# FreeBSD 8.1 REL / WinXP - Can't boot ?



## Wonsy (Nov 27, 2010)

Hello everyone 

I recently installed 8.1 Release, first BSD of my life ! I'm used to use Linux, a lot, so I thought "Should be easy, one way or another." ... half right.

Installation succeeded (on the third time ... hum.), almost no problems (nothing I can solve thanks to forums, FAQ, and your help !), but still a bug : I can't boot on my WinXP.

I can't get out XP nor any Windows (the one I prefer is XP, and it's part of my job), and I really want FreeBSD. First I was on the amd64 release (Proc : Phenom II X2 545), original boot manager from FreeBSD installed. 

Three partitions (...slice, sorry) on my disk : 
1 Â°) XP
2 Â°) NTFS Data/Save Partition
3Â°) Unused

Turned into :
1Â°) XP
2Â°) Data
3Â°) FreeBSD, auto-parting from the install

Still no problem, on boot I've got 
F1 : XP
F2 : ?? (Ok, that's right)
F3 : FreeBSD

When I hit F1, just ... nothing. Stuck. Hard reset is needed. F3 is okay, F2 do nothing as expected.

Tried to install Grub2, bug at install. Tried to install Grub legacy, not available in amd64 version, downloaded FreeBSD x86, installed, tried boot manager, same thing, installed Grub2 & Grub legacy, this time I can enter into Grub shell at boot (Yeepee).

After doing the usual 
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

...tadam, same thing, stuck. Groumpf.

Wondering if in any way i could still access to my XP, launched a recovery console and reinstalled XP MBR & bootsectors. This time, my BIOS launched ... FreeBSD loader. Ouch. 

I saw the bootable flag on the 3rd slice, swapped it to the first slice. Bios stucked at XP boot, "Boot from CD/DVD:", same as usual, and nothing.

Magical solution, delete the FreeBSD slice on the disk, nothing else to change, worked.

I really, really don't understand this point. Isn't my bios accepting freebsd slice ? My disk shouldn't be corrupted or failing, quite new ... and I wonder how a slice table can block me at this point, with the firt slice tagged as bootable, XP MBR & bootsectors, Windows should'nt ever see something else than an unknow slice on the disk.

Anyone an idea ? A fix ? Something I missed?

Just what point, whatever you can say : thanks in advance. Don't wan't to (re)install Linux, don't want to throw my XP, just want both : XP & FreeBSD ... should be nice.

Thanks everyone for your help !


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## Beastie (Nov 27, 2010)

Whenever you install a new OS, you should always make a backup of the MBR. There are incompatibility issues between MS-DOS/Windows' view of CHS and other OSs.


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## Wonsy (Nov 27, 2010)

Thanks for reply 

I know about make a backup of the MBR, but honestly, I'm not worried. Got a bunch of CDs wich can help me restore a original MBR / bootsector from XP, so it's not actually a problem.

I read about theses issues concerning CHS, just thought there was some kind of "fix" into the 8.1... and the problem is different : i don't ever get a message telling me there's a read error, there's just ... nothing. And FS is recognized from everywhere in my case.

I could try to change disk geometry, and this is the point where I begin to fear about my xp slice 

In the case it's wouldn't work, any other idea ? 

Thanks again in advance, and for replying :f


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## Beastie (Nov 27, 2010)

Wonsy said:
			
		

> I know about make a backup of the MBR, but honestly, I'm not worried.


It's not about worrying but about easy recovery, not wasting your time and getting everything working from the start without using third-party utilities.



			
				Wonsy said:
			
		

> I read about theses issues concerning CHS, just thought there was some kind of "fix" into the 8.1


Yes, there is:
`# fdisk -u /dev/deviceX`
Hence the need for a backup of your MBR. Or at least knowing what the CHS values were so you can restore them.



			
				Wonsy said:
			
		

> And FS is recognized from everywhere in my case.


That's normal. Any modern filesystem driver will read slices/partitions using LBA values. CHS values, which cause the incompatibility problems, are only used by the BIOS for booting. So you should be able to read your NTFS slices from FreeBSD without any problem even though XP doesn't boot anymore.


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## Wonsy (Nov 27, 2010)

...Hum.

Ok, I apologize. Tried your fix (changing disk geom), worked on the first time o_o sad to see I deleted for the fourd time my BSD slice (had to access XP), in order to reinstalling it again just to test this. And it works. Spent soooo much time for a 20 sec fix ..

Anyway : Thanks you very, very, very much \o/

(As I don't have "Edit" rights, can a mod change the topic to "Solved" ? Thanks \o/ )


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