RE: Fixing a MBR (and more) that ??? trashed

From: Gayn Winters (gayn.winters_at_bristolsystems.com)
Date: 09/14/05

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    To: "'Alex Zbyslaw'" <xfb52@dial.pipex.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 14:03:52 -0700

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Alex Zbyslaw [mailto:xfb52@dial.pipex.com]
    > Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 1:59 AM
    > To: gayn.winters@bristolsystems.com
    > Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
    > Subject: Re: Fixing a MBR (and more) that ??? trashed
    >
    > Gayn Winters wrote:
    >
    > >>Alex Zbyslaw [mailto:xfb52@dial.pipex.com]
    > >>
    > >>Why do you think it's not safe to add hard drives?
    > >
    > >It doesn't seem "safe" if Windows blows away the multiboot MBR that
    > >FreeBSD so carefully made! Windows overwriting the MBR
    > seems to be the reason people recommend loading Windows before loading

    > FreeBSD, which I do. I just never realized that this problem would
    come back
    > to bite me when I added another disk drive.
    > >
    > I know of know reason why it should. I've added disks half a dozen
    > times without blowing away any MBRs. Even the Windows blowing away
    the
    > MBR is an annoyance, not a disaster since it is easy to rewrite.
    > Whatever pickle you find yourself in seems to have to do with
    > more than just adding a disk or Windows killing your MBR.
    >
    > --Alex

    I certainly am willing to admit that I'm doing something stupid!
    The motherboard and its BIOS are also known to be strange.

    One thing to note is that if I reconfigure (fresh FBSD install), add
    hardware, and then boot first into FBSD, all is well EXCEPT the boot
    loader, whose prompt is:
            F1 ???
            F2 FreeBSD
            F5 Drive 1

            Default: F2

    If I select F2, then I get FreeBSD. If I select F5 I get Windows! I.e.
    F5 gives me the same slice as does F1!!! (Drive1 is the extra IDE
    drive.) I can't blame Windows for this, since it never got booted.
    Also, if FBSD gets booted first, Windows doesn't (further) corrupt the
    MBR. Incidentally, rewriting the MBR with
            boot0cfg -B -o packet /dev/ad1
    does not change anything. The F5 option is still there, and it still
    brings up the Windows that is on slice1. If I add a third IDE drive,
    the situation also remains the same. In particular, I don't get an F9
    option.

    I'm still in a curious pickle, but at least this one isn't choking me!

    Thanks again for the help!

    -gayn

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