on HDD only. But it won't boot even though I have done a dual boot!
So I am trying to install from scratch, I have erased the all the HDD.
I am sadly surprised because bsdinstall() doesn't allow me to change anything in the partitions.
I have a large HDD and rather large RAM space (16GB) bsdinstall() allows only 3.8 GB swap space but I would like to have 48 GB. I'm trying to change parameters  but nothing works. I am turning mad, I am thinking that FreeBSD is not so flexible or not for me.


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## wblock@ (Jun 14, 2014)

ChatNoir said:
			
		

> I have downloaded the DVD ISO image of FreeBSD 10.0 and I'm using the installation software, whatever its name, it doesn't see the existing partitions on the SSD. It is a fact.



What, exactly, does it show?  I'm not asking for your impressions.  I'm trying to figure out what type of partitioning you have and what is being done.  Without actual output, it's difficult.



> I have stopped trying to install on the SSD (a Sandisk) and I've installed FreeBSD on HDD only. But it won't boot even though I have done a dual boot!



What do you mean by "I have done a dual boot"?  Installed some kind of boot manager?  Which one?



> So I am trying to install from scratch, I have erased the all the HDD.
> I am sadly surprised because bsdinstall() doesn't allow me to change anything in the partitions.
> I have a large HDD and rather large RAM space (16GB) bsdinstall() allows only 3.8 GB swap space but I would like to have 48 GB. I'm trying to change parameters  but nothing works. I am turning mad, I am thinking that FreeBSD is not so flexible or not for me.



On a modern machine, 4G of swap is usually more than enough.  But it can be modified in the installer.  That would require choosing manual partitioning.


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