From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Dec 21 19:08:06 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 177F4A4E0FD for ; Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:08:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mcdonnjd@pcam.org) Received: from na01-bl2-obe.outbound.protection.outlook.com (mail-bl2on0142.outbound.protection.outlook.com [65.55.169.142]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "mail.protection.outlook.com", Issuer "MSIT Machine Auth CA 2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C7E5B17DB for ; Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:08:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mcdonnjd@pcam.org) Received: from BLUPR07MB321.namprd07.prod.outlook.com (10.141.25.14) by BLUPR07MB324.namprd07.prod.outlook.com (10.141.25.24) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 15.1.361.13; Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:07:56 +0000 Received: from BLUPR07MB321.namprd07.prod.outlook.com ([169.254.13.26]) by BLUPR07MB321.namprd07.prod.outlook.com ([169.254.13.26]) with mapi id 15.01.0361.006; Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:07:57 +0000 From: John McDonnell To: FreeBSD Questions Subject: RE: POS system trashing hard drives during install Thread-Topic: POS system trashing hard drives during install Thread-Index: AdE42/YAUl1Y0GLdSvaQohL1/K9PRAAeH/+AALMoILA= Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:07:56 +0000 Message-ID: References: In-Reply-To: Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: authentication-results: spf=none (sender IP is ) smtp.mailfrom=mcdonnjd@pcam.org; x-originating-ip: [68.234.51.1] x-microsoft-exchange-diagnostics: 1; BLUPR07MB324; 5:mACQsZLmQMPJIa/sG+aa9n5FOom8dyWnkJvEBWhcbtzved2qEFZObQe6McHAB54/YafmjBDKf/WdcF4sIT/Hn6xwLtPsgSu9v1/DVe4T/OkmsPRRmV7fsKKpyUE5rPSTct8eNCEH6LFCaU554rloxA==; 24:+ZOPeV6orb3QLSkS0pLOBhn3uTvom9WOnU+S9xntGoY+aawXtK1mr0M/i5xTRJixu0n42dKWvXu3vbEcvJC/UZm7t+Bi52xbj9my1Q8lVuw=; 20:8Tf6tCJx7bAvqaDYjHgWWrF8sF7yhtsK9cCCJbj4uKoZKLa6fhXKSVYPDTOCUvXd4Z3n92wp9eaTfhPMiissYqIVftLt0THPMZW4lsvatI6lbn8FvsJMErUS26e6VZOt4RlTRTpwYqKU4s3HVyQzAScrxIrwsy1qMLURNXZrZg0= x-microsoft-antispam: UriScan:;BCL:0;PCL:0;RULEID:;SRVR:BLUPR07MB324; x-microsoft-antispam-prvs: x-exchange-antispam-report-test: UriScan:(192713067249063); x-exchange-antispam-report-cfa-test: BCL:0; PCL:0; RULEID:(601004)(2401047)(520078)(5005006)(8121501046)(3002001)(10201501046); SRVR:BLUPR07MB324; BCL:0; PCL:0; RULEID:; SRVR:BLUPR07MB324; x-forefront-prvs: 079756C6B9 x-forefront-antispam-report: SFV:NSPM; SFS:(10019020)(6009001)(189002)(24454002)(13464003)(40764003)(199003)(450100001)(5004730100002)(5001960100002)(86362001)(2900100001)(99286002)(76576001)(110136002)(107886002)(5003600100002)(50986999)(105586002)(189998001)(76176999)(2950100001)(81156007)(106356001)(92566002)(19580405001)(5002640100001)(19580395003)(10400500002)(40100003)(97736004)(66066001)(87936001)(74316001)(122556002)(1220700001)(33656002)(3846002)(6116002)(102836003)(5008740100001)(54356999)(586003)(1096002)(101416001); DIR:OUT; SFP:1102; SCL:1; SRVR:BLUPR07MB324; H:BLUPR07MB321.namprd07.prod.outlook.com; FPR:; SPF:None; PTR:InfoNoRecords; MX:1; A:0; LANG:en; received-spf: None (protection.outlook.com: pcam.org does not designate permitted sender hosts) spamdiagnosticoutput: 1:23 spamdiagnosticmetadata: NSPM Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MIME-Version: 1.0 X-OriginatorOrg: pcam.org X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-originalarrivaltime: 21 Dec 2015 19:07:56.2406 (UTC) X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-fromentityheader: Hosted X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-id: 4d0a72ee-ba26-46d5-8bbe-6430f01b636a X-MS-Exchange-Transport-CrossTenantHeadersStamped: BLUPR07MB324 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:08:06 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > On Thu, 17 Dec 2015, John McDonnell wrote: >=20 > It took some looking to find this description of the problem in the post. Sorry, I do tend to ramble on a bit. > Some systems do stupid things based on what they find on the hard disk. > Lenovo and IBM before them did this, for example. Still do, in some case= s. It > is not just a GPT thing, they did stupid things with MBR partitions also.= The I completely forgot about this. I have run across that issue with the IBM/L= enovo Thinkpads before. When imaging the 300 some laptops the first time, w= e ran into issues because it wasn't copying some part of the boot blocks an= d I then learned about the /ib switch in Ghost which solved the issue with = those laptops. (And also later with DeepFreeze.) Hopefully we can get this = figured out so I can use FreeBSD on these systems. > idea that old systems can't boot from GPT is incorrect. GPT has the PMBR= , a > backwards-compatible MBR booting mechanism. I actually did know this, but conveniently had forgotten about that. So it = shouldn't be an issue with GPT itself, except that the system itself is pro= bably looking for something specific in the MBR or on the disk... > Some systems require a system partition for the BIOS. >=20 > Given that this is a custom system, there might be some kind of security > information stored on the drive. It is looking like this might be the case. I had a chance to install FreeBS= D onto another hard drive from another machine and had it up and running an= d then brought it over to one of the same model POS machines I have sitting= in my office and tried to boot it up and it just locks up after detecting = the hard drives and won't enter the BIOS. > If it were me, I would use gpart to look at the partitioning on the XP dr= ive. It > is likely MBR, but the number, type, and size of partitions could be a cl= ue. The XP drive is definitely MBR and not GPT. I should be able to get the inf= o on that drive from gpart a little later this afternoon if things stay qui= et. Since this is locking up again like my old drives were, I'm wondering if I = pop it back into the other PC if it will recognize it again or if it will f= ail. I'm hopeful that it will recognize it as that would mean that my vario= us 80 GB drives may still be alive and just need a better interface than th= e IDE to USB adapter I was using at home. (I had been planning on using tho= se hard drives in a couple of Playstation 2s.) Thank you for your help so far. :) --=20 John McDonnell mcdonnjd@pcam.org