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Date:      Tue, 9 Dec 2003 11:22:05 +1100 (EST)
From:      "Frederick Bowes" <fred@k1x.org>
To:        "Mike Maltese" <mike@pcmedx.com>
Cc:        Frederick Bowes <fred@k1x.org>
Subject:   Re: Hard drive geometry headache (slightly off topic)
Message-ID:  <.128.250.18.41.1070929325.squirrel@www.k1x.org>
In-Reply-To: <006201c3bde9$11eb2a80$f4f0a8c0@pcmedx.com>
References:  <.128.250.18.41.1070927212.squirrel@www.k1x.org>  <006201c3bde9$11eb2a80$f4f0a8c0@pcmedx.com>

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>> 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 now, i cant get the system to boot off
>> the disk, i have even tried eraseing it with fdisk (freebsd
>> and dos versions). Does anyone know how I can save it?
>> I have tried everything and dont know where else to ask.

> Check to see that the BIOS is using the same addressing mode as the old
> board. I had a somewhat similar problem and it turned out the BIOS was in
> Large mode. Switching to LBA solved the problem. Also, if you've fdisk'ed
> the drive, chances are you've hosed the installations.

I stopped caring about the data on the disk (which is backed up, so just
an inconvenience.

I have tried setting LBA/Large/CHS and booting and installing freebsd.
Under each type, fdisk always reports that the geometry is incorect. Each
time the install works fine but then when trying to boot, it cant read the
hard disk!

I am guessing freebsd works out the correct drive geometry, but the bios
is not! Interestingly though, when set to LBA, the head/cyl/sector count
is equal to what the freebsd fdisk detects it to be.

(This is a new motherboard which works when booting/installing FreeBSD on
an old 2G hd i have lying around) the problem is only with the 80G drive

Fred



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