Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 02:11:26 +1030 From: Malcolm Kay <malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> To: "Francisco Reyes" <francisco@natserv.com>, "FreeBSD questions" <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Please help. Can't see HD Message-ID: <200312300211.26168.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> In-Reply-To: <200312291438.hBTEchU6012231@mail1.acecape.com> References: <200312291438.hBTEchU6012231@mail1.acecape.com>
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On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 01:12, Francisco Reyes wrote: > On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 20:53:06 +1030, Malcolm Kay wrote: > >OK; how did you install initially? Was the whole disk used for BSD? > >Did you follow the defaults during installation? > > > >If both the latter questions are answered in the affirmative then you > >might go back to installation and try to create the same slices, > > partitions and mount points. > > I thought I had recorded my partition sizes, but I had not saved > them. > I found enough data in my backups so the data loss is minimal. > At this stage I want to concentrate on improving my backups for > the next time. > > >> Is there a way to backup the disklable and slice info? > > > >Yes, disklabel and fdisk have facilities for outputting their current > > state and this can be redirected to file and then stored on your back= up > > media or a floppy disk. > > > >I do this on a regular basis > > Could you share the commands please? > # fdisk ad2 > ad2.fdisk # disklabel ad2s1 > ad2s1.disklabel > >In my opinion dump and restore are the best backup and recovery mechan= isms > >for BSD. > > I will work on a dump/restore mechanism. I will do that weekly. > Have a database running which may not backup well. On weekends I > can shutdown everything for the dump process. I plan to dump to > a file in the second HD if that is possible. I also just bought > a DVD burner to backup to it essential data to take offsite > besides the copy on the second HD. > > Thanks for the advice. If I had only had a backup of the disk > info this whole experience would have been less problematic. If you have dumps of all partitions then the slicing and partitioning siz= es are not too important so long as thay are big enough. Just use say 'fdisk -BI ad2' to set it up with one slice for BSD. Then use disklabel on ad2s1 first to obtain a skeleton file then fill in the partitions and sizes you want and write it back with # disklabel -R -B ad2s1 prototypelabel Now create file systems in the partitions to be mounted (newfs). You should now be able to restore your backups to each partition in turn. Malcolm Kay
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