🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm not sure this will work, but...

Get ahold of a bootable floppy with the sys.exe command on it. Run sys on 
your harddisk. This should put on a new boot sector.

BP

s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au (~ AnTY ~) writes:

>	Well i've recently install linux on my p.c, trying to config and set
>things up...everything was going as planned...but ARGH!!!! i accidently copied
>the lodlin.zip for dos file to /dev/hda1 (thinking it would be the way
>to transfer files from linux-msdos partition...... :(( Now my p.c won't boot
>into msdos since i presume the boot partion has been overridden and corrupt.

What did you use to 'copy'? 
If it was 'dd', then I hope your ms-dog partition had a nice life..

What error messages do you get when you boot?

*Maybe* something like Disk Doctor could help, but more likely
with a dos boot disk with format on it you'll be able to get a partition
back, but obviously no data.

Using 'root' can be dangerous to your health....

Rod May (stoke@werple.mira.net.au) wrote:

: What did you use to 'copy'? 
: If it was 'dd', then I hope your ms-dog partition had a nice life..

  Nope i used th cp command.

: What error messages do you get when you boot?

  Operation system missing.

: *Maybe* something like Disk Doctor could help, but more likely
: with a dos boot disk with format on it you'll be able to get a partition
: back, but obviously no data.

  Luckily my extended logical partitions d:/e: drives are unaffected by
  the modification but c: is dead as a door nail...oh well? btw before i 
  install "everything" what file system should i use? currently i'm using
  ext2 filing system but everytime i boot it mounts it as read-only so i
  need to remount it once i login as root....is there a way to make it
  automatic? 

  Hahaha....i should've asked what's the command for moving files from linux
  to ms-dos a few flames here and there is much better than formatting and
  re-copying files on my 1.2G hdd....hahaha ;P

: Using 'root' can be dangerous to your health....

  EXTREMLY!!!!!

Well thanks for all the help again...:>
Bye, Anty
--
                                            . . . . o o o o o
    __________________________=======             _____      o       _______
    |s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au |   ____====  ]OO|_n_n__][.     |Anty!|
    |________________________________|__[________]_|__|________)<    |ville|
    'OOOO=====|ooo|====|ooo|=====|OOOO\ oo|====|oo 'oo=OOOO-|=oo\_   ~~~|~~~
--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au (~ AnTY ~) writes:

>Rod May (stoke@werple.mira.net.au) wrote:

>: If it was 'dd', then I hope your ms-dog partition had a nice life..
>  Nope i used th cp command.

you just did a 'cp loadlin.zip /dev/hda1' ????

>  Luckily my extended logical partitions d:/e: drives are unaffected by
>  the modification but c: is dead as a door nail...oh well? btw before i 

you could try a 'sys c:' if you can get a dos disk with sys on it.

>  install "everything" what file system should i use? currently i'm using
>  ext2 filing system but everytime i boot it mounts it as read-only so i
>  need to remount it once i login as root....is there a way to make it
>  automatic? 

how are you booting?

what is your /etc/lilo.conf ??
what is your /etc/fstab     ??

stoke.

Rod May (stoke@werple.mira.net.au) wrote:
: s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au (~ AnTY ~) writes:

: >	Well i've recently install linux on my p.c, trying to config and set
: >things up...everything was going as planned...but ARGH!!!! i accidently copied
: >the lodlin.zip for dos file to /dev/hda1 (thinking it would be the way
: >to transfer files from linux-msdos partition...... :(( Now my p.c won't boot
: >into msdos since i presume the boot partion has been overridden and corrupt.

: What did you use to 'copy'? 
: If it was 'dd', then I hope your ms-dog partition had a nice life..

: What error messages do you get when you boot?

: *Maybe* something like Disk Doctor could help, but more likely
: with a dos boot disk with format on it you'll be able to get a partition
: back, but obviously no data.

: Using 'root' can be dangerous to your health....

Do you have a DOS boot disk?  If so, and it has DOS's fdisk on it, you could
try

	fdisk /mbr

which I've seen mentioned as solution but have fortunately never needed to use
it.

By the way, I have transferred files from Linux to DOS many times with no
problem.  I've always used the "mc" program, using F5 (copy) or F6 (move), but
I doubt if the command line would be different.

Bill

~ AnTY ~ (s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au) wrote:
: 	Well i've recently install linux on my p.c, trying to config and set
: things up...everything was going as planned...but ARGH!!!! i accidently copied
: the lodlin.zip for dos file to /dev/hda1 (thinking it would be the way

Let's see... You typed

cp lodlin.zip /dev/hda1

???

Did you have much on C:???

: 	Is there any way to rectify this somewhat distressing problem without
: formatting my hdd??? <with my luck probably not!>

First - this is what you've done. /dev/hda1 is what's known as a 
block-special file. On unix-like systems (such as linux) this acts 
somewhat as an alias for a device. Special files are something like CON: 
or LPT1: under DOS. You can open a file to them, and now you're talking 
to the device - via the kernel.

