How to mount extra partitions from a fixit disk

[Steve Hodgson]

owner-freebsd-stable at freebsd.org wrote:
> Here's my scenario: I'm running 4.10 on a laptop, and the
> drive is in the process of dying.  It won't boot, but from
> the fixit disk I am able to access the root directory.  Root
> is assigned to ad0s1a, which the fixit disk has in the /dev
> directory.  However, /usr is on ad0s1g.  There is no entry
> for this device in /dev, and no MAKEDEV script either.  How
> can I mount this device/partition to access /usr?
> 
> Also, I'm trying to decide how to get the data off the
> laptop.  I have a wi card and a parallel port zip drive.
> Which would be easier to get working? Can I simply copy the
> modules from another 4.10 box and then break into the boot cycle and
> load them there? 
> 
> jm

How about downloading FreeSBIE on another computer, burning it to an ISO and
using that? I've never used the fixit CD but FreeSBIE is based on 5.2.1 and
may have better luck. maybe.

On the same vain you could try knoppix, though I'm not sure that the Linux
kernel is compiled with support for UFS. A completely different code base
may have some luck disentangling your dying drive.

Steve