From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 11 15:56:30 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E7A9616A420 for ; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:56:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from duane@greenmeadow.ca) Received: from smtpout.eastlink.ca (smtpout.eastlink.ca [24.222.0.30]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C82443D45 for ; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:56:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from duane@greenmeadow.ca) Received: from ip02.eastlink.ca ([24.222.10.10]) by mta01.eastlink.ca (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-4.03 (built Sep 22 2005)) with ESMTP id <0IUJ00MC15KQNWZ0@mta01.eastlink.ca> for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:55:38 -0400 (AST) Received: from blk-224-199-230.eastlink.ca (HELO [192.168.0.103]) ([24.224.199.230]) by ip02.eastlink.ca with ESMTP; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:56:29 -0400 Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:56:08 -0400 From: Duane Whitty In-reply-to: <200602111532.k1BFWTDQ017997@clunix.cl.msu.edu> Message-id: <43EE0918.8010801@greenmeadow.ca> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-BrightmailFiltered: true X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAA+k= References: <200602111532.k1BFWTDQ017997@clunix.cl.msu.edu> User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20060205) Cc: Peter , freebsd-questions Subject: Re: MBR blown away X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:56:30 -0000 Jerry McAllister wrote: >> I need help. >> >> I added a slice to a single hard drive dual-boot (windows) system and now >> I guess that scrambled my MBR. I get three options from the FreeBSD (5.4) >> boot manager: >> >> 1. DOS >> 2. FreeBSD >> 3. FreeBSD >> >> I can boot to FreeBSD (the new slice is fine) by choosing option 3 but the >> windows/dos option is fried. > > The MBR itself looks OK. According to that piece of menu you posted, you > just added another bootable slice. So, there are now two bootable FreeBSD > slices and one bootable Microsloth slice. > > Are you saying that the MS slice will no longer boot if you select '1' from > the menu? If that is the case, it is not the MBR that was messed up. > It is something in the MS slice - probably their boot sector. I don't even > pretend to know how MS sets up theirs if it is any different from FreeBSD. > > But, the MBR is doing what it is supposed to do. It discovers all the > bootable slices and makes a menu and transfers control to the selected > slice. What happens after that is not the problem of the MBR. > > That may be bad news, I suppose. It might be easier to fix the MBR > than the MS slice boot code if it is actually messed up. > > It might be as simple as you managed to mark the MS slice as not bootable > in some way, but in that case, I wouldn't expect the MBR to be able to > see that slice and put it in the menu as bootable. > > Did you use some utility to shrink the original two slices to fit in > the new one? Or was there already unused space (previously unallocated) > that you were using? Maybe the utility you used to shrink the other > slices messed something up. You might need to go back to it and > check it out. > > Was the MS slice an NTFS type file system? Many of the free utilities > for resizing slices do not work properly on NTFS systems. So, it is > possible, in that case, that the MS slice was not shrunk properly and > so it got trashed at that stage. > > Just some thing to consider. > Good luck, > > ////jerry > >> My current strategy is to use boot0cfg: >> >> # boot0cfg -B >> >> But I'm a little squeemish. I don't want to be locked out of FreeBSD (I >> barely use Windows but I still would like it back for Visio). Any >> guidance? > > As per my comments above, I don't think rewriting the MBR will help any. > /jrm >> -- >> Peter Hi, Just out of curiosity, did you try using sysinstall again to take a look at things? Maybe you can mark your Windows partition bootable? Trying this might at least tell you whether your Windows slice is "fried" or not. I know I seem to have some sort of trouble along these lines every time I do a fresh install because I'm always trying to run so many different systems on one machine. Windows just doesn't play nice. But so far I have always been able to get things straightened out. --Duane