On Mon, 14 Oct 2013, Polytropon wrote:
On Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:01:02 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block wrote:
On Mon, 14 Oct 2013, Polytropon wrote:
On Sun, 13 Oct 2013 13:24:30 -0400, Kenta Suzumoto wrote:
Hi all. Is it possible to install FreeBSD without formatting the disk?
Yes. The installer supports not formatting existing partitions.
The file system characteristica will be kept, possible content
will overwritten. Note that "superfluous content" will also be
kept, except of course you previously remove everything.
sysinstall supported that, but AFAIK bsdinstall does not.
Oh, seems you're right. I've checked The FreeBSD Handbook for
the relevant instructions for using bsdinstall at
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-partitioning.html
and
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-final-warning.html
and I didn't find an option to _not_ initialize existing partitions,
even though it seems you can assign existing partitions without any
problem. The remaining question: Will they be initialized again?
It is possible to mount filesystems manually from the shell and have
bsdinstall continue with the install without formatting them. It's been
a while since I tried that, and I don't recall the exact details.
bsdinstall(8) suggests it may be as easy as just having the existing
filesystems mounted at /mnt. Still, not something to try without a
backup.
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
