Aw: Re: Partitioning on a MBR table disk fails (and destroys my data...)

Rick Macklem <rmacklem_at_uoguelph.ca> wrote:

> Did you use "Manual" when it gets to the partitioning screen?
> When I've done this, after selecting "Manual MBR" (or whatever it's called,
> one or two below "Auto"), it should show you the slices
> (what FreeBSD calls the 4 MBR partitions):
> - Then I select the "freebsd" (move around until it is highlighted one)
>   and create partitions within it with "Create" at the bottom of the
> screen.
>   (I always have "fun" with the interface, but repeated attempts with <tab>
>    and the arrow keys eventually get me to the right place on the screen;-)

I think I did select "auto" which brings me into the "manual" screen after few
steps. It does show the slices and does even show NTFS and Linux
partitions inside the extended partition (I have 3 primary MBR partitions,
first is freebsd, then two NTFS, then an extendet with further NTFS and
Linux).

The first 10MB of the first slice (freebsd) had been cleared with
"dd if=/dev/zero of=...".  When I put the cursor line on this slice and
select "create" it doesn't allow me to create the freebsd-ufs for "/".

> Good luck with it, rick
> ps: If it doesn't show the slices,I'm guessing the MBR doesn't make sense
> to
>     FreeBSD's fdisk. You can go to "<Shell>" instead of "<Install>" and
> then
>     try typing "fdisk".

I did try the shell and typed "fdisk" and "disklabel" but this did not work as
known from other BSDs.

The actually issue is that I can't create something in the found freebsd
slice.  In the past I did simply remove this slice and added a new one
(since the free space on the disk had exactly been what I wanted to
use).  But now the seemingly free space is not actually completely free
so I'd like to not delete the slice.  The installer should support using
this slice.

Carsten