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Date:      Thu, 08 Aug 1996 02:46:05 -0400
From:      Gary Chrysler <tcg@ime.net>
To:        "Jeffrey M. Metcalf" <jeffrey_m._metcalf@ccmail.bms.com>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org, metcalf@imagine.com, joseph_m._o'connor@ccgate1.bms.com
Subject:   Re: Repair boot sector of IDE hard drive
Message-ID:  <32098D2D.5C5B@ime.net>
References:  <9607078394.AA839454178@ccgate0.bms.com>

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Jeffrey M. Metcalf wrote:
> 
>      Hello,
> 
>      In preparing an installation of FreeBSD 2.1, a collegue of mine and I
>      used DOS fdisk to partition an IDE hard drive and through one process
>      or another, managed to corrupt the boot sector.  We do not have a
>      backup of the boot sector and would like to know if there is a way
>      to repair it.  We know the geometry of the hard drive.  It is a
>      1272MB hard drive with a geometry of 2466 cyls, 16 heads, and
>      63 sectors.  Currently, DOS fdisk reports that the maximum size
>      of the hard drive available for a primary DOS partition is
>      504MB, when this is clearly not the case.  We want to correct the
>      boot sector so that DOS fdisk will recognize the 1272MB as the
>      maximum available size for a primary DOS partition.

Dos can't read a disk that size without some sort of translation.
ie: LBA, or others. (Ontrack Disk manager.. <yuk>)

Were you running something like Ontrack Disk manager! 
I sure hope not! If you were it's a gonner! Thus any data is as
well!
If not, And your BIOS or IDE Interface card is translating, Then
somehow they got hosed! Check the settings, Do a FDISK /MBR to
fix the boot record.
WARNING!!
DO NOT USE FDISK /MBR IF USING A DISK MANAGER FOR TRANSLATION.
As well as give up on installing FreeBSD untill you get some
hardware to do the translation! ie: LBA IDE interface, (Improperly
 called EIDE)


-Enjoy
Gary
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