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Date:      Tue, 11 Aug 1998 20:43:41 +0100
From:      "David Larkin" <David.Larkin@DJL.co.uk>
To:        <David.Larkin@DJL.co.uk>, <FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        <hamellr@dsinw.com>, <djv@bedford.net>
Subject:   Re: Is FreeBSD still on disk ? How to boot :- Booting Default: F? 
Message-ID:  <199808111941.MAA23481@hub.freebsd.org>

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I reported a problem I was having booting FreeBSD after a system
crash destroyed W95 & boot manager ( see original report below)
Thanks for the encouraging input from djv@bedford.net and 
Rick Hamell (hamellr@dsinw.com), but I have a few supplementary 
questions.

> Can anyone confirm that 
> my FreeBSD installation is still there, and that the challenge
> is how to boot it.
> 
> I  wrote a boot manager to the first disk (wd0), and now when I 
> boot I get the following
> 
> F5 .... disk 2
> Default: F5
> F5 .... disk 2
> Default: F?
> 
> what happens when you press F5?

After pressing <F5> 
F5 .... disk 2
Default: F?

djv@bedford.net commented ........................
djv> Hmm. Not bootable, or booteasy isn't cooperating.
djv> Try booting a floppy, then you can try to access the disk
djv> by mounting partitions and fsck'ing etc.

Booting from floppy is OK, but could you advise further on 
mounting the partitions
My understanding is limited here, but I've tried the following
- boot floppy
- go into Fixit
- bring up shell (Alt F4)

> mount /dev/wd1a /mnt
> /dev/wd1a on /mnt : Incorrect superblock
> mount /dev/wd1s4a /mnt
> /dev/wd1s4a on /mnt : No such file or directory
> mount /dev/wd1s4 /mnt
> /dev/wd1s4 on /mnt : Device not configured

Any help to interpret this information would be appreciated.

Rick Hamell commented .....................
Rick> Looks like Windows 95 corrupted itself and took the partions with 
Rick> it. Your best bet would be to try to rebuild your partions using the 
Rick> exact same parameters you had before. At least make sure your FreeBSD

Rick> partion is the same. Windows 95 will have to be reinstalled no matter

Rick> what. Well, that's not exactly true, it might be saved but it would
be 
Rick> best and far less time consuming to reinstall.

I'm not concerned about the W95 installation, and I only intend rebuilding
FreeBSD

Does this mean make a new installation (sysinstall) and then partion the
disk
using the FDISK partition editor / Disklabel editor, as described in 
"The complete FreeBSD by Greg Lehey Second Edition"  p57-62
Will this overwrite any files I have there, or will it be OK as long
as I use the same partition sizes.

If I use the wrong partition sizes, what happens ?

ORIGINAL PROBLEM REPORT follows
> I was running FreeBSD 2.2.5 and W95 happily on my machine.
> wd0 contained W95, and wd1 contained FreeBSD
> Suddenly while running W95, everything went "pop" and I wasn't
> able to boot either.
> So, booting from floppy, using the "fixit" option, and running 
> fdisk I get the following :-
>  
> fdisk wd0
> *** working on device /dev/rwd0 ***
> parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
> cylinders=4095 heads=16 sectors/track=63 1008 blks/cyl)
> Figure below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
> parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
> cylinders=4095 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
> Media sector size is 512
> Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
> Information for partition 1 is:
> <UNUSED>
> Information for partition 2 is:
> <UNUSED>
> Information for partition 3 is:
> <UNUSED>
> Information for partition 4 is:
> <UNUSED>
>  
> fdisk wd1
> *** working on device /dev/rwd1 ***
> parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
> cylinders=4095 heads=16 sectors/track=63 1008 blks/cyl)
> Figure below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
> parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
> cylinders=4095 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
> Media sector size is 512
> Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
> Information for partition 1 is:
> sysid 128, (Minix 1.1 ....... 1.4a)
>     start -61531, size 63 (0 Meg), flag 0
>       beg: cyl 0/ sector 0/ head0;
>       end: cyl 0/  sector 1/  head1;
> Information for partition 2 is:
> sysid 0,(unused)
>       start 0, size 0 (0 Meg), flag d1
>          beg:  cyl 0/ sector 62/ head 251;
>          end:  cyl 0/ sector 0/  head 0
> Information for partition 3 is:
> <UNUSED>
> Information for partition 4 is:
> sysid 165, (FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
>      start 1, size 4127759 (2015 Meg), flag 80
>         beg: cyl 0/ sector 2/ head 0;
>         end: cyl 1022/ sector 63/ head 15
> 

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