Re: OpenBSD 3.2 (auto) Installing Question

["anonymous" <vcharlie@mindspring.com>]

Loren,
Have you checked the boot order settings in the BIOS of the Win98 system?
Assuming that's okay, and no drive with bootable media is trying to start
before the hard drive, then you may have just overwritten your boot track,
including the master boot record (MBR), on the hard drive of the Win98
machine.  Let's try to replace it.  Find either your Win98 startup floppy
disk or CD (which you did keep just in case something like this happened).
Depending on which you find, set the BIOS to start from that drive.

[Note: this assumes there is only one hard drive on the Win98 computer: if
there's more, RTFM before doing this, to be sure you are writing to the
correct hard drive:]

For the floppy disk, reboot with the Win98 startup floppy in the floppy
drive.  When you see the simple menu come up, choose the option to start
(not install) without CD support.  You should get an "A:\" prompt.  Type:

fdisk /MBR            (note: I have also seen "fdisk /mbr" used instead)

This will restore an original Win98 MBR onto the hard drive. (If you found
the Win98 CD instead of the floppy, try it the same way, only set the BIOS
to boot from the CD-ROM drive instead of the floppy drive.)

Then reset the BIOS to boot from the hard drive, and reboot.   If you have a
simple Win98 only setup, with no funny utilities that use the boot track,
and if only the boot track was written to, this just might get you up and
running again.  If this doesn't work, your system might indeed be wiped out.
But even then you can restore your system from the full system backup (which
you did make just in case something like this happened).

Good luck!

:-)



----- Original Message -----
From: Joshua Steele <selerius@codefusion.org>
To: Loren Wilson <lorendwilson@hotmail.com>
Cc: <misc@openbsd.org>
Sent: Saturday, 2003 January 18 17:01
Subject: Re: OpenBSD 3.2 (auto) Installing Question


> The below message was sent to www@openbsd.org.  It should of went to
> misc@openbsd.org.  Your answer is below:
>
> Its possible.  But I believe the chances of that happening are
> slim-to-none.  You would have to of hit the "right combination" of
> keystrokes in order to do that...meaning, openbsd didn't cause this
> problem.
>
> Have you tried using a Windows 98 boot up disk, perhaps it can help.  More
> help can be found someplace else, because this is off topic for the
> mailing list(s), as it isn't a OpenBSD problem, unless you can convince us
> otherwise.
>
> -josh
>
> On Sat, 18 Jan 2003, Loren Wilson wrote:
>
> > OpenBSD 3.2 (auto) Installing Question
> >
> > I installed the OpenBSD 3.2 on 1 system last week.
> >
> > I was sharing the monitor and keyboard with one other,
> > running Windows 98, by manually swapping them as needed.
> >
> > I had the OpenBSD CD in my Win98 system, was browsing the CD.
> >
> > At some point ... my monitor became unplugged from my Win98
> > system, which left me running it without knowing what I
> > was doing.
> >
> > I didn't know what was happening. I stopped the system (power off).
> >
> > On power on, since I didn't know what was happening, I just pressed
> > keys, not seeing *anything* on the monitor change.
> >
> > So ... the question: *could* I have totally HOSED my Win98 system,
> > simply by some how accepting some BOOT options on the OpenBSD 3.2
> > disk ??
> >
> > Accepting things that I *shouldn't* have ???
> >
> > My boot on the Win98 system is *strange*, it just jumps into OpenBSD
> > directly, but ONLY with the CD in the drive. ALL other things look like
> > they are *GONE*.  NO Normal Win98 Boot is available.
> >
> > Is this possible ????
> >
> > Thank you *very much* for at least *acknowledging* my Ignorance.
> >
> > Loren
> >
> >
> > Loren Wilson
> >     coming to you from
> > 7927 Wheel Rim Circle
> > Austin, TX 78749-2895
> > 512.301.7003
> > lorendwilson@hotmail.com
> > "People do what works" :<|)
> >
> >
> >
> >
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