From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jul 24 03:23:01 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 814B416A41F for ; Sun, 24 Jul 2005 03:23:01 +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 3187943D45 for ; Sun, 24 Jul 2005 03:23:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) Received: from localhost.localdomain [70.98.247.55] by opusnet.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-8.05) id A995109F00DE; Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:23:01 -0700 Received: from localhost.localhost (localhost.localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j6O3NwAM035776; Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:23:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localhost (8.13.3/8.13.3/Submit) id j6O3Nq4A035775; Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:23:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from garys@opusnet.com) To: Ima Camper References: <20050723181901.79329.qmail@web30001.mail.mud.yahoo.com> From: garys@opusnet.com (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:23:52 -0700 In-Reply-To: <20050723181901.79329.qmail@web30001.mail.mud.yahoo.com> (Ima Camper's message of "Sat, 23 Jul 2005 11:19:01 -0700 (PDT)") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) XEmacs/21.4 (Jumbo Shrimp, berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Syntax for fdisk? 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: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 03:23:01 -0000 Ima Camper writes: > While trying to solve another problem, a suggested fix > was to issue the following command: > > bsdlabel -B da0s1a I'm no expert, but I'll give it a shot. (I'll be using disk for disk, partition for slice (like the rest of the world), and sub-partiton for FreeBSD-partition.) AFAIK, you should never try to label a subpartion like da0s1a (or da0a for a D.D. disk), but only a partition like da0s1 or a D.D. disk like da0. You say that you set it up as a DD disk, so yes, you should have used "bsdlabel -B /dev/da0" > I've booted using the 5.4 IS0 CD and selected fixit > from the sysinstall program. Using fdisk to check > /dev/da0 I see all 4 slices marked as "UNUSED". > However on /dev/da1 that was fdisked the same, the > first slice has information. I don't remember what a DD disk looks like in fdisk, but I wouldn't be suprised if a disk with one partition looked the same whether it had a partition table with one used entry or a truly DD disk with no partition table. > At the fixit prompt, I can mount /dev/da0 and see all > my data. Is there a way to use fdisk from the command > line to restore slice 1 without losing all my data? > What would be the correct syntax? Am I on the right > track? You shouldn't be able to mount /dev/da0, just /dev/da0a, and whatever other subpartitions da0 has. Assuming that you meant that, then if you can mount it, I'd guess it probably has an OK disklabel. Look (with "bsdlabel ad0"). My guess is that the previous labeling attempt wrote something where the first non-DD partition should be located and messed up one of your boot files. If that's the case, you're going to need another disk with a running OS to re-install the OS to the corrupted disk. I hope I'm wrong. Or could it be that you did a "boot0cfg" so the boot loader thinks the OS is on da0s1 instead of da0? Maybe try running that correctly from fixit. Finally, I also wouldn't be suprised if use of a DD disk has been utterly broken, since there seems to be great antipathy towards use of it, in the documentation and installer.