Partining was Re: multiboot OpenBSD

[kim]

Tony Abernethy wrote:
> James Hartley wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 1:21 AM, kim <the.phule at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>  Just out of interest, what happens when you delete the 'c' 
>> partition? I
>>>  understood it deleted the drive spec but is this 
>> irreversible? can you
>>>  low level format the drive or repopulate the information 
>> some other way,
>>>  or with some other format software?
>> The definitive answer to your question is to try & see.  Although I
>> have been curious about this at times, I haven't been so curious to
>> invest the time to experiment.
>>
>> As for conjecture, I would doubt that there is any physical harm in
>> deleting *all* partitions, but I doubt if there are any tools which
>> would reverse the result.  I suspect one would end up having to
>> reinstall, but again, this is only a guess.

> on an old installation (old computer, old OBSD)

<snip>

> partition to modify: [] c
> FS type: [unused]
> offset: [0] 3
> The OpenBSD portion of the disk starts at sector 63, you tried to add a
> partition at 3.  You can use the 'b' command to change the size of the
> OpenBSD portion.
> offset: [0] 66
> size: [488397168]
>> w
> 
> At this point, something is surely wrecked, HOWEVER
> I can log in again and disklabel now gives


The question being because I once did it, got stuck, gave up, got 
another harddrive and continued playing. It was more because I never 
knew what id done, and the manual doesnt seem to hold the information 
how to get unstuck from this grey area.

> Ah well.
> Time to wipe and reinstall something more like -current.
> Nothing quite like the feeling of wiping the disk you are running on;)

I don't know about most people but I quite enjoy the pleasure of being 
utterly confused by the state of the art partition system that comes 
with obsd, its a bit like the installer it shows me how minuscule my 
knowledge is yet even with a mundane understanding I can get a somewhat 
working system.

Thanks for the info, and the experiment results, It might be a good idea 
to publish a webpage with the details of what you did, and how you 
unstuck yourself from the situation.

K