the BIOS Stuck / HDD Bricked Issue

[mozart]

Hello guys.

Please enlighten me. my last encounter with BSD is FreeBSD 4.4 when i was still in high school so im kinda outdated.

so here's the thing:
I recently installed PC-BSD 9.0 32 bit on Acer 4738 (intel i3, RAM 8 GB, HD Hitachi 500Gb).
And so i download the PC-BSD 9.0 handbook and started to read it (yeah, i know maybe you think i'm lame or something, but somebody got to read it sometimes .

so, i started the install process just like the book, i shrunk my HD, i use PartedMagic for making the new Partition as "Primary" and i download Boot-US for preparation of the boot manager later after install.

i've noticed the changes was VERY-VERY NICE, thumbs up for the PC-BSD guys. i like it a lot, the nice graphics and all, especially the partition manager, its very different with the old fdisk.

After Install, it prompted for a restart. so i restarted, and the Windows boots.
i installed Boot-US on Windows, and in it i activate the other partition so my PC-BSD is recognised as boot options. and restart again to boot on PC-BSD.

the PC-BSD boots up.
Man !! it soo cool, the graphics was nice, all the hardware are already auto-detected (my Wi-fi were instantly on and my audio too). so, i browse around the program and play a couple of MP3 from my external HD (oh yes, you dont have to mount it first, it auto-mounts
and after a couple of hours, because its already late, i turned the laptop off.

the next day, when i Power Up the Laptop, it FREEZES / STUCK on the "Acer" POST screen.
oh boy oh boy. it shooked me good..

i browse google looking for "Bricked" or "Stuck BIOS Screen" or "PC-BSD install failure". And found a couple of the same case, but it is on FreeBSD.

9.0-RELEASE amd64 Bricked My Hard Drive

Installing FreeBSD 9 rendered hard drive unusable

so, i figure out how to un-bricked the HD:
which is to un-plug the HD and boot the laptop using the PartedMagic cd. after it boots up, i connect the HD again in the motherboard or i use "USB to SATA" converter (either way it works fine, but the latter methods bothers you lessen because you dont have to flip the laptop and risk mistouching something in the process). After you connect the HD, start up the GParted (Gnome Partition Editor) and Delete all the partition clean and press apply.
and then your HD can be used again.


That takes care the Bricked / BIOS Stuck problem, but not the install problem.
On that thread, they recommend links to learn about the bsdinstall

Chapter 3 Installing FreeBSD 9.x and Later


and links to make your own partition:

Disk Setup On FreeBSD

THATS when i throw the white towel..

im not saying the Handbook is hard to understand or mr. Warren Block post is not in the right order, no god forbids. but as a general "average joe" i found it way out of my league and i simply dont know how to implement it on PC-BSD.

can some body help me? or the problem hasnt fixed and i just install the 8.2 (Hubble) instead?

Thank you so Much for the attention.

-Mozart-

[bebuxe]

Can you tell me exactly what it says when loads up, any screenshoots or a camera recording we can us to see why it stalls?

[Cobalt]

bsdinstall is the new method of installing FreeBSD, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think that you can access it in PC-BSD.

However, this little nugget gives us a clue: "The user is
suppose to know before installing 9.0 that their pc hardware requires
(mbr, Dos) format partitions and instead of using the automatic gpart
format disk partition layouts they must select the manual option which
opens a shell where the installer must enter the native commands to
create the (mbr, Dos) format partitions like sysinstall did in 8.2 and
older releases."

So... I'd get a live CD with GNOME Partition Editor (gparted) and create the partition table (MSDOS.) Then install to it.

[mozart]

Can you tell me exactly what it says when loads up, any screenshoots or a camera recording we can us to see why it stalls?

thanks for the response
umm.. well.. it doesnt say anything..

here's how it looks.


any way, the stalls maybe because the bsdinstall messed up the MBR in some way. i found a way to cure the stall, which is using the Gparted to wipe the drive (delete all partitions)

but i have done that a couple of times now,
- trying to install on dual-boot, booting stalls, wipe the drive.
- trying to install on entire disk, booting stalls, wipe the drive.

is there a way for me to fix the stall without wiping the drive and to run PC-BSD smoothly?

thanks

-mozart-

[Ole Juul]

Is this a stall or a hang? hehe I mean could it be you are not waiting long enough while the computer sits there and does whatever it does for a long time before the install actually starts? Just asking, because I personally have wondered if it's going to do anything and have almost hit the switch before it started again.

