From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Nov 10 14:16:25 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id OAA03706 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 14:16:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from buffnet4.buffnet.net (buffnet4.buffnet.net [205.246.19.13]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id OAA03700 for ; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 14:16:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from shovey@buffnet.net) Received: from buffnet11.buffnet.net (shovey@buffnet11.buffnet.net [205.246.19.55]) by buffnet4.buffnet.net (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id RAA00650; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 17:14:25 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 17:15:34 -0500 (EST) From: Steve Hovey To: Jeffrey VanderWal cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Uninstalling In-Reply-To: <01bcedba$48ab0a00$0e77e4cf@jvande.cadvision.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Mon, 10 Nov 1997, Jeffrey VanderWal wrote: > I am a system administrator at a school that has a server that once had > FreeBSD on it. Since our last administrator refused to part with his login > password etc, we have formatted the HD and are attempting to install new You could have set a new password by booting stand alone. > hardware in the machine. Unfortunately, we cannot seem to boot the machine > any longer. I realize that FreeBSD uses "unique" boot MBRs. How do I > completely uninstall it? I have unplugged all extra cards in our server, > unplugged the hard drive and only the FDD remains. I have attempted to > clear the CMOS, but the system still refuses to boot past the system config > screen. Is this a hardware problem or did FreeBSD encode the Bios to look > at a different MBR in the FDD too? Any help at all is appreciated. Thanks. Im not certain on freebsd - but know with linux I had to do a low level format on the drive to wipe the left over boot junk. Will you be putting freebsd back on it? In that case why bother to wipe any further? If you did do a low level and this is happening then something else is wrong with that machine.