From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 12 23:28:21 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 632E9106566C for ; Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:28:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.26]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDF778FC3F for ; Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:28:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from slackbox.xs4all.nl (slackbox.xs4all.nl [213.84.242.160]) by smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n7CNSAG6095239; Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:28:16 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: by slackbox.xs4all.nl (Postfix, from userid 1001) id B9D0BBA8F; Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:28:10 +0200 (CEST) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:28:10 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: PJ Message-ID: <20090812232810.GA37833@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <20090811173211.6FE4D106567B@hub.freebsd.org> <20090812193008.F19821@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <4A82A8D9.30406@videotron.ca> <20090812172704.GA27066@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <4A831DF7.9090506@videotron.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="VbJkn9YxBvnuCH5J" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4A831DF7.9090506@videotron.ca> X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Polytropon , Ian Smith , wmoran@potentialtech.com Subject: Re: boot sector f*ed 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: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:28:21 -0000 --VbJkn9YxBvnuCH5J Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 03:54:31PM -0400, PJ wrote: > Well, I've been looking at the disk(s) and I have found some interesting > "shei**e" that doesn't make sense. > 1. The fbsd minimal installation that I had set up for recovery of the > previous crash does not boot... Now, why in Hades is that? I hadn't > touched the disk since last using it to look at the corrupted disk > through an usb connection. The current crashed installetion was done > afterwards and the only change was in the bios to set the boot disk to > the new installation. The installation was finally completed with all > the programs working fine... and then BOOM! > 2. I tried booting from all the disks on the machine (4 disks) and only > the current crashed one booted!... so, it's not the boot sector at > all... something is screwy on this machine; either the motherboard is > buggered (which I doubt, but not entirely), the disks are finished or > theres some kind of gremlin lurking in the confines of the box. This sounds more and more like hardware troubles.=20 A few things to check (in order of decreasing likelyness IMHO): - Cables to the harddisks: Make sure they are properly connected. A machine= of mine suddenly started getting disk read errors after I put in another graphics card. It turned out that the SATA connector to that drive had co= me partially loose. - Powersupply: check the voltages (preferably under load) with a monitoring app like mbmon. If that's not possible, check in the BIOS. A failing powersupply can give weird unreproducable errors. If you have ever heard a popping noise from the machine it could be a short in the powersupply cau= sed by dust. I've seen that fry motherboards. - PCI cards: check that they are seated properly. Although in this case I'd say this seems the least likely. Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --VbJkn9YxBvnuCH5J Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkqDUAoACgkQEnfvsMMhpyVyugCfflpFn2L82pONMPcqdRYa4qaD LIYAoIxj1wlJXI4+tpOA0c1juo6sCqSJ =1aOZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --VbJkn9YxBvnuCH5J--