Loading 10.0 on old HD

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:53:17 -1000, Al Plant wrote:
> Aloha,
> 
> Where can I find a "how to on" loading the new 10.0 Freebsd onto a HD 
> which already has a previous version of 9* 8* 7* or Windows on it.
> 
> There is an error I think from the old boot loader from the original OS 
> on there.
> 
> Error:
> 
>   init
> The process stops with:
> /bin/sh  ON /etc/rc
> 
> Then goes to single usr mode:
> How can I clean the disk from whatever is stopping the process of 
> loading the new Loader and OS 10.0
> 
> I have 7 of these HD's I have tried.
> 
> Thanks..  any help appreciated.

Delete the first part of the disk (overwrite with null bytes),
for example using the 10.0 installation CD shell or a Linux
from disk (e. g. tomsrtbt):

	# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1k count=1000

This erases the 1st MB of the disk. Any boot loader should be
gone now. As you're going to do a fresh install (if I read your
question correctly), this doesn't matter. The remaining garbage
on the disk isn't associated to a partition or OS anymore, so
you can create the new partitions you need and install the OS
without paying attention to what has been on the disk before.

Check "dmesg" output to verify which device name is associated
to the disk in question.

-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...