# Booting Unix from Windows 7 (not virtual machine)



## unixlearn (Dec 12, 2012)

I have a laptop with two hdds.
Drive 1 = Windows 7
Drive 2 = 1/2 Freebsd partition + 1/2 NTFS (for freespace and swapping files)
I would like to be able work my FreeBSD partition from windows. I may be wrong but I do not think I'm looking for VMware. This seems to setup a virtual machine on a virtual drive. I actually want to work on my native FreeBSD partition from windows (on the same machine) then I want to be able to boot into that same FreeBSD when I feel like it.

Reason: I want to be able to do stuff like installation of FreeBSD, xorg, kde, ect without while still using my computer. since this process can take days.


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## wblock@ (Dec 12, 2012)

To use both operating systems at the same time requires VM software.  emulators/virtualbox-ose works well with FreeBSD, either as a host or guest or both.

VirtualBox has a "shared folders" feature that lets the guest and host both have access to the same directory.

Splitting things into real partitions on the drive limits the potential and ties up space.  Also, NTFS is proprietary and not a safe choice for data exchange.


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## xibo (Dec 13, 2012)

While writing to NTFS is not supported by FreeBSD, there are UFS drivers for Windows. I had one that was working with my Vista x64 installation and available for free, but I forgot it's name.


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## SirDice (Dec 13, 2012)

unixlearn said:
			
		

> Reason: I want to be able to do stuff like installation of FreeBSD, xorg, kde, ect without while still using my computer. since this process can take days.



Although you could read UFS from Windows you cannot _run_ FreeBSD applications on Windows.


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## TiberiusDuval (Dec 14, 2012)

Isn't it so that writing to NTFS is not OFFICIALLY supported by FreeBSD? As far as I know PC-BSD uses same system as FreeBSD to support NTFS partitions and I frequently write data to NTFS partitions while using PCBSD. Of course it's my own risk, but I haven't got any problems yet. But really even if you can get to UFS partitions from Windows side, You cannot run any FreeBSD binaries from Windows. Just like you cannot run any Windows binaries from FreeBSD without something like WINE.


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## SirDice (Dec 14, 2012)

TiberiusDuval said:
			
		

> Isn't it so that writing to NTFS is not OFFICIALLY supported by FreeBSD?


Yes, for mount_ntfs(8) that's correct. sysutils/fusefs-ntfs does support it. But it's still quite dangerous, it's a proprietary filesystem that's been reverse engineered and can therefor contain bugs that could wreck the filesystem.


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## throAU (Dec 14, 2012)

As above, I'd recommend using VMware or Virtualbox, and using shared folders within the hypervisor software, or share via SMB or NFS.

I wouldn't attempt to use NTFS write support from within FreeBSD, even Apple don't enable it and they've probably got more resources at their disposal to get NTFS RW support working properly than FreeBSD developers have.


As an aside, i've had to chkdsk NTFS partitions after writing to them with Linux or FreeBSD in the past.  Not sure on the latest support, but I wouldn't trust it except for read only.


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