From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jun 12 15:52:34 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA11659 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 15:52:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id PAA11651 for ; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 15:52:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id PAA07045; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 15:51:29 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199606122251.PAA07045@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: Non-system disk error To: pgiffuni@biblioteca.campus.unal.edu.co (Pedro Giffuni) Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 15:51:29 -0700 (MST) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: from "Pedro Giffuni" at Jun 12, 96 04:03:09 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Hello: > Installing fbsd on two computers that are exactly equal, same brand, same > size, etc... one gives me the nasty message: > > Missing Operating System. > > while the other one is O.K. Error: "Missing Operating System" Description: The BIOS-based MBR looked at the partition table, and saw that no partitions were marked active. Cause 1: No partitions are marked active (user error). Workaround 1: Boot a DOS boot disk and run fdisk. Mark a partition active. Reboot from the hard drive to get the selected OS. Cause 2: Installation of boot manager was selected when FreeBSD was being installed on the second disk (installer did not read installation instructions). Happens because there is no BSD disk on the first drive to mark active after everything is marked inactive. Workaround 2: Boot a DOS boot disk and run fdisk. Mark a partition active. Reboot from the hard drive to get the boot manager. Cause 3: Installation of boot manager was selected when FreeBSD was being installed on the second disk (installer did not read installation instructions) and OnTrack or other INT-13 redirecting LBA boot-sector TSR is in use. Happens because the boot manager has overwritten the OnTrack (or other) boot code. Workaround 3: Reinstall OnTRack or other INT-13 redirecting boot-sector TSR using disk which came with machine/drive. Do *NOT* overwrite partition table (which is undamaged). If boot selector is desired, boot DOS from hard drive and use DOS installation program to install boot selector. Overall fix: Make the FreeBSD install less stupid when it comes to installing FreeBSD on the second drive. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.