*BSD News Article 8901


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
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From: kspousta@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Kevin Spousta)
Subject: Re: Help needed to remove 386bsd off of a 386
Message-ID: <kspousta.724383404@qualcom>
Keywords: Won't work with just a high level foramt
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Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
References: <3506@carroll1.cc.edu> <1fe0glINN6bp@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 01:36:44 GMT
Lines: 26

pauls@css.itd.umich.edu (Paul Southworth) writes:


>In article <3506@carroll1.cc.edu> sander@carroll1.cc.edu (Scott Anderson) writes:
>>I recently decided to move 386bsd to a better machine and as part of the
>>deal, I have to put MS-DOS back on the machine.  I've tried the docs
>>exactly and then complete formats of the hard drive etc, all to no avail,
>>I keep getting an error message saying the it is upset that it can't find
>>386bsd at boot time and that continues in an infinite loop.  I thought
>>maybe I'd try a low level format, but my manual says "Low level formats
>>should only be done by qualified personell."  :)

>If you have an IDE drive then a low-level is a last resort to resurrect
>a trashed drive.  I wouldn't advise it unless you know what you're doing.
>If you do not have an IDE drive, then you can probably low level it with
>relative impunity.

>However, if you haven't tried to do "FDISK /MBR" to nuke the boot record,
>I suggest you try that first.  (That is, do FDISK /MBR in DOS, not 386BSD
>and it will write you a new boot record for DOS.)

I tried the fdisk /mbr bit when I attempted to remove BSD and I still kept
getting the "Can't find 386BSD" error.  I finally made a DOS boot Disk and put
Norton's Disk Editor on it and manually edited the boot sector. I filled up sector 0 with null values and then FDISK'ed.  Worked like a charm..