# Server running amd64 8.1 now won't boot



## DEMandell (Aug 29, 2011)

Greetings,

I have a file server running FreeBSD 8.1 / amd64, and yesterday it spontaneously rebooted, only it never came back up.  It has an 8-disk RAID connected through a 3-ware SATA controller, and the RAID controller reports no problems with the disk unit. When the system tries to boot, it now attempts to boot from the wrong partition and doesn't find the kernel, but when I manually issue a boot command to the partition containing the root file system, it drops into the debugger and halts.

When I boot from a DVD into "fixit" mode a run fsck on the filesystems, they all check out fine.

Is there something special about the amd64 boot process that I'm missing?  There is a small partition that I don't know why it's there or what it's used for.

Sorry about the lack of specifics-- I'm writing this from memory as the server is in a remote location.  All tips gratefully appreciated.


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