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Article #2134

Boot Floppy and stuff

#2134
From: Steven Kenneth Besler
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:45
40 lines
2496 bytes
	I recall when I was trying to put as many 3.0 goodies as I could on 
my storage-space-challenged (250 meg) NeXTSTATION Turbo, and I didn't know 
what the hell I was doing.  I just got my NeXT a while before and had borrowed
a CDROM drive to perform the deed, since the 3.0 installation on my hard drive
was totally minimal.  I ended up corrupting the hard disk's file system 
somehow so that it wouldn't boot.  After much freaking, weeping, and gnashing
of teeth, I realised all I had to do was to boot from the CDROM.  So I booted
from the 3.0 CD in single user mode, then completely rebuilt the hard drive.

	Now the thing is that I only borrowed the CDROM, and no longer have it.
So if I do a Bad Thing (tm) that screws up my file system on my hard disk, I
want to be able to fix it.  I am also not connected to an ethernet, so I cannot
boot from that either.  So I want to construct a boot floppy, but I don't know
how.  I couldn't find it in the Sysadmin book or the Sysadmin online docs.

	Ok, so I noticed that I had an odmach (Optical) and sdmach (scsi), but
no fdmach for floppy.  I also noticed that odmach was exactly the same as 
sdmach (that is what diff said anyway) and mach which is some weird link to
something called $BOOTFILE (what is that?)

	So I forked one of these on a ED floppy and booted from it.  I 
mounted the file system from the hard disk.  How do I mount the file system
on the floppy?  (just in case the hard disk's fs is hosed)  What files does
it need?  Can I bring it up in single user mode from a sole floppy?  Multiuser
mode?  can I fit the necessary utilities to fix the hard disk's file system
all on one ED floppy?

	Oh, and if one forgets the Hardware password, what has to be done?
I think this might come in useful one day.


Steven Besler
CPSC Honours Coop Student
UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

PS.  Respond to this group please.  I don't get NeXTMail. 
     This will hopefully also stop 100 people from answering my question.

PPS.  THANKS in advance to anyone who provides info...
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From: x4y092@rick.cs.ubc.ca (Steven Kenneth Besler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Boot Floppy and stuff
Date: 16 Dec 1992 15:45:29 -0800
Organization: Computer Science, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 40
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