[Tfug] MBR problems

[Chris Mathis]

truthfully i tend to go for setting the count to equal 5000,  that should
most definately clear out the issues you are having...

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Davey" <kjdavey@earthlink.net>
To: "Bowie J. Poag" <bpoag@comcast.net>
Cc: <tfug@tfug.org>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Tfug] MBR problems


> Good Day Bowie,
>
> Thanks for your answer.  I verified that /dev/hda was infact the old NT C:
> drive via fdisk before running the command.   I also figured that there
> might be a problem beyond the first 512 bytes so I issued the same dd
> command this time with a count=5.  That should have put me well into the
> data reagon of the disk.  However it is still a no go.  In addition I
> cleared the original NTFS partition, and created the nessesary linux
> partitions via fdisk. The only other time I have seen anything remotely
> similar to this was with a FreeBSD install that had "guessed" the wrong
> drive geometry.  The install appeared to go off without a hitch, but the
> reboot showed that NO data had actualy been written to the disk.  As I
know
> the geometry is correct the only other thing I can think of is hardware
> failure.   Any further opinions or suggestions are most welcome!
>
> Keith Davey
> Storage System Div
> IBM Corp.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bowie J. Poag" <bpoag@comcast.net>
> To: <tfug@tfug.org>
> Cc: <kdavey@gus33.homeip.net>
> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 1:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [Tfug] MBR problems
>
>
> >
> > Keith,
> >
> > 1) From your description, it sounds like your MBR has been cleared, but
> the
> > first sector of the first available boot device (not necessarrily the
> first
> > partition) still references NTLDR.  Have a look with Linux fdisk, and
> you'll
> > see which partition is declared bootable. It has a star next to it. This
> one
> > is the culprit. Format it, or do as you've done -- just pave it over
with
> > dd. For a more elegant solution, tell lilo to burn info to both first
> sector
> > _and_ MBR.
> >
> > 2) The default boot device may not be /dev/hda. When your system boots
and
> > goes thru POST, it determines whether or not the device you've declared
in
> > BIOS is bootable. If it isnt, it usually falls over quietly to whatever
> > you've declared as the second  boot device. If you blanketed the suspect
> > drive with dd and it still chokes, you may have unsuspectingly bulldozed
> the
> > wrong drive. :)
> >
> > 3) Bottom line is, you'll need to fully format whatever partition is the
> one
> > now declared as bootable on the drive. Full format, not quick. Problem
> > solved.
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Bowie
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Leo Przybylski" <leo@leosandbox.org>
> > To: <tfug@tfug.org>
> > Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 9:00 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Tfug] MBR problems
> >
> >
> > > Keith,
> > >
> > > Looks like you just cleared the MBR, but what if the problem isn't in
> > > the MBR? Was the drive partitioned when NT was installed on it?
Probably
> > > all the partition information is lost now that the MBR is wiped out,
but
> > > I'd check anyway. If the partition information is still there, perhaps
> > > the MBR wasn't wiped out afterall.
> > >
> > > One last thing you might try. Have you tried low-level format yet?
This
> > > should zero out the entire drive. If there was ever a hint of an NTLDR
> > > before, there won't be after low-level format, right?
> > >
> > > -Leo Przybylski
> > > http://foopan.leosandbox.org
> > > http://grow.arizona.edu
> > >
> > > Keith Davey wrote:
> > >
> > > >Hi Gang,
> > > >
> > > >I am trying to convert an ageing win2k box over to linux after the
> win2k
> > > >system crashed with NTLDR missing.  However after what apears to have
> > been
> > > >a succesfull install of linux, a reboot still gives me nothing but:
> > > >
> > > >NTLDR Missing
> > > >
> > > >I tried to correct this by issuing  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
bs=512
> > > >count=1
> > > >
> > > >But even after this I still get NTLDR Missing.
> > > >
> > > >Any clues as to how I might clear this error?
> > > >
> > > >Keith Davey
> > > >Storage Systems Div
> > > >IBM Corp
> > > >
> > > >_______________________________________________
> > > >tfug mailing list
> > > >tfug@tfug.org
> > > >http://www.tfug.org/mailman/listinfo/tfug
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
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> >
> >
>
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