- Backing Up an Existing Windows or Linux Filesystem
- Nondestructive Hard Disk Partitioning with FIPS
- Working with FIPS
- Potential Problems with and Limitations of Dual-Boot Systems
- The FreeBSD Boot Manager
- Alternative Installation Methods
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Nondestructive Hard Disk Partitioning with FIPS
FIPS, which stands for First (nondestructive) Interactive Partition Splitting, is a partitioning program designed to run under DOS or Windows in DOS mode. It splits an existing DOS partition into two at the point you specify. You can then use the new partition it creates as the space for FreeBSD. Note that FIPS works only with DOS-style partitions (FAT16 or FAT32). FIPS does not work with Windows NT/2000/XP NTFS partitions, nor does it work with Linux Ext2FS/Ex+3FS partitions. Finally, those running OS/2 need to be aware that FIPS does not work with HPFS partitions, either.
FIPS has a couple of limitations:
- It cannot split an extended DOS partition, only a primary one. Extended DOS partitions are forms of second-level partitioning in common use in the DOS/Windows and Linux worlds; they allow a disk to contain more than the BIOS-supported four partitions by subdividing them and then providing access to them as though they were regular partitions. (FreeBSD doesn't use extended partitions; instead, it has the concept of slices and BSD partitions, which we will cover in Chapter 20, "Adding Hard Disk Storage.") If you are like most people running Windows, this will not be a problem—you likely have one primary partition that takes up the entire disk.
- You cannot currently have more than three partitions on your disk. FIPS creates a new primary partition with the free space it is assigned. Because you can only have four DOS-style partition entries on a disk, you can have no more than three existing partitions when you run FIPS. Note that this limitation only applies to IDE/ATA drives; owners of SCSI drives won't have this limitation.
If neither of these issues applies to you, and assuming you have made a backup, you are ready to begin the partitioning process.
Running ScanDisk and the Defragmenter
Before you use FIPS, you should first turn off your screensaver and any scheduled tasks that might be configured, and then run DOS or Windows ScanDisk to fix any problems on the disk. After ScanDisk has finished running, you need to run the disk defragmenter.
FIPS needs contiguous free space at the end of the drive in order to split the partition. It cannot split before the last sector on the disk containing data. Running the disk defragmenter moves all the data to the beginning of the disk without leaving holes in the middle.
Depending on the speed of your computer, the size of your hard disk, how fast the disk is, and how badly fragmented it is, the defragmentation process could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
Obtaining FIPS and Creating a Boot Disk
When the defragmentation process is finished, you are ready to start FIPS. You can download FIPS from the FreeBSD FTP server at ftp.freebsd.org or one of its mirror sites in the directory /pub/FreeBSD/tools/fips.exe. You can download restorrb.exe from the same directory. If none of these locations are available, the official FIPS website is http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/.
You should create a bootable floppy disk and copy the three files mentioned previously to it. This floppy disk will allow you to boot into MS-DOS (or FreeDOS—see http://freedos.org/ for more information) and run FIPS, but nothing else. In DOS or Windows 98/Me, you can create a bootable floppy from a DOS prompt with the command format a: /s , assuming that you have a blank floppy in drive A. The following is a sample procedure for creating the boot disk:
C:\> format a: /s
Insert new diskette in drive A:
and press ENTER when ready...
Checking existing disk format.
Verifying 1.44M
Format complete.
System transferred
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
1,457,664 bytes total disk space
388,608 bytes used by system
1,069,056 bytes available on disk
512 bytes in each allocation unit.
2,088 allocation units available on disk.
Volume Serial Number is 031B-0831
Format another (Y/N)? n
C:\> d:
D:\> cd tools
D:\TOOLS> copy fips.exe a:\
1 file(s) copied
d:\TOOLS> copy restorerb.exe a:\
1 file(s) copied
D:\TOOLS> copy errors.txt a:\
1 file(S) copied
D:\TOOLS>
When you've created the bootable floppy, use it to reboot your system (you may need to make sure your BIOS is configured to boot from the floppy drive if a disk is present). After the system has finished booting, type fips at the DOS prompt to start the FIPS program.