Since there seems to be confusion/misleading information on dual booting Windows 7 and this particular model laptop I will try and simplify. Here goes nothing.
Info on my Lenovo (also referred to as ideapad) as follows: Intel i5 2450M processor @ 2.5Ghz, 8G DDR3 Ram, x4USB ports with one that doubles as eSATA, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M with Intel 3000 graphics chipset (1.5GB video memory), Intel Centrino wireless, HDMI port, SD Memory Card Port, WebCam and Microphone, Win 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1, 64 bit.
This laptop has an OEM feature named OKR (One Key Recovery). Nice but not necessary. My final configuration does not support this feature. There are uTube videos showing somebody in Vietnam hacking the Windows boot manager in order to try and save this feature. Dont read any further until you start backing up your data while your sleeping to another hard drive. Please also note this post fore-goes all the usual warnings.
Step one:Wipe Drive. I use dBan. Get it here> http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 0277,d.cWc
Step two:Install OEM copy of your original operating system which should be any version of Windows 7 64 bit (here after referred to as Win7) You can get an OEM copy of your operating system from several sources including Micro Soft. Use the same product and you can reactivate with the key located on the sticker on the bottom of your laptop. Its amazing how many people do not know this.
Step three:Install FreeBSD
Lets start with the Windows stuff. Go here> http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-windows-7-preinstalled-windows-8-laptop.html scroll down, and, read the sub-posting "Bypassing UEFI to Install Win7 normally to an MBR HD" and digest it. It contains loaded concepts. This is the only way to successfully put Win7 in a single partition under MBR. I can tell you from previous experience that when installing any operating system on a hard drive that has not been zeroed is a recipe for disaster. This is especially relevant in these times of seemingly endless combinations of boot code/managers, and file system formats. When in Windows use Windows stuff. The short cut to Windows DiskPart at the begging of this install is the key to success.If you have never installed Win7 you won't notice the differences in the installation by using a "SQUEAKY CLEAN" hard drive, but, it is a vastly different install. Please note that I do not see any difference on boot performance between MBR and UEFI.
The FreeBSD installation is simple if you get the Windows stuff right. Since now we have Win7 in a single active, formatted MBR partition. Just load up FreeBSD by your favorite method and then when you get to the part where you need to select the partitioning method choose
Ada0s2 should still be highlighted but if its not navigate back using arrow up, down keys. Tab over to Create and select using mouse click or enter. Check that this is what you see:
If thats not what you see then get in there and change it. If you like using conventional BSD slices then go ahead and create any slice you wish but be sure that they are all freebsd-ufs type and to preface your mount point with "/" i.e. /var, /tmp, /usr. Finnish the installer and be sure to create your user identity and password and, oh yeah be sure to invite yourself to the wheel so you can su to root from your other applications. Re-boot. Log in to root. Type
and then type
Type
and now you will see your choices on the left side of your screen. I have omitted many minute details, forgive me. There is some new stuff here and some old stuff. It is now in one place. Happy BSD'ing
Info on my Lenovo (also referred to as ideapad) as follows: Intel i5 2450M processor @ 2.5Ghz, 8G DDR3 Ram, x4USB ports with one that doubles as eSATA, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M with Intel 3000 graphics chipset (1.5GB video memory), Intel Centrino wireless, HDMI port, SD Memory Card Port, WebCam and Microphone, Win 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1, 64 bit.
This laptop has an OEM feature named OKR (One Key Recovery). Nice but not necessary. My final configuration does not support this feature. There are uTube videos showing somebody in Vietnam hacking the Windows boot manager in order to try and save this feature. Dont read any further until you start backing up your data while your sleeping to another hard drive. Please also note this post fore-goes all the usual warnings.
Step one:Wipe Drive. I use dBan. Get it here> http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 0277,d.cWc
Step two:Install OEM copy of your original operating system which should be any version of Windows 7 64 bit (here after referred to as Win7) You can get an OEM copy of your operating system from several sources including Micro Soft. Use the same product and you can reactivate with the key located on the sticker on the bottom of your laptop. Its amazing how many people do not know this.
Step three:Install FreeBSD
Lets start with the Windows stuff. Go here> http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-windows-7-preinstalled-windows-8-laptop.html scroll down, and, read the sub-posting "Bypassing UEFI to Install Win7 normally to an MBR HD" and digest it. It contains loaded concepts. This is the only way to successfully put Win7 in a single partition under MBR. I can tell you from previous experience that when installing any operating system on a hard drive that has not been zeroed is a recipe for disaster. This is especially relevant in these times of seemingly endless combinations of boot code/managers, and file system formats. When in Windows use Windows stuff. The short cut to Windows DiskPart at the begging of this install is the key to success.If you have never installed Win7 you won't notice the differences in the installation by using a "SQUEAKY CLEAN" hard drive, but, it is a vastly different install. Please note that I do not see any difference on boot performance between MBR and UEFI.
The FreeBSD installation is simple if you get the Windows stuff right. Since now we have Win7 in a single active, formatted MBR partition. Just load up FreeBSD by your favorite method and then when you get to the part where you need to select the partitioning method choose
Manual. Select the root slice Ada0 and hit Create. The FreeBSD installer will automatically come back with a window that takes the remainder of your unallocated space and, puts that in a FreeBSD slice. That is exactly what you want to do. You may change the size. Leave mount point blank. Click "OK". Take note this is not a FreeBSD-ufs slice. This only happens when the FreeBSD installer sees a properly formatted drive with unallocated space. If your install does not do this I'm sorry but you need to exit and do a complete Re-do. You should now see x3 slices which are Ada0, Ada0s1, Ada0s2. Use down arrow keys to highlight your FreeBSD slice Ada0s2 and then use the Tab key and select Create with either a left mouse click or keyboard enter. Then check that the fields in the next pop-up box are filled out like this:
Code:
Type: freebsd-ufs
Size: <size required ending with MB or GB>
Mountpoint: /
Code:
Type: freebsd-swap
Size: <my Lenovo has 8GB of ram but I'm only to use 4GB of swap>
Mountpoint:
Code:
cd /
Code:
boot0cfg -B ada0
Code:
reboot