# Installing FreeBSD 7.2 Making System Utterly Unbootable



## saluce65 (Aug 19, 2009)

Three times now I have tried to install FreeBSD 7.2 on a computer (twice with the 64-bit version, once with the 32-bit version) using two different hard drives, and every single time my system becomes utterly unbootable.  What I mean is, so long as the drive in question is physically connected to the motherboard (and powered), I cannot even boot to a bootable CD.  The only fix is to remove the hard drive, install it in a USB enclosure, and format the hard drive on another computer (installing the drive in an otherwise working computer also causes that system to fail to boot).

Any words of wisdom?  I wanted to try running an Asterisk server on that computer but it's starting to become too much of a pain in the arse.


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## SirDice (Aug 19, 2009)

saluce65 said:
			
		

> What I mean is, so long as the drive in question is physically connected to the motherboard (and powered), I cannot even boot to a bootable CD.


Check you BIOS settings. Also, if both are IDE, check if the master/slave settings are correct.



> The only fix is to remove the hard drive, install it in a USB enclosure, and format the hard drive on another computer (installing the drive in an otherwise working computer also causes that system to fail to boot).


That's because an USB drive is usually /dev/da0, an IDE drive is /dev/ad0. If it's installed on da0 the system cannot find anything because it's looking for a disk that's not there anymore.


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## saluce65 (Aug 19, 2009)

One drive was an 80Gb SATA, the other drive was a 200Gb PATA originally set as slave to the CD-ROM master.  Even disabling the drive in BIOS wouldn't allow me to boot to any device.  After the POST the screen goes blank, the cursor appears in the far upper left corner of the screen...and sits there blinking at me.  Pressing a bunch of keys eventually fills the buffer (which never gets emptied).

The BIOS was originally set to boot from HDD first, then CD.  The BIOS has an option to override the default boot order, which is what I was using to boot the CD with the HDD in the system.  Even forcing the CD boot froze the system.

The only time the drives were put on USB was so that I could reformat the drive under a functioning Windows system.


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## SirDice (Aug 19, 2009)

saluce65 said:
			
		

> One drive was an 80Gb SATA, the other drive was a 200Gb PATA originally set as slave to the CD-ROM master.  Even disabling the drive in BIOS wouldn't allow me to boot to any device.  After the POST the screen goes blank, the cursor appears in the far upper left corner of the screen...and sits there blinking at me.  Pressing a bunch of keys eventually fills the buffer (which never gets emptied).


Disabling a drive in the BIOS won't work if the master/slave settings are wrong on the drives. Also make sure the cables are correctly attached. It sounds to me like there's a cable problem.

Set the HD as master and the CDROM as slave. Also check if you have the proper 80 wire IDE cable.


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## saluce65 (Aug 19, 2009)

I'd hesitate to call it a cable problem, because it occurred on two different drives and three different cables and two separate systems.  I did switch out the master/slave settings to put the HDD as master to the CD-ROM slave (the OS was installed while the HDD was the slave, if that matters), but the system still wouldn't boot.  And I always use 80 wire IDE cables =)

In the other system, I had the SATA drive plugged and powered and that computer refused to boot.


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## phoenix (Aug 19, 2009)

I've seen this on one series of servers here.  It had to do with external USB harddrives being connected to the system, and overriding the default boot order.  For some reason, the BIOS prioritised external USB storage devices over internal storage devices.

If an external USB drive was connected, it would try to boot off it.  Since there's no boot loader on the drive, it would just show the cursor in the top-left corner of the screen and would just sit there.

Unplug all USB devices from the system (or disable all USB options in the BIOS) and see if the problem persists.

Also, try plugging the drives into another BSD/Linux system, and running `# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever bs=1M count=10`  (where "/dev/whatever" is the device node that it shows up as, whether da0 ad0, etc).  That will wipe out the boot sector, the partition tables, and the filesystem info, basically "unformatting" the drive.  Then try it in the "problem" PC(s).


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## iic2 (Aug 19, 2009)

Other people been having problems with 7.2 AMD.  I tried all I could think of and suggestions.  I concluded something is wrong with 7.2-AMD Install CD.  How in the heck do it boot up the CD, let you fdisk, take you to Install than tell you "No CD/DVD device found!"... Pop in FBSD-AMD-8.0 and it works! 

BTW, 7.2-AMD Live CD do not work either.  I'm sure the developers knows this by now.  It been going on for months and I have not came up with or read about any solution to date.  That CD is not catching something or turning something off.  When i found LIVE-CD didn't work, I stop switching cables, jumpers and BIOS before I destroy the machine.

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=4963


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## iic2 (Aug 19, 2009)

I just found this.  I'll get one and try it on my next shopping day.  I got nothing to lose.  Other problems my solve another problem.  Like SirDice was trying to tell me before ... it must be an hardware problem. I guest a CD just don't disapear for no reason. 

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=379&highlight=formatting


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