Missing Operating System Error

S

stevekamau87

Hi Guys,

I recently tried to install FreeBSD 9 on my laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 7 home premium. My intention was to install FreeBSD alongside Windows 7 as a dual-boot system.

I followed the instructions on this post by nsth.

I followed the instructions successfully to the end. After rebooting my computer, I got the Missing Operating System error. I've checked online and come across this note on the FreeBSD FAQ section on installing FreeBSD. They mention something about a case of FreeBSD and DOS or some other OS conflicting over their ideas of disk geometry. Unfortunately I don't understand how I can solve this problem.

Any help will be highly appreciated considering how badly I want to start doing some real work with an awesome operating system (FreeBSD).
 
I booted the FreeBSD 9 LiveCD and installed the bootselect code by running the boot0cfg command. Now I have the bootselect options at startup. I can boot into windows just fine but when I try to boot up FreeBSD, nothing happens. I'll keep on trying a few things until I can get it to work. In the meantime, I'll appreciate any suggestions.
 
I solved the problem.

I re-installed FreeBSD after some partition changes and both Windows 7 and FreeBSD now boot just fine.

Initially I had 4 partitions on my disk. Windows was occupying the 1st, 2nd and 4th partitions. Therefore the first time I installed FreeBSD on the 3rd partition. The problem is that Windows doesn't play nice with other O.S. unless it occupies the first partitions consecutively. Any other O.S. should come after ALL windows partitions. So, I used a windows software called EASUS Partition Manager to move the 4th windows partition to be 3rd. I was left with the free space at the end of the disk (after deleting the previous FreeBSD Installation).

After this, I re-installed FreeBSD 9 on the last partition (the 4th one) using exactly the same steps posted by nsth. Everything went smoothly and on rebooting, I selected FreeBSD from the boot manager. It booted just fine.

I hope someone else finds this useful.

Cheers.
 
I also know that windows does not like to be in any other partition but the first. It is strange that windows does not recognize your third partition as empty/not usable space, since the boot should happen from the first one. However thank you for sharing your experience.
 
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