🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <vanepp.719197327@sfu.ca> vanepp@fraser.sfu.ca (Peter Van Epp) writes:
>doug@cc.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) writes:
>
>>If we do this, then the machine will boot completely from a floppy disk.
>>But we can't access the hard drive to fix it.  If the HD is configured
>>in, then the machine will NOT complete a floppy-disk boot.
>
>I sent a reply by mail, but maybe it didn't make it. If you can boot from a 
>floppy, then by using BIOS calls (specifically int26, Absolute disk write)
>you should be able to write either 0s or E5s (which I believe is the format
>data string) onto the first track of the hard disk. This of course will
>destroy any data on the hard disk, but I assume you don't care. Haveing done
>that, you should be able to enable the hard drive in the CMOS ram and 
>partition and format the disk manually.
>	If there is data you want on the disk, then you might try reading
>the first few sectors (with int25) to get the partition table and then
>write a valid partition table from another drive on a working machine onto
>the broken drive again using int26.
>
>Peter Van Epp / Operations and Technical Support 
>Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada

If you can access the partition table with 'fdisk', the undocumented /mbr
flag on MSDOS 3.3 and 5.0 will rewrite the MBR, leaving the partition table
alone.  Just boot with a 3.3 or 5.0 floppy, and "fdisk /mbr".
-- 
Al - aclark@netcom.com - My opinions are my own.