Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 29 Nov 1999 15:52:22 -0500
From:      "Allen Pulsifer" <pulsifer@mediaone.net>
To:        <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        "Natey on IRC" <natey@capetown.za.org>
Subject:   RE: URGENT HELP!!!!! Partition Table vanished *zapped by rebooting server*
Message-ID:  <NBBBJNDFEKPEHPFCLNLHKEFLEJAA.pulsifer@mediaone.net>
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19991129221632.00b3c3c0@capetown.za.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I spent 2+ days trying to recreate my paritition tables
after I first installed FreeBSD.  Basically, you can write
anything you want into the partition tables (using any
one of a number of tools) and if you get it right, the
partition will be magically recognized and mount, etc.
It helps if you know *exactly* how your partitions
were laid out.  It helps even more if you have
a backup of the partition tables (MBR) or a
print out.  Since my experience, I now keep both.

I can point you to some tools.  All of them have trouble
dealing with large disks (> 8 GB).  To get my last
partition, I had to edit the table by hand
(in hex).  If you want me to point you to the tools
I can (but it might be easier for me to just
attach them to an email).

Partition Magic (a commercial product) was also
indispensible.  It wouldn't let you non-destructively
edit the partition data, but it will let you
non-destructively do a disk check (at least on
FAT and NTFS partitions).  Its important to disk check
before you mount, because if you make one change to
contents of the disk before the partitions are correct,
you could lose everything.

Let me know if you want me to email you the tools.

Allen


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Natey on IRC
> Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 3:17 PM
> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; scm@school.za; bje@wcape.school.za
> Cc: goolam@cttc.wcape.school.za; louis@cttc.wcape.school.za
> Subject: URGENT HELP!!!!! Partition Table vanished *zapped by rebooting
> server*
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Is there any way to recover one's partition table.  Basically what happened
> is that I rebooted my FreeBSD server and I got that "INVALID SYSTEM DISK"
> message, even though I have the following:
> 
> 8.4Mb HDD
>  - 4Gig MS-DOS Parition (For Samba Shares / Home Dirs)
>  - 4Gig FreeBSD Partition (Development Partition)
> 650Mb HDD
>  - 650Mb MS-DOS Partition (For Samba Shares / Home Dirs)
> 
> I used to be able to boot into Win95/FreeBSD using F1 and F2 resp. but when
> I rebooted the machine this morning I got the "INVALID SYSTEM DISK" message.
> 
> I created a Win95 bootdisk and did a fdisk /mbr so that I can at least boot
> up into Win95.  Is there any way I can get access to the FreeBSD Partition
> so that I can get all my development source code?  I need to get a copy of
> my CVS tree into Windowz so that I can reinstall my FreeBSD stuff without
> loosing the CVS respository.  The last backup (.tar.gz of the CVS respos. I
> have is from the 24th November 1999 [which does not include all the stuff I
> worked on this weekend]).
> Normally the FreeBSD Boxen is running FreeBSD, except when I drag the
> boxxie along to clients or to LAN parties.
> 
> I figured out a way a few years back, but alas I cannot remember it.  I
> cannot even get the baddly created wallnut creak cdrom's "LIVE" cd to work.
> 
> Regards
> Natey
> 
> 
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?NBBBJNDFEKPEHPFCLNLHKEFLEJAA.pulsifer>