Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 16:26:31 -1000 From: Kent Hauser <kent.hauser@verizon.net> To: Dan Strick <strick@covad.net> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: restoring DOS partition from a tar file (SOLUTION) Message-ID: <200310231626.35121.kent.hauser@verizon.net> In-Reply-To: <200310220217.h9M2HBNM000495@ice.nodomain> References: <200310220217.h9M2HBNM000495@ice.nodomain>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tuesday 21 October 2003 04:17 pm, you wrote: > On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, Kent Hauser wrote: > > Is it possible to backup a DOS partition (bootable) & restore it from a > > tar file? I recently had a disk failure & used dump/restore on FreeBSD > > partitions & made a tar dump of the DOS one. After "newfs_msdos" & "tar > > x", the partition is not bootable. Is there a way to do this? > > This is actually a really interesting issue. The short answer to this > question is, "no." The long answer is, "I don't really know. Maybe." > I now know how to make this work. And it was a long strange journey. First, when I did "fdisk" & "newfs_msdos" from FreeBSD, neither my W98 SE distribution CD, nor my "Gateway Restore" CD would recognize the drive! (Hardware error, no drive C found.) Then when I delete all partitions, the W98 distribution disk would format the drive & install the OS, but FreeBSD would freeze during the un-tar. (Same result, 2 tries.) I was completely successful when I used the boot CD that came with the Seagate drive (downloadable from http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html). The "fdisk" and "format" on that CD allowed me to partition and format for W98. I created a bootable floppy which allowed my to "sys" the new C drive. The W98 was bootable. And the "tar" restore from FreeBSD worked fine. My conclusion: The FreeBSD fdisk + newfs_msdos seem to be buggy with regard to creating a primary DOS partition. The seagate tool + bootable W98 floppy allowed me to create bootable W98 partition. The tarfile restored the data. Your mileage may vary as I'm not a very good judge of when W98 is working properly.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200310231626.35121.kent.hauser>