From owner-freebsd-bugs Tue Sep 19 20: 0: 7 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 87C9537B424 for ; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 20:00:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.9.3/8.9.2) id UAA30016; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 20:00:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix, from userid 32767) id C179937B422; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 19:57:58 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <20000920025758.C179937B422@hub.freebsd.org> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 19:57:58 -0700 (PDT) From: whansard@bigfoot.com To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0 Subject: misc/21406: freebsd's bootinst or booteasy overwrites second drive's partition table Sender: owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >Number: 21406 >Category: misc >Synopsis: freebsd's bootinst or booteasy overwrites second drive's partition table >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Tue Sep 19 20:00:01 PDT 2000 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Will Hansard >Release: none >Organization: none >Environment: none >Description: the boot manager installed by bootinst.exe will occasionally write the partition table of the first hard drive in my system to the second hard drive. This has happened about 10 times over the past 2 years with various computers, and I am able to restore the partition table with linux's fdisk. This happens when, 1) The computer is set to boot from an ide cdrom, which fails because no cdrom is present, 2) I try to boot in some way that fails. The partition tables in both drives have the four main entries full. The first drive has 1 type 06, 1 type c, 1 type 83, and 1 type 85 with many logical partitions in that. The second drive has one freebsd partition, one solaris, one beos, and one type 85, linux extended with many logical drives. This has happend with 4 different motherboards, and several different hard drives. I don't know if any hardware is common. This has happened both when the second drive is a primary slave, and when it is a secondary master. >How-To-Repeat: Have the computer set to boot from an ide cdrom. Do not have a bootable cdrom in the drive. Have bootinst.exe installed in the master boot record of both drives. The other conditions are uncertain. Occasionally the partition table of the first drive will be written to the second. I would suggest having 3 or 4 partitions on each of the drives, perhaps with a couple not bootable. It does not happen every time. Maybe 1 out of 10 to 1 out of 50 boots, my second partition table gets hosed, then I remember, and unset the boot from cdrom in the bios. >Fix: >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message