Dual Boot - FreeBSD 9 and Windows 7

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error691

Hi everybody,

I know this topic has been done before, I've read numerous threads, and tried various suggestions, and still cannot figure it out.

My setup: 2 x Sata HDD; Windows 7 installed first on drive0, FreeBSD 9 on installed second on drive1. After fiddling around with boot0cfg, fdisk, and EasyBCD... When I boot up, I get the boot0 loader screen with following prompts and results:

Code: 
F1  Win           - goes to EasyBCD loader screen, from which I can boot Windows7
F2  Win           - BOOTMGR missing
F5  Drive1        - Missing Operating System
F6  PXE           - Missing Operating System

Now I am wondering if anyone has step-by-step instruction to dual boot. I am willing to reinstall Windows 7 and FreeBSD 9 from scratch. Please help!

Cheers,
J-Dogg
 
With two drives, no boot manager is needed at all. Just use the BIOS boot menu.

First fix the Windows setup with their fixboot command or whatever they call it now. That will replace the MBR (which right now has the FreeBSD boot0 multi-boot loader installed) with the standard Windows MBR.

Then install a standard MBR on the FreeBSD drive. See boot0cfg(8), the "go back to non-interactive booting" section in the Examples. The FreeBSD partition on the second drive may also need to be set active.

Once that's all fixed, you can still try a multi-boot loader. Pick one, don't install several. The FreeBSD one should work fine. I've never tried EasyBCD for multiple drives, but it probably can handle that also.
 
Thanks @DutchDaemon for making my post pretty.

My BIOS quick selection menu doesn't let me specify which HDD. It is Gigabyte ga870a-ud3. I will check whether there is a setting in advanced section.

Thanks for your response, it seems everything should work, but in reality it does not. I guess I will try systematic approach using different combinations til I exhaust possibilities. :(

I was hoping that someone on this forum has FreeBSD 9.1 and Windows 7 working in dual boot on different HDD, and could let me know what steps they took to accomplish that. :)
 
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The BIOS may need to have a list of drives that can be booted. That really is the easiest way to do this. Short of just using a VM, anyway.
 
Thanks @wblock@.

To change boot order I need to go into my BIOS and re-order HDD priority each time, it is rather annoying. I would try updating my BIOS but if that breaks then it is up a creek without a paddle. I guess it is easier to put all the OS'es on one HDD in different slices.

Apart from that, FreeBSD 9.1 is working, now I am just figuring out how to use it by following the guide on this site. If someone could add a section on dual booting it would be awesome and attract more users who may be worried about losing their existing OS.

Cheers.
 
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When you see the BIOS boot screen, press F12. This should let you select a drive to boot without having to change any settings.

As far as multi-boot instructions in the Handbook, there may be some. But it's easier and safer to just run a new operating system as a VM using software like VirtualBox.
 
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