*BSD News Article 35089


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From: arog@BIX.com (arog on BIX)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Installing a new SCSI disk
Date: 28 Aug 94 14:00:36 GMT
Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation
Lines: 101
Message-ID: <arog.778082436@BIX.com>
References: <Cv3K3r.ME7@hkuxb.hku.hk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bix.com

kmchan@cs.hku.hk (K.M. Chan) writes:

>Hi,

>I want to have some hints about installing a new SCSI-2 harddisk into
>my 486 computer.  Currently, I have only one small SCSI (possibly SCSI-1)
>harddisk in my PC.  I partitioned it into a DOS and a FreeBSD.  Since I
>require UNIX so often, I boot DOS only when I insert a DOS boot floopy. 
>In other times, I boot FreeBSD from the harddisk directly.  Now, I get
>a new SCSI-2 harddisk.  It is > 1 GB and external one. I have some 
>questions about installing it on my PC.

>/* NOTE: I use Adaptec 1542C SCSI card */

First, the SCSI-2 drive should negociate to SCSI-1 for the 1542c
without any special effort. Its part of the spec. 


>1.  i currently want to make the new harddisk to be FreeBSD format and
>    then mount it to the existing FreeBSD so that i can get more space
>    WITHOUT affecting current set up.  what are the steps i need to do ?
>    Moreover, when i format the new harddisk using freeBSD commands,
>    should i follow the DOS's geometry (i.e. the no. of heads, sector,
>    etc.)

As FreeBSD boots, it probes the system and the SCSI bus and 
lists what it finds. One of those items is what the drive told
FreeBSD about itself. This report has the head/cyl/sector info
for each of the SCSI drives that are found.

If the drive has a variable number of sectors, then there may be
problems, such as not having the full capacity of the drive, but
my first inclination would be to use the reported data to build
the filesystem. 

SOMEONE that knows how to hack this needs to post solid info
on this point. A rather large number of the newer drives seem
to do this trick to squeeze more capacity in... and Its going
to be a recurrent problem/question.

>2.  If i want to transfer the existing FreeBSD on my old SCSI harddisk
>    to the new one and change the old SCSI to a complete DOS partiton,
>    what should i do to make a such transfer and how can i boot the
>    FreeBSD by default every time ?

The 'boot' filesystem, for an "IBM-PC" environment is the
one at SCSI Address 0. Which ever drive is set to that address
should be the one that is the default boot.

From having done something simmilar, 'dos' on a second disk
and the first a boot FreeBSD, my recollection is that 'dos'
boot floppy found that partition and logged it in as C:.
Should work the same with SCSI drives as with that pile
of MFM ones that I had going at that point.

>3.  If I cannot transfer the BSD from existing old SCSI harddisk to new
>    one and need to install the FreeBSD to new one from scratch,
>    what should i do to make during installation so that the new one
>    boot up UNIX every time by default.

See above re: SCSI addresses.

>Any suggestion are welcome to send to my internet a/c: kmchan@csd.hku.hk

>Thanks you very much !

>-- kmchan

As to the process, the install scripts work nicely on the drive 
at addr-0. One of the nice things about SCSI is that it does not
matter if they are internal or external, if the boot fs is the
first or the last on the cable and so on.

That you're thinking of making the present fs into a 'dos' one
means that I would set the new drive to 0 and the present one
to addr-1. As noted, 'dos' should find it.

Build the new filesystem on the the new drive from the script
on the filesystem floppy. Just boot from the kernal floppy and
move to the filesystem one as you did to build what you have
been running. Re-boot and install the kernal and then again
through the cpio floppy. 

Booted to the new drive, make a subdirectory perhaps named
'oldfilesystem' as a mount point and mount /dev/sd1a /oldfilesystem.

I would expect that you should be able to use 'mv' to get
all of the things on that partition over to the new one with
the links and privs intact. 

Before you start, you might do well to print out the man pages
for cp, mv, and the commands that those pages reference so
that the info will be there... it will be sorta hard to
get to them until the re-build is done.

.........................................................
Alan Ogden   Moderator of 'nos' for BIX
arog@BIX.com