a new hard-drive in a 2y/o laptop

[Paul Wootton]

   On 12/28/10 16:02, Chris Brennan wrote:
>> Boot a LiveFS CD, then at a root prompt do:
>>
>> sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16  and:
>>
>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/adx oseek=1 bs=512 count=1
>>
>> where x equals your drive number. This will zero out any old MBR.
> [..]
> <GARBAGE>Invalid partition tableError loading operating systemMissing
> operating system<GARBAGE><GARBAGE><GARBAGE>1+0 records in
> 1+0 records out
> 512 bytes transferred in 2.712151 secs (189 bytes/sec)
> [..]

Hi Chris,

Are you sure that you got the command right when DDing

If you saw "Invalid partition tableError loading operating 
systemMissingoperating system", that suggests to me that you had the 
equivalent of

dd if=/dev/ad4 oseek=1 bs=512 count=1

Here is what I get is I run that DD command on a Windows HDD
"demophon# dd if=/dev/ada2 bs=512 count=1
3Àм|ûPPü¾¿W¹åó¤Ë½¾±8n| uÅâôÍ▒õÆIt8,tö µ´ð¬<tü»´ÍëòNèFs*þF~
                                                            t
                                                             ~
                                                              t ¶uÒFV
è!s ¶ë¼>þ}Uªt
              ~tÈ ·ë©üWõË¿VÍr#Á$?ÞüC÷ãÑÖ±ÒîB÷â9V
w#r9s¸»|NVÍsQOtN2äVÍëäV`»ªU´AÍr6ûUªu0öÁt+a`jjÿv
ÿjh|jj´BôÍaasOt
                2äVÍëÖaùÃInvalid partition tableError loading operating 
systemMissing operating system,Dcéêþÿÿ?Á¥P       Uª1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes transferred in 0.363712 secs (1408 bytes/sec)
demophon# "


Paul