From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 9 14:23:52 2003 Return-Path: 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 B277916A4CE for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2003 14:23:52 -0800 (PST) Received: from HostMaster.hostingbay.net (hostingbay.net [66.135.33.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A2ED43D30 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2003 14:23:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from k1x@HostMaster.hostingbay.net) Received: from k1x by HostMaster.hostingbay.net with local (Exim 4.24) id 1ATqGm-0002gv-Lv; Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:23:52 +1100 Received: from elkanah.its.unimelb.edu.au ([128.250.18.41]) (SquirrelMail authenticated user k1x) by www.k1x.org with HTTP; Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:23:52 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <.128.250.18.41.1071008632.squirrel@www.k1x.org> In-Reply-To: <370596D46C9BD711B61A00065BF365888A17BA@il06exm12> References: <370596D46C9BD711B61A00065BF365888A17BA@il06exm12> Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:23:52 +1100 (EST) From: "Frederick Bowes" To: "Libby Charles-CCL044" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 X-Priority: 3 Importance: Normal X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - HostMaster.hostingbay.net X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - freebsd.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [590 32089] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - HostMaster.hostingbay.net cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Hard drive geometry headache (slightly off topic) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 22:23:52 -0000 >>> Now I had to move it to a new computer in which the bios detects a >>> certian geometry, but then the system wont boot. No matter what I do > I had the same problem back in 4.5. I worked around the problem by > formating the hard drive with a Win98(Oh Boy) recovery floppy then > ... Formatting/fdisking under windows 98 or xp cd's didnt work for me, caused the same trouble. I've solved the problem and repreat it here for future generations reference (: It appears that the MBR was infact corrupt, causing fdisk to get confused... the following command made the hd appear blank and let it all work again: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 count=2000 (Yes i lost my data but the drive now works!) Thanks for ur help (: Fred