Yes, 20 years ago when this project started, everyone using a computer was accustomed to these things. Because they probably had to use DOS or some other system like that.
Now, we can’t expect as much from users (which is good, it means they do more intesting things with computers than messing with these technical low-level things!). And so we need to rework this part a little.
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Plus the fact that there is MBR & UEFI nowadays - I’ve been using computers since learning in the mid 70’s using DOS - & I still don’t actually understand UEFI, just that it’s different, & if you do things a certain way, your computer will boot up, just like when using the MBR.
So any easing of the installation process would go a long way to having other people trying/using Haiku.
Initializing the disc is one such confusion, & then partitioning it, also confuses new comers - not just here, but also Linux/BSD - if this could become ‘point & shoot’ so much the better, with a ‘custom install’ option for those who want something other than using the whole disc.
Unfortunately, a lot of people want to try alternate operating systems alongside of MS Windows, & that is where real problems generally start showing up…
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I’m going to repeat myself here, but this is all well understood and all there is to do is upvote this ticket on the bugtracker which already plans exactly that: #16217 (Installer: Add Install Modes) – Haiku and hope it attracts the attention of a developer to actually do it. There is no need to repeat over and over that we need to do it, neither here in the forum or there on the bugtracker.
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Apologies for the ‘noise’ - I hadn’t seen that it was in the pipeline to be done sometime.
As a newbie to Haiku, I’m still trying to get to grips with it & how it works. 
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I’m very new to Haiku. I downloaded the .iso and using dd wrote it to a blank HD. Would not boot. Then using dd again I wrote it to a USB which boots. I ran the installation procedure on the USB to install on the blank HD. Once again the HD did not boot. Finally using dd I wrote the working USB to the HD. Once again it did not boot. Could someone please show me the correct partitioning for the HD that will allow the USB installation utility to do its job? I will use Gparted under Linux to create the partitions.
Also is there a command line utility similar to Linux fdisk that I can use?
Thanks in advance.
I followed your posted instructions to the end of item 11. This is the partitioning on the drive.
Disk /dev/sdb: 596.17 GiB, 640135028736 bytes, 1250263728 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD6400AAKS-6
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xe906a8ce
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 976564223 976562176 465.7G eb BeOS fs
/dev/sdb2 976564224 996095999 19531776 9.3G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
This is the content of /dev/sdb1.
root@office ion]# mount -t befs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/hd
[root@office ion]# ls /mnt/hd
home system trash
This is the content of /dev/sdb2, a fat32 partition.
[root@office ion]# ls /mnt/in
BEOS BOOT
The drive still does not boot. I’m sure I’m overlooking something simple.
Ah yes, I did set partition 2 as bootable after my last post. Still nothing.
I have a similar problem to install Haiku on big partitions, i don’t know if have any ticket or something like that but i tried to install Haiku on big partitions but after that i cant even boot onto it. But if i partition on 64GB the system works.
It seems you want to use UEFI to boot.
Is your bios configured to UEFI boot, and to boot from the device you chose ?
Also, more like a matter of opinion, but I prefer to let the efi partition at the beginning of the disk, to avoid discovering which motherboards have buggy bios implementations …
Bios is set UEFI only. As for the boot partition I followed SamuraiCrow’s post which specifically said…
Create the main partition as BeFS leaving a little space at the end of the drive for the UEFI information. (You’ll need to format the partitions later.)
Do you think that shrinking the partition with Gparted will work, or do I have to start all over again? It’s a bit of a pain switching back and forth from an O.S. that works and I am familiar with to one I know nothing about.
Is there a space in the name of your boot partition? That causes problems.
Cancel that question. Gparted doesn’t recognize BeFS.
Yes there were spaces and I changed the name to BOOT. Still no boot. Question. If spaces are a problem why does the installation utility create them?
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I’m not sure. When I did it in prerelease 0, there was just a phantom error message that went away when I used a short name without spaces.
Alright, I’m starting all over again, one question at a time.
Question 1. Should the drive be DOS partitioned or GPT partitioned?
Occasional user since R1/Alpha4.1 here. This is generally a universal rule for PCs:
If computer has UEFI, partition table should be GPT.
If computer has BIOS (aka “legacy BIOS” or “CSM”), partition table should be DOS.
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Thank you. Drive is now GPT.
Question 2. Vannura says…
But if i partition on 64GB the system works.
Is that 64GB of BeFS, or total 64GB of BeFS and FAT32? And should FAT32 be partition 1 or partition 2? And how big should the FAT32 partition be?
I reserved 200GB for both 32bit and 64bit on my install, created another partition (all BFS) 400GB (work partition), and one FAT32 partition to be able to share files accross OS’s (but that hasn’t been used so far) 