🚀 go-pugleaf

	I am in trouble.  The machine which supplies my wife with
	access to alt.callahans, rec.sewing, etc seems to have trashed
	it's disk.  I am at a loss, and in severe danger of great
	suffering.

	Here is the story - all help is appreciated.

	The machine is a 286 running microport.  It has 2MB ram and a
	42MB ST506 disk which is a type 17.

	One fine day, I boot it, and after it checks memory and comes
	up with the hardware config information, it says unto me:
		Error loading system from fixed disk.
	It normally says
		noise[system5]:
	then after a suitable delay starts the boot.
	Obviously, it cant read the boot block from the primary
	partition.  It seems that this is a part of Microport.

	Now, I have cnews and a whole bunch of stuff on this machine.
	Naturally, no-one in his right mind would want to back up 38
	MB onto floppies, so I dont have a recent backup.  I would
	dearly like to get my bytes back.  Recompiling the news
	software on a 286 is a sad business.  Plus the missus wants
	her goodies back too ("You arsehole, why didnt you take
	backups?"  "Duh - Ummm.")

	Some test were run:
		All BIOS read and seek tests pass.
		I can boot unix from the floppy.
		fdisk describes the Unix and Dos partitions correctly.
		I can boot dos (first 100 cyls of disk).

	So the drive and the partition table are both ok.
		
	Having booted DOS, I try the following:
		mount /dev/dsk/0s0 onto /mnt

		It says 'Drive 0 Type 15' 
		Error reading super block.
		It is getting a disk error trying to read head 5 sector 1.

	This is a no-no because the drive has only 5 heads numbered
	0-4.  And it is a type 17, not a type 15 as stated.  I can
	understand that it thinks that the super block is creamed.  I
	dont know why it wants a type 15 drive, when the cmos setup,
	and fdisk, all agree that it is a type 17.  Is it on drugs?

	So I muck about some more, and I get to a stage where
		mount /dev/dsk/0s0
	returns
		Not a file system.

	And
		divvy -d
	returns
		Invalid partition end record.

	(This may be because the selected partition was somehow changed
	to be the dos partition - I didnt think of this at the time, and
	now I am here, not there, and cant check. )

	So the question of the day is:
		Why does the boot floppy decide my disk is a type 17
		when all the indications are that everything else
		thinks it is a type 15?
	Any hints?

	(For that matter, is there anyone out there?)