Issue Removing FreeBSD

H

hpoe

Hello, I recently installed FreeBSD and although I am finding it a quite excellent OS I am needing to reinstall Debian on the laptop. I have changed OSes fairly often on this particular machine, previous OSes included OpenBSD, Debian, and Slackware.

The issue is that anytime I put in a new OS CD into the machine it is ignored and the system continues to just boot BSD. I have ensured the BIOS is set to boot from CD as higher priority than HDD and have manually selected to boot form my DVD drive as well. Yet still the system just goes straight to booting FreeBSD, I have tried this with 3 different cd types and 2 different OSes but alas no dice.

I have spent the better part of my Saturday googling and researching and still haven't been able to find anything to help. Anyone got any ideas?

Machine Specs:
The laptop is an ASUS k50i
The processer is an amd64
The FreeBSD version is FreeBSD 9.0 Release #0

Is there any other information that I would need to include.

Thank you very much in advance for any help.
 
Maybe silly questions, but... Is there any change the CD/DVD drive has died? Also, is there any chance you are trying to read DVDs in a CD drive? As a testing measure, unplug your HDD (or turn it off in the BIOS) and try to boot your CD then? Or, attach a cheap USB external DVD reader and try that?
 
This quote is very defensive, because it affects the purpose of choosing an OS or another, and is included in the guidebook The Complete FreeBSD: Documentation from the Source - 4th Edition, but I think that answers your question perfectly.
How to uninstall FreeBSD

What, you want to remove FreeBSD? Why would you want to do that?

Seriously, if you decide you want to completely remove FreeBSD from the system, this is
no longer a FreeBSD issue, it’s an issue of whatever system you use to replace it. For
example, on page 63 we saw how to remove a Microsoft partition and replace it with
FreeBSD; no Microsoft software was needed to remove it. In the same way, you don’t
need any help from FreeBSD if you want to replace it with a different operating system.
Click to expand...

Simply, open your CD/DVD tray, put the new copy of the SO/Distribution and run...

Hope that helps ;)
 
FreeBSD has nothing to do with your boot order doesn't work as expected.
Replacing a operating system is just a matter of putting a bootable install media and boot from it.
 
hpoe said:
The laptop is an ASUS k50i
Click to expand...

Find the Manuel for your ASUS online. Look for how to get into the machines BIOS.

If that fails call ASUS for your tech support. I believe they are 24-hour and may even have a support forum of their own.

In the future you may consider trying liveCD's of the OSes you may be evaluating. Once you find one that fits your personal tastes look into virtual install for evaluation.

This is a nice project for "fixing" your MBR if you don't want to become a grub expert:

http://gag.sourceforge.net/
 
I wanted to thank wblock his suggested fix did work. I apologize about moving from FreeBSD unfortunately work says they need me to be running a different OS. Thank you everyone for your help.
 
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