I just tried installing MacBSD on my external APS Maxtor 120 hard drive.
I formatted and partitioned the drive using Alliance Power Tools.  Then
I ran the mkfs, then the installer (I installed {1,2,4,5}.tar), then booted.
I got something like this:

Running /etc/rc...
..../dev/null
Do you want to fsck /dev/rsd0a?
** /dev/rsd0a
ioctl(): default cmd = 0x41146465

CANNOT READ: BLK 16
CONTINUE? yes




Frozen, I did control-C, which rebooted the Mac!  There were some messages
displayed before the reboot, but the flashed by too fast for me to see.

It's possible I did something really stupid; if so, please forgive me.  I
have no experience at all with this sort of thing.  I didn't even know what
a partition was until tonight!  I suspect I didn't do the mkfs correctly;
I left items blank because I didn't know their values, and just hoped that
defaults would come in correctly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------