A block special file appears as a series of block of a certain size - 
sectors in this case. /dev/hda1 refers to the first partition on your 
hard drive. When you read it, you are actually reading the contents of 
the partition - sector by sector, from the first sector in the first 
cylinder, to the last sector in the last cylinder. Writing to this file 
writes to the same place. 

The very first sector (512 bytes) is the boot sector. On an MSDOS 
filesystem, this contains information about the partition geometry, as 
well as the loader routine. Things such as the number of number of 
sectors, sectors per cluster, sectors per FAT, etc. This you will have 
overwritten. Also, the loader routine - which is why you get the Missing 
Operating system message.

These things are easily replaced.

How big is lodlin.zip?? Each 512 bytes will be another sector you have 
corrupted. From here on in, it gets a bit harder to fix...

Immediately after the boot sector is the File Allocation Table - FAT. 
This records the usage of clusters on the partition. Usually there will 
be two or more copies kept - in case the main one becomes corrupted. Each 
FAT will be (2*Number of Clusters) bytes long. If you haven't corrupted 
further than the first FAT, you may be able to restore the partition. If 
you have gone further, well, there's probably not much more you can do...

My guess is that SYS will not work - because DOS will not recognise the 
partition, because the BIOS parameter Block has been corrupted.

*DO NOT* try FDISK /MBR. This only rewrites the master boot record (or 
partition table if you like). It will try and set it up to boot DOS. The 
problem is not in your master boot record (you'd use cp loadlin.zip 
/dev/hda for that!!! sorry... :)

If you know - or are willing to learn real fast - a little about 
filesystems, there is a possibility. It kinda requires that there still 
exists an uncorrupted version of the FAT and root directory, though.
Don't think for a second, though, that I know what I'm talking about. I'm 
no expert - just a bit of a tinkerer, I guess - but I get away with it, 
usually.

Perhaps if you told me how big loadlin.zip is (I don't have it handy, and 
I'm not about to dig it out...), how big the dead partition is and any 
other system information which you may think is handy I could tell you more.

I hope this experience hasn't put you off using Linux. It is a *GREAT* 
OS, in my opinion, and has been quite stable in my experience (as long as 
you don't get too close to that cutting edge of development).

As for what you should've done - First you must mount the partition. You 
use the mount command (as root) to do this, something like this :-

mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt

It may already be mounted. I know slackware 2.3 offers to setup so that 
your first dos partition is mounted at bootup as /dosc. After this the 
partition will be just like any other part of the directory tree, so you 
would use something like :-

cp loadlin.zip /mnt

OR

cp loadlin.zip /dosc

NEVER, EVER write to anything in /dev unless you know what you're doing, 
cos you'll probably break something!!!

Check out the manual page for mount for more details on mounting 
filesystems - ie type 'man mount'. Also, you might read up on /etc/fstab. 
There might be something in the fstab manual page - not sure.

Brett :)

bgerseko@powerup.com.au (Brett Gersekowski) wrote:
>~ AnTY ~ (s9507584@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au) wrote:
>: 	Well i've recently install linux on my p.c, trying to config and set
>: things up...everything was going as planned...but ARGH!!!! i accidently copied
>: the lodlin.zip for dos file to /dev/hda1 (thinking it would be the way
>
>Let's see... You typed
>
>cp lodlin.zip /dev/hda1
>

 [ snip ] 

>If you know - or are willing to learn real fast - a little about 
>filesystems, there is a possibility. It kinda requires that there still 
>exists an uncorrupted version of the FAT and root directory, though.
>Don't think for a second, though, that I know what I'm talking about. I'm 
>no expert - just a bit of a tinkerer, I guess - but I get away with it, 
>usually.
>

 [ snip ]

What you _could_ try is norton utilities.  Assuming both copies of the FAT
are gone, when you restore DOS partition and 'sys' it you'll have it empty.
Norton's 'unerase' may then pick up whatever you had there, as the data's
still there (unless you format the partition).  When you delete a file or
directory DOS removes the first character of its name and clears FAT 
entries for it.  If your FAT's overwritten with loadlin.zip you _could_
use something like norton disk editor to set its entries to '\0' and have
clear FAT.  The only problem for 'unerase' would then be that first 
characters of your filenames are not set to '\0'.  It may work, though.
OTOH, if a copy of FAT's survived norton disk doctor should be able to
fix everything automagically.  Finally, you could use disk editor to 
manually restore your disk (FAT, actually), I'm quite sure diskedit can
do it.  How long it will take is another question.

I once run 'mkswap' on /dev/hda1 by mistake, and fixed the partition by 
running 'fdisk' from dos boot floppy.  In my case FATs and system files 
weren't stuffed, so everything was there on the disk after I rebooted. 

Hope that helps
-- 
Dimitri
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine an opaque closed box containing a cat and a vial of poisonous gas.  
At any given moment the cat may break the vial and die of poisining.  Since
we cannot tell, without opening the box, whether the cat is dead or alive 
at a given moment, we access the cat's state in terms of probabilities; say,
50/50.  Let me rephrase that: at any given moment the cat is both dead and
alive.  Such cat is called the Shroedinger's cat.