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prep revision 1.1.1.1 
      1  1.1  cgd NOTE: If you wish to install NetBSD on your whole disk, i.e. you do
      2  1.1  cgd not want DOS or any other operating system to reside on your hard
      3  1.1  cgd disk, you can skip this section and go on to the section that
      4  1.1  cgd describes installation, below.  If you're upgrading your system from a
      5  1.1  cgd previous release of NetBSD, you shouldn't have proceeded directly to
      6  1.1  cgd the section about upgrading; you need none of the information
      7  1.1  cgd presented here.
      8  1.1  cgd 
      9  1.1  cgd First and foremost, before beginning the installation process, MAKE
     10  1.1  cgd SURE YOU HAVE A RELIABLE BACKUP of any data on your hard disk that you
     11  1.1  cgd wish to keep.  Repartitioning your hard disk is an excellent way to
     12  1.1  cgd destroy important data.
     13  1.1  cgd 
     14  1.1  cgd Second, if you are using a disk controller which supports disk
     15  1.1  cgd geometry translation, be sure to use the same parameters for NetBSD as
     16  1.1  cgd for DOS or the other operating systems installed on your disk.  If you
     17  1.1  cgd do not, it will be much harder to make NetBSD properly coexist with
     18  1.1  cgd them.
     19  1.1  cgd 
     20  1.1  cgd Third, use the DOS "fdisk" program or another partition editor to
     21  1.1  cgd repartition your hard disk.  Create a partition of at least 40M in
     22  1.1  cgd size, and note its starting offset and its length (preferably in units
     23  1.1  cgd of disk sectors or cylinders).  You will need that information when
     24  1.1  cgd installing NetBSD (and if the offset and length are not in those
     25  1.1  cgd units, you will have to convert them).  Once you have created the new
     26  1.1  cgd NetBSD partition, mark it as having a partition type of 0xA5 (265, in
     27  1.1  cgd decimal).  If you used "fdisk" to partition your disk, you will
     28  1.1  cgd probably have to use a different partition editor to mark the
     29  1.1  cgd partition with the correct type.
     30  1.1  cgd 
     31  1.1  cgd Finally, do whatever is necessary to restore order to the partition
     32  1.1  cgd you took space away from.  If it was a DOS partition, you probably
     33  1.1  cgd will need to use "format" to create a new file system on it, and then
     34  1.1  cgd restore your important files from your backups.  Other operating
     35  1.1  cgd systems will have different needs; most will need to reformat the
     36  1.1  cgd partition, and if it was their "main" partition, will probably need
     37  1.1  cgd to be reinstalled.
     38  1.1  cgd 
     39  1.1  cgd Your hard disk is now prepared to have NetBSD installed on it, and
     40  1.1  cgd you should proceed with the installation instructions.
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