From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 7 04:59:51 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAE89EBA for ; Wed, 7 Nov 2012 04:59:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mueller23@insightbb.com) Received: from mail.insightbb.com (smtp.insight.synacor.com [208.47.185.22]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4FCEC8FC14 for ; Wed, 7 Nov 2012 04:59:50 +0000 (UTC) X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined X-CNFS-Analysis: v=2.0 cv=ZYCfx7pA c=1 sm=0 a=Dm9TOXL4taQ+Gy1KovpL+A==:17 a=X1Pz4l4wW6YA:10 a=jLN7EqiLvroA:10 a=9YQ-1ebCAAAA:8 a=LVshqx-NByoA:10 a=Fr8x0r-PAAAA:8 a=GzzQpDJ5nFJpjfW28wMA:9 a=p91V9-deMQsA:10 a=Szf0oysF6onOT-Tc:21 a=IqOp-gu4hwxq21kQ:21 a=Dm9TOXL4taQ+Gy1KovpL+A==:117 X-CM-Score: 0 X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine Authentication-Results: smtp02.insight.synacor.com smtp.mail=mueller23@insightbb.com; spf=softfail; sender-id=softfail Authentication-Results: smtp02.insight.synacor.com header.from=mueller23@insightbb.com; sender-id=softfail Received-SPF: softfail (smtp02.insight.synacor.com: transitional domain insightbb.com does not designate 74.130.198.7 as permitted sender) Received: from [74.130.198.7] ([74.130.198.7:33340] helo=localhost) by mail.insightbb.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.3.49 r(42060/42061)) with ESMTP id 1B/E6-23131-FBAE9905; Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:59:44 -0500 Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:59:43 -0500 Message-ID: <1B.E6.23131.FBAE9905@smtp02.insight.synacor.com> From: "Thomas Mueller" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Groupping restored partitions into slices Cc: Snow Mountains X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:59:51 -0000 > Thomas, thank you very much for your mail, but that isn't what I asked. > Of course, I know that "bsdlabel -R ad0s1 new_label_file" writes new > labels to ad0s1. > My question is: what to do if I _lost_ s1, s2, and s3 - how to recover > _them_ first? Without that, all I can do is to write labels table > directly on ad0. > SergiM. I thought you had found where the slices and partitions had been. Otherwise, if you only have the BSD partitions and need to label more than 8, there is gpart in FreeBSD base system and Rod Smith's gdisk, available in FreeBSD ports and also on the System Rescue CD (sysresccd.org). If you switch to GPT, you can accommodate 128 partitions by default, and you wouldn't need the original slices, just the BSD partitions in what had been the slices. If you switch to GPT as opposed to MBR, you won't use bsdlabel; partitions for each FreeBSD installation would be listed in /etc/fstab. If you have the data, where each slice began and ended, you can restore the slices with fdisk. If you can find the BSD partitions and have the media space to backup to, you might want to backup the partitions if feasible, as protection in case you mess up. NetBSD disklabel can accommodate up to 16 partitions per hard disk, but FreeBSD might not be able to properly read a NetBSD disklabel. Also, NetBSD disklabel is very tricky and temperamental; I'd surely trust gdisk or gpart over NetBSD disklabel. Tom