Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 10:17:46 -0700 (PDT) From: OZ <oz16oz2@yahoo.com> To: Alexander Pohoyda <alexander.pohoyda@gmx.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: emergency: can't boot! please help Message-ID: <20030824171746.58534.qmail@web80606.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <87oeyfjihu.fsf@oak.pohoyda.family>
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--- Alexander Pohoyda <alexander.pohoyda@gmx.net> wrote: > OZ <oz16oz2@yahoo.com> writes: > > > Well, I read that to mean that if I installed > > /boot/boot0 with sysinstall, THEN i should copy > > /boot/boot0 to C:\bootsect.bsd. > > Incorrect. That's what you were supposed to do: > > /boot/boot0 needs to be installed using sysinstall > by > > selecting the FreeBSD boot manager on the screen > which > > asks if you wish to use a boot manager. > > This means that you should not deal with /boot/boot0 > file manually. I understand this now. Unfortunately I didn't understand it at the time. :( > > This is > > because /boot/boot0 has the partition table area > > filled with NULL characters but sysinstall copies > the > > partition table before copying /boot/boot0 to the > MBR. > > > > dd if=/dev/ad1 of=c:\bootbaby.sec bs=512 count=1 > > This was not supposed to work as is. dd has no idea > about your c: disk. > > So what exactly did you do? After seeing the three or four responses to my question, I now believe that the line above is probably not responsible for what has happened. I'm inclined to believe that this line didn't really do anything (or created some other problem I'll find out about later). :| I think I must have copied /boot/boot0 from the FBSD CD into the C:\ directory on XP (from inside XP), and then renamed it C:\bootsect.bsd. Then when the option came up on the NT loader's dual boot menu, I selected it. If I understand this correctly (and if I'm making an accurate assessment of the situation), the boot/boot0 (which is the null value one from the FBSD CD -- NOT the one from my primary slave FBSD drive) had nowhere to go, and just sends me to the default screen: F5 1 Default F5 ...where I can't hit any key without getting beeps and nothing happening. This, then, re-sets the default boot information to itself which creates the endless loops, so that rebooting just goes the same place, and Microsoft OS and/or recovery tools can't even see the contents of the disk, rendering any sort of repairs apparently inoperable, at least from DOS or XP. Thanks to Luke's suggestion, I'm currently attempting to load Linux over FBSD to then attempt to mount the NTFS drive, which may allow me to see the contents of that drive, to either copy them elsewhere to salvage the data, or to determine whether restoring it is possible. If you (or anyone on the list) have additional suggestions or ideas in light of this new scenario, please let me know urgently. Thanks!!! > > Please don't tell me this disk is gone. There's > got > > to be a way to re-create the original partition > table > > or re-write a new one that will see the disk's > > contents, etc.??? > > You may try Norton Disk Utils on that disk. It may > find and restore > another copy of you MBR. How can I do this when I can't read or get into the disk? Maybe someone has a boot floppy from which I can do this, you can email me? Or do I need to hook it up to a different machine with Norton loaded on it? Thanks... OZ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com
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