harddrive won't mount/boot, superblock can't be fixed.

[Oliver Fromme]

Mr. Darren <darren780 at yahoo.com> wrote:
 > I had a bad ide cable which I have now replaced.  on
 > bootup the filesystem produced a lot of errors and I
 > lost my first superblock.  I since fsck'd and repaired
 > the superblock at sector 32.  At no time does fsck
 > create, fix, or transfer the sector 32 superblock to
 > the front of the drive.  mount won't accept the drive
 > in the condition it's in(says no superblock, or bad
 > superblock..  different programs, different errors). 
 > If anyone knows how I could get my data off and format
 > my /var drive, or possibly repair my damaged
 > superblock at the front of the drive with anyone of
 > the 50-some backups that exist throughout the drive.  

How about copying the fixed superblock with dd(1)?
Something like this:

dd if=/dev/ad0s1d of=/tmp/sb skip=32 count=16
dd if=/tmp/sb of=/dev/ad0s1d seek=16 count=16
fsck /dev/ad0s1d

Those commands are just off the top of my head -- I haven't
tested it, no guarantees, you're doing it at your own risk
and you should have a backup.

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme,  secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing
Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd
Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.

"Being really good at C++ is like being really good
at using rocks to sharpen sticks."
        -- Thant Tessman