Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 21:29:45 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> To: Joss Scholten <et@compnerd.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Installing FreeBSD for the first time without backups [Was Re: HELP!] Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0005082116050.43980-100000@ren.sasknow.com> In-Reply-To: <200005090245.TAA00558@mail14.bigmailbox.com>
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Hi, Joss. Before I get started, please configure your mailer to wrap lines at about 72 characters per line, or wrap the lines yourself. Joss Scholten wrote to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG: > Hi, > > I have been reading in to Perl, CGI-Scripts, but into doing so have > discovered I need a UNIX server to run the web page on. Not necessarily.. I would highly recommend UNIX for running web scripts and Perl, but it's not absolutely necessary. > I found this > OS, and thought that it may be of use to me. I followed the majority > of the instructions, but I do not remember what I did exactly, and now > have found that I can not get Window's (Win 98) to get in to once > more. I installed it in the DOS prompt using disks, placing the > kern.flp on one disk and mfsroot.flp on the other. Right now, what I > have done doesn't matter. It probably DOES matter. If you repartitioned your hard disk drive incorrectly, you may have obliterated Windows. What media did you use to install FreeBSD (CDROM, FTP, etc)? Was the installation successful? It may go without saying, but simply writing out the various .flp images to disks does NOT constitute an install :-) > I have tried using Partition Magic and the 'FIPS' executable included > in the file transfer protocol, but I can not repartition the hard > drive because I did not use them at first. Partition Magic and FIPS both work with existing partitions.. Though they can each be tempermental at times, I have used them both successfully in applications like this. > I am running out of options, and over 5 years of data which is > very important to me is on the drive. This is a case for regular system backups. I don't keep all my money under my pillow, and I certainly don't rely on my hard drive to store all my data :-) If you want to save your data at this point, it would perhaps be best to call in an experienced data recovery professional to salvage what may be left. I would not recommend trying to "save" five years of data yourself when you don't know what you're doing. > Right now when I bring up the C drive, I am presented with 15 files. > Although I assume these files are for the FreeBSD partition of the > drive, I am worried. Can you please help me in any way possible? Which 15 files would those be? By "C" drive (DOS notation, here), do I assume that you have booted into Windows (or DOS)? The next logical question would be, "is your important data there?" Without further knowledge of your situation and how you got yourself into your situation, the only advice I can give you is quite general: Boot from a DOS/Windows recovery disk (or the Win98 CD-ROM) to a command line prompt and type "fdisk /mbr" (without the quotes of course). Doing so will restore the existing master boot record on your first hard disk. Your system will then boot the first active primary partition on your drive, which is most likely Windows 98. If that doesn't help, use DOS's FDisk, or your favorite partition manager, to view/set the active partition to the first primary "DOS" partition shown. -- Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> Systems Administrator, Accounts Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161 SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com #106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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