# "Not ufs" (error) message when attempting to boot FreeBSD



## carltonfsck (Feb 10, 2010)

Greetings everyone,

I'm having a weird situation here.  The other day, I got done upgrading my ports collection on my FreeBSD v7.2-Release install with no issues.  Prior to shutting down, I checked my message logs for anything abnorma.  All was well.  Nothing unusual came up once I shutdown either.  The next day I turned on my laptop and got the FBSD boot loader screen (F1 for Windows, F2 for FreeBSD).  I selected F2 to boot FreeBSD.  The normal scrolling boot messages came up, and just as the screen went blank to prepare to start the KDM login screen, nothing happened.  The screen went completely blank and just stayed there.  I waited a few minutes, then attempted to CTRL-ALT-F1 thru CTRL-ALT-F9 to see if there're any other consoles available.  NOTHING.  


I had to do a forced shutdown using the power button, waited 30 secs, then started it back up.  I turned on my laptop and got the FBSD boot loader screen as before.  I selected F2 to boot FreeBSD and then I got this error message I've never seen before....

Not Ufs
No /boot/loader

I attempted to use my FreeBSD (7.2) boot-only CD to try and reinstall the FreeBSD bootloader, but that didn't work.  I then re-ran the BootOnly CD and attempted to re-label the partitions.  However, upon trying to write the changes I got a fail message.  Upon checking the debug messages, I saw an error message saying....

"Unable to find filesystem superblock" 

I know it can't be a harddrive issue per se, because my Windows partition is fine.  FreeBSD Disklabel shows all my partitions are there, and allocated the way I initially set them up.

I haven't even tried using the FIXIT CD to try and remedy my problem, as I'm not really familiar with it.  I wanted to ask anyone in here first before I attempted something, thinking someone might've experienced this before, and might know how to fix it.  If at all possible.

Is there something I can do?  Or am I dead in the water and have to do a reformat and reinstall??  :-(

Thanks for everyone's input/advice/help in advance!


--CF


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## SirDice (Feb 10, 2010)

carltonfsck said:
			
		

> I know it can't be a harddrive issue per se, because my Windows partition is fine.


Bad sectors can be everywhere. Or it could be just one. In any case if you do have bad sectors you will need to replace the drive.


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## carltonfsck (Feb 12, 2010)

Thanks for the info.  It makes sense.  I was able to use a LiveFS CD and get into my partitions via the FIXIT option. I was able to FSCK some of my filesystems because they're dirty. However, I couldn't mount the / partition to be able to fsck it.  I tried everything, but it appears it's hopeless.  Therefore, I was able to mount my /usr/home partition and FTP some much wanted/needed data to another server and I'll just replace the drive when I have the chance, and then reinstall FBSD.

I Thank You very much for your input.  

--CF


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