03-18-2001
A couple of questions:
(1) When the system BIOS is running (before kernel boot strap/time) can you access the BIOS (using the DELETE key or whatever)?
(2) During the BIOs period above, does the system messages indicate that the hard disks are found? network cards? etc?
If (1) and (2) are OK, your new BIOs is fine. The problem is that your Master Boot Record or other boot blocks on the hard disk do not match the new BIOs (just an educated guess from the other end of the screen).
If the BIOS is operating properly, then you will have to reinstall the OS on top of the new BIOS. Before you do, you might consider reinstalling the old BIOS and making a backup of your important files. When you are satisfied, then reinstall the new BIOS (first) and reinstall the OS (second) on the new BIOS.
I can't speak about NT because all my back-office servers are Linux or other UNIXes. In my Linux systems, I've often changed BIOS or complete boards with old versions of the OS and never had any problem in the initial boot (using the old disk partitions). However, I normally rebuild a kernel immediately on the new board/BIOs, including rebuilding the disks with FDISK etc (and mount the old filesystem later).
Sounds like you are on the right track. You can also build an entire new OS on a new disk partition and mount the old disk(s) to recover files. Sorry, but my NT knowledge is weak because I can do all the 'server-side-stuff' on UNIX and don't have a reason for an NT server. Perhaps someone who is an NT guru can jump in and help in that area?
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LEARN ABOUT FREEBSD
zfsboot
ZFSBOOT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual ZFSBOOT(8)
NAME
zfsboot -- bootcode for ZFS on BIOS-based computers
DESCRIPTION
zfsboot is used on BIOS-based computers to boot from a filesystem in a ZFS pool. zfsboot is installed in two parts on a disk or a partition
used by a ZFS pool. The first part, a single-sector starter boot block, is installed at the beginning of the disk or partition. The second
part, a main boot block, is installed at a special offset within the disk or partition. Both areas are reserved by the ZFS on-disk specifi-
cation for boot use. If zfsboot is installed in a partition, then that partition should be made bootable using appropriate configuration and
boot blocks described in boot(8).
BOOTING
The zfsboot boot process is very similar to that of gptzfsboot(8). One significant difference is that zfsboot does not currently support the
GPT partitioning scheme. Thus only whole disks and MBR partitions, traditionally referred to as slices, are probed for ZFS disk labels. See
the BUGS section in gptzfsboot(8) for some limitations of the MBR scheme support.
USAGE
zfsboot supports all the same prompt and configuration file arguments as gptzfsboot(8).
FILES
/boot/zfsboot boot code binary
/boot.config parameters for the boot block (optional)
/boot/config alternative parameters for the boot block (optional)
EXAMPLES
zfsboot is typically installed using dd(1). To install zfsboot on the ada0 drive:
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 count=1
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 iseek=1 oseek=1024
If the drive is currently in use, the GEOM safety will prevent writes and must be disabled before running the above commands:
sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10
zfsboot can also be installed in an MBR slice:
gpart create -s mbr ada0
gpart add -t freebsd ada0
gpart create -s BSD ada0s1
gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0
gpart set -a active -i 1 ada0
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 count=1
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 iseek=1 oseek=1024
Note that commands to create and populate a pool are not shown in the example above.
SEE ALSO
dd(1), boot.config(5), boot(8), gptzfsboot(8), loader(8), zfsloader(8), zpool(8)
HISTORY
zfsboot appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Andriy Gapon <avg@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
Installing zfsboot with dd(1) is a hack. ZFS needs a command to properly install zfsboot onto a ZFS-controlled disk or partition.
BSD
September 15, 2014 BSD