Multiple OS With ZFS

I'm trying to install FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE after I installed Windows 7 Pro and I'll be installing a couple Linux distros after that. When I select the ZFS option it wants to use the entire drive - which will cause me to lose the Windows setup. My thinking is I will have to drop to the shell to setup ZFS and associated filesystems. Am I right or did I miss something?

OK, I've decided to install from shell. I'm trying to create a ZFS slice but keep getting "gpart: Invalid argument" from using gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -a 4K -s 300G ada0.

I have never used the -s switch before because I would ZFS the rest of the drive. However I do plan loading another operating system, or 2, later. Man page shows -s is usable. Thoughts?

First check what partitioning type the disk is using. That command should work on GPT but will be incorrect for MBR. It's possible to install Windows on a GPT partitioned disk but the Windows installer will only allow you to do that if you UEFI boot the installer (instead of using legacy boot). I have one system dual booting Windows 7 and FreeBSD with full root-on-ZFS on a GPT partitioned disk. I do have to use the UEFI/BIOS boot selector, if I set it to UEFI boot it boots Windows, set to legacy boot boots FreeBSD off of ZFS.

Drat, it's MBR. Windows install and FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE CD boot fine with UEFI off. I don't want to fdisk any of the installs, so I think I'm going to scratch what I've done and start over with FreeBSD as my base OS and VirtualBox Windows.

Try UEFI booting the Windows installer CD. That should allow you to use the Windows installer and create a custom layout using GPT. That's how I did it, I installed Windows first too. After that I used legacy boot to boot the FreeBSD installer. This was with a 9.1-RELEASE even I think, it's been a while. But the ZFS filesystems were easily created from the command line. The rest of the install is fairly easy too.

I didn't make my FreeBSD disc UEFI compatible, and I'm too lazy to keep hitting the BIOS to switch boot configurations from UEFI to Legacy. But I do appreciate the suggestion. :beergrin

Yeah, that's the only downside now but I can live with that. Hopefully there's a way to UEFI boot FreeBSD some day