> > There should be a NetBSD tool (or at least a NetBSD 
> distributed tool)
> > for zapping the disklabel area of the disk to fix this kind of =
> > problems.
> 
> ? both /sbin/fdisk and /bin/dd exist on the NetBSD bootfloppy.

But they hang the machine because somehow they read the faulty disklabel
(or whatever made the disk go bad).

Maybe the fault is in the disk-driver, and impossible to get by using
NetBSD, so the pfdisk.exe tool might be a solution. I have only heard
references to this toool, I haven't seen it (nor looked for it).

> 
> a: Start at sector  0, end at sector 6281856, type 4.2BSD
> c: Start at sector  0, end at sector 6281856, type unused
> d: Start at sector  0, end at sector 6281856, type unused
> 
> if it is a nice old-fashioned working BIOS, or
> 

I can try this; this is very close to what I did in the first place,
this'll give me a warning I understand I should ignore. I used the c
partition, newfs complained with a warning but the fs was usable, it was
only me wanting to get rid of the warnings that made me do the magic
which made the disk hang the system.

0 or 63 for partition start? I don't know - and I am confused. I do not
intend to boot from this disk, nor have any other partitions than
NetBSD. Also my bios is old, I believe it has no magic where it expects
anything. There is one special thing with it; it accepts 6244 (or
whatever) as cylinder count, even if it is an old IDE controller. When I
use the parameters 63s/16h/6244c it calculates the disk to 43MB, so it
doesn't handle big disks, but it accepts the parameters. This makes it
easier for newer software to identify the disk.

Regards,

Harald.