From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 13 15:01:39 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 64AC216A41F for ; Tue, 13 Sep 2005 15:01:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) Received: from opusnet.com (mail.opusnet.com [209.210.200.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0EAB943D48 for ; Tue, 13 Sep 2005 15:01:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) Received: from localhost.localhost [70.98.246.232] by opusnet.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-8.05) id A9CC35D70020; Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:01:32 -0700 Received: from localhost.localhost (localhost.localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localhost (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j8DF2dSb015970; Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:02:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localhost (8.13.3/8.13.3/Submit) id j8DF2UOf015969; Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:02:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) To: gayn.winters@bristolsystems.com References: <006401c5b821$c960e810$c901a8c0@workdog> From: garys@opusnet.com (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:02:30 -0700 In-Reply-To: <006401c5b821$c960e810$c901a8c0@workdog> (Gayn Winters's message of "Mon, 12 Sep 2005 22:12:49 -0700") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1007 (Gnus v5.10.7) XEmacs/21.4.17 (Jumbo Shrimp, berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Fixing a MBR (and more) that ??? trashed X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 15:01:39 -0000 "Gayn Winters" writes: > 1. What did/do I need to do to completely fix the Master Boot Record? > (Short of reinstalling FreeBSD!) I like what the other guy said about "-o packet". > 2. Was the disk label on the FreeBSD slice ad1s2 really corrupted? If Unlikely, at least until you ran sysinstall. I've never figured out how it handles existing disklabels. Badly, in my limited experience. Use "bsdlabel" from a rescue CD and see what you have there. If you're concered about the mount points, mount the "/" device and look in /etc/fstab. > 3. I couldn't get sysinstall to fix this mess - even though I thought > it was fixing the FreeBSD partition mount points and applying a new BSD > Boot Manager. I couldn't get these "fixes" to "commit". Can sysinstall > fix this mess without reinstalling? I'd use a rescue system -- either CD or another hard disk. > 4. How do I avoid this situation when I add another disk? (Other than > trash the w2k partition.) I don't know about dual-booting MSFT, but you could "dd" the first tracks of the HDD and it's primary partitions to files on a formatted floppy or two for safe-keeping, before doing anything that could mess up the boot records. You might want to save the first track of your FreeBSD primary partition too. You can then put them (or selected sectors) back with "dd" from most unixy rescue OSes.