Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 16:44:40 -0700 (PDT) From: David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org> To: hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Getting old PC to boot from new(er) IDE disk??!? Message-ID: <200109162344.f8GNieg75347@bunrab.catwhisker.org>
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Somewhat over 2 years ago, I bought a used PC for use as a firewall system, in anticipation of the DSL connection. Since this was shortly after the 1999 USENIX, I used the 3.2-RELEASE CD that I got there. All in all, it has (generally) served me well, despite a disk drive failure. (The failed drive was replaced with a 0.5G drive which has run since that time, after restoring the data from backups.) I also used the same CD to put together a machine to provide various services. Earlier this year, I bought a laptop, which I used as an excuse to experiment with using multiple boot slices. (I run both -STABLE and -CURRENT on the laptop, depending on circumstances.) More recently, I put together a "build machine", where I repeated the "multiple boot slices" approach. (Again, I track, build & run both -STABLE & -CURRENT on it.) With the build machine in place, I picked up a new disk drive, and built up a new drive for the above-mentioned server. (Side note on this below.) About 3 weeks ago, I deployed that new drive; the system was then running FreeBSD 4.3-STABLE. Last weekend, I used the "other bootable slice" to "clone" the running one, then upgraded that to 4.4-RC (after having tracked -STABLE daily on the build machine & my laptop). All this is going well: I expect to be upgrading it about every other week (while continuing to track -STABLE daily on my laptop & the build machine). Fortified by this success, I decided to use the old disk drive from the server as the new drive for the firewall. Accordingly, I carved it into slices, and set up, then populated the file systems. One of the bootable slices was a copy of the exitsing 3.2-R; the other was 4.4-STABLE. I took the (firewall) machine down, replaced the disk drive, re-booted, and... ...nothing. The machine recognizes that there's a drive -- the only drive on any IDE controller, and it's primary. It even sees that there are a couple of bootable slices, but hitting any of F1, F2, or Enter just results in a beep. It won't boot. I tried putting the "new" drive back on the build machine, and went through the sequence (F5/F1 & F5/F2) to boot from the new drive. (Single user mode, to be sure -- but at least it recognized the possibility & booted.) Oh: that "side note" -- I actually had tried upgrading the firewall machine first, but it wouldn't boot from that new drive -- same symptoms as above. So at this point, I think I would be fairly described as "exasperated". What resources exist to help me figure out what is going on here? I really don't like having the firewall machine down; that impairs connectivity. :-( In case it isn't obvious, I'm not real familiar with PCs; nearly all my experience with them has been in the last 3.5 years, and that is just running FreeBSD. Help? Thanks, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org Help? Thanks, david -- As a computing professional, I believe it would be unethical for me to advise, recommend, or support the use (save possibly for personal amusement) of any product that is or depends on any Microsoft product. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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