[mozart]

Thank you for the response..

.....they must select the manual option which
opens a shell where the installer must enter the native commands to
create the (mbr, Dos) format partitions like sysinstall did in 8.2 and
older releases."

Where can we find this manual option in PC-BSD? is there way to come-around?
on the partition manager screen i tried to open the next tty, but it asked me for login, but i havent reached the user creation process. so i cant get in. i already try pcbsdcbsd and root:root but it all fail, any suggestion?

So... I'd get a live CD with GNOME Partition Editor (gparted) and create the partition table (MSDOS.) Then install to it.

please correct me, i think i want to try this one:
- Assuming we start from empty hard disk,
- Boot the laptop with live CD
- Run the Gparted
- make partition for PC-BSD.
- reboot with PC-BSD DVD Inside.
- Start the Install process step.

is this what you mean? please correct me, because i want to try it.

thanks
-mozart-

[mozart]

Is this a stall or a hang? hehe I mean could it be you are not waiting long enough while the computer sits there and does whatever it does for a long time before the install actually starts? Just asking, because I personally have wondered if it's going to do anything and have almost hit the switch before it started again.

hehehe..
thanks for the response..
ive been thinking like that also for the first time.
i said "naaah, just wait a couple of more minutes"
but the minutes turn to hours,
i press F2 it beeps long, i press Esc it beeps long, i press Del it also beeps long.

and then i know something went wrong.

[Ole Juul]

. . . but the minutes turn to hours,

OK, too bad it wasn't so simple.

I just read up on installation in the FreeBSD (for my own project) and saw that the MSDOS partition is required if the disk is shared with XP or similar. However I don't think it is needed for any other reason. Here is what it says:

Warning: Some older operating systems like Windows® XP are not compatible with the GPT partition scheme. If FreeBSD will be sharing a disk with such an operating system, MBR partitioning is required.

More here.

[mozart]

I just read up on installation in the FreeBSD (for my own project) and saw that the MSDOS partition is required if the disk is shared with XP or similar. However I don't think it is needed for any other reason. Here is what it says:
More here.

thank you very much Ole Juul..
in the above post, our friend Cobalt also told me some thing similar like that.

but i just dont know what it mean.
do you have to install New MBR before installing PC-BSD ? or the MS-DOS is the partition for installing the PC-BSD?

but as far as i know, even if we prepared the partition using MS-DOS Filesystem, PC-BSD will format it to become UFS or any FS thats compatible, right?


thanks
-mozart-

[Ole Juul]

but as far as i know, even if we prepared the partition using MS-DOS Filesystem, PC-BSD will format it to become UFS or any FS thats compatible, right?

That's what I think too. Also since you're not also running an MS-Windows OS there is no need for any compatibility with that. Besides, the installer can do it all as far as I know. I can't remember how it went when I installed PC-BSD 9.0 a little while ago, but since it is FreeBSD at the OS level, then it should just do it. Here is the FreeBSD partition page. The PC-BSD installer with 9.0 is so simple that you should barely have to do anything and it will work.

I'll be interested in hearing what Cobalt has to say. I think something else is wrong. You mentioned getting information from Warren Block (for whom I have great respect) and I seem to recall having a discussion with him a couple of years ago where he explained about the BIOS being connected with the HDD on some newer drives. That's a complication that I haven't encountered yet, although I put together my own computers. Let's hope that's not the problem here, because I think that would involve some special utility for that kind of drive - perhaps I'm wrong.

It just occurred to me that you could do a quick installation of some other OS (eg a Linux distro) to prove that the drive is OK and that PC-BSD should work.

Cheers,
Ole