It will work but you need to make the partition Type bf for Solaris and Type a5 for FreeBSD. Just use cfdisk to change it.

Remember both Solaris and FreeBSD keep the disk and partition number in the setting and and will not boot if you move them around.

The 4 IDE channels are always hda, hdb, hdc and hdd. You must have used up the secondary IDE master, reserved for hdc, for the CDrom.

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Just a tip for a user with too much money buying too many hard disks.

It may be a good idea to put the hard disks in mobile racks so that they can be withdrawn and inserted back in seconds. Also the main systems should always in the first disk.

Reason

While you are using just one OS in one hard disk the other 2 hard disks are spinning away their operational cycles. Every hard disk has a finite number of rotating cycles before the bearings wear off. Your hard disks will last longer if you do not spin them unnecessarily and only insert them when you really need to run the systems inside.

Saikee, you wrote the following:

It will work but you need to make the partition Type bf for Solaris and Type a5 for FreeBSD. Just use cfdisk to change it.
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I am no expert in Solaris and Free BSD. It is my understanding that the installation will do the necessary changes.

I am using GRUB to recognize all the distros. I hope GRUB will be able to recognize even Solaris and Free BSD.
I am sure you know more about these things. When you install several Linux distros, you could manipulate with GRUB so as to recognize all the distros.
I know how to manipulate with GRUB when installing several Linux distros.

I have never worked with cfdisk. I have learnt it is a part of my Linux box. Is it necessary to use cfdisk?

Usually the installation programs are equipped with necessary conversions. I would like to hear from you again.

I don't know about mobile racks. Are they external drives? I know it is possible to connect an external hard drive to the USB. It will be a bit slower than the internal hard drive.

When ATA drives had only one way traffic, (not reading and writing at the same time), was there any "crosstalk"? When did hard drives develop problems with crosstalk?
EDIT: Sorry, I should re-phrase, what change in hard drive design introduce this crosstalk issue? There's a reason it still has a 40 pin ATA interface.
ANOTHER EDIT: Keep in mind, the ATA interface used 39 wires for many more years than it used 40 (with HDD's). Maybe wikipedia can tell me what the 40th wire (pin) is now doing.

Nobody has answered my questions on the use of cfdisk and mobile racks.

I urge someone to tell me more about those aspects. I will not proceed with the installation of Solaris and Free BSD until I hear from you all. Because I must know all the potential problems in advance.

A mobile rack is a hardware design feature in some models of computer cases where you slide out part of the front of the case which contains your drives, you unplug one, pop it out and pop another in, plug in the cables and slam it back in, or get some spare racks and just switch out the racks. With this design feature, you don't need to unplug all connected cables (printer, mouse, keyboard, etc.) and bring the box onto a work bench to do this in a comfortable position. Most computer cases require you to remove a side panel, possibly remove the front bezel to slide out the drive rack to remove or switch them, which is not easy to do when the box is in a computer desk, like a mobile rack.

The advice is Post #16 is all I could offer. I installed these two systems before, among a few others.

If you want Unix-like systems you have to face the music eventually. I think the FreeBSD calls your hard disk ad0, ad1, ad2... and a partition will be something like ad3s3. Solaris uses something like c1d0s1. All Unix-like systems grab a Primary partition and subdivide it into BSD-subparts or subslices, just the same way logical partitions work in an extended partition.

My advice is keep the Linux off the disk that has Unix-like systems. There is a potential conflict that a Linux may see the BSD-subparts as logical partitions.

Junior Hacker,

Don't think I can answer the hard disk design but I think the 80-wire cable is necessary for stability and reliability for the rated UDMA modes.

Thanks Junior Hacker and Saikee for the replies.

I have heard when you install Solaris and Free BSD on a separate
hard drive, it works smoothly.
However,I have no experience in those operating systems.


It is my intention to install them on Maxtor hard drive. So Windows XP and all the other Linux distros will be on Primary drive and Western Digital drive.

Primary Master -- Samsung [200GB]
Secondary Slave -- Western Digital [500GB]

Primary Slave -- Maxtor [160GB]
{Solaris and Free BSD will be installed on this drive}

Solaris or FreeBSD can be booted identically to a XP or a Dos by chainloading.

I will try to chainload. I heard there would be problems with swap partition. Installing on a different hard drive might help me to swap partition problem.

Solaris and BSD systems have their own swap inside as a BSD-subpart.

They won't touch your Linux swap. I believe the people get into trouble by using a common swap. It is just not worth the trouble. You will do well if you manage to mount partitions across different platforms.

Yes, Saikee, I have heard Solaris and Free BSD doesn't share the swap partition. Whereas all the other Linux distros will share my existing partition.

I have learnt when you install Solaris and Free BSD on a separate hard drive it will work. I will try this.

Before embarking on this, I must solve the problem with GRUB.
I am struggling to configure GRUB so it will recognize Fedora 7 which is on the hdd hard drive.

Did you see my other thread?
If I can't configure GRUB to recognize the other hard drives, I won't be able to start other operating systems.I have installed Fedora7 on hdd hard drive. I can't start it as I can't configure GRUB. I have spent several hours to fix this problem.

I must solve this problem before installing Solaris and Free BSD.

Gins,

For multi-boot I suggest you take a look at my signature. There is sufficient information for you to boot every system you can fill you PC.