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Date:      Sat, 15 Nov 1997 18:42:50 -0800 (PST)
From:      Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-connect.net>
To:        Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-connect.net>
Cc:        freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   RE: Boot Floppy Problem
Message-ID:  <XFMail.971115184250.Shimon@i-Connect.Net>
In-Reply-To: <XFMail.971115144646.Shimon@i-Connect.Net>

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Hi Simon Shapiro;  On 15-Nov-97 you wrote: 
>  Hi Y'all,
>  
>  At least since 13-Nov, but after 31-Oct, the boot floppy will install
>  everything OK (?) but the system will not boot afterwards;
>  
>  BootMGR displays all the partitions, etc., but pressing F2 for FreeBSD
>  (for
>  example), yields a ``?'' and another list of Fx buttons to push.
>  
>  If you have DOS on the system, it will be invoked fine from the bootmgr.
>  
>  No reasonable set of arguments to the boot FLOPPY kernel loader ends up
>  in
>  a booted system (from hard disk - booting from floppy obviously works).
>  
>  Any suggestion will be appreciated.
>  
>  This is on an IDE HD, IDE CD, P6-200, etc. machine which runs FreeBSD
>  fine
>  otherwise.

I managed to solve the problem.  Beat me if I know how :-(

Essentially, what I did was to install some disk-ez ez-disk or whateveer
the call it that comes with the IDE drive, then uninstall it, then ``format
drive C:'' then install Doze, then install Unix again and now it works.

We had similar (but a bit different) problem at work where an HP Vectra AX
will not write the MBR at all, without error nor complaint!  The only thing
that worked was a ``low level format''.

Seems like newer IDE drives are married to M$ product in some unholy
matermony.  I do not know enough of the internal details of this disgusting
mess to comment further or offer a solution.

Simon





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