From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 26 08:06:46 2003 Return-Path: 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 F159E16A4EB for ; Fri, 26 Dec 2003 08:06:45 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.covadmail.net (mx05.covadmail.net [63.65.120.65]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6988F43D2D for ; Fri, 26 Dec 2003 08:06:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from strick@covad.net) Received: (covad.net 23839 invoked from network); 26 Dec 2003 16:06:38 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mist.nodomain) (68.164.175.153) by sun-qmail02 with SMTP; 26 Dec 2003 16:06:38 -0000 Received: from mist.nodomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hBQ86tAR000424; Fri, 26 Dec 2003 00:06:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan@mist.nodomain) Received: (from dan@localhost) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id hBQ86tfr000423; Fri, 26 Dec 2003 00:06:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 00:06:55 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Strick Message-Id: <200312260806.hBQ86tfr000423@mist.nodomain> To: ryans@gamersimpact.com cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: dan@mist.nodomain Subject: Re: Fixing an Assimilated MBR? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 16:06:46 -0000 >> > Is there an "official" way to fix an MBR that has been overwritten such > that there is still a valid partition table and valid MBR, but not the > one you want? > > ... > > I was able to rig it back by going into the custom installation option > and just setting a drive as active and choosing to reload the MBR. > However, it isn't readily apparent that this is what is happening as > sysinstall will then complain about different things before rewriting > the MBR/partition table. However, it does work... > > ... >> Check out the "boot0cfg" command. You can also use the "fdisk" command, but I don't know which master bootstrap program it likes to install. You probably won't need to reinstall the next level bootstrap program. The program that would install it for you is called "disklabel" or "bsdlabel". If you can't boot the FreeBSD OS that you previously installed, you should be able to boot your installation media and run these commands in "fixit" mode (or whatever it is called these days). You will need either the fixit floppy or the live file system CD (...disc2.iso). Dan Strick strick@covad.net