Freesco stop Booting

[lgrfbs]

My Freesco 0.3.5 do not boot correctly any more many times it hangs like this:

201008111968.jpg

If i shall reinstall which files do I need to copy if I want to keep all settings of this system?
Can I take the file in question above to a new 0.4.x system?

[Lightning]

What these error messages are saying in an obscure sort of way is that your hard drive is shot. So if you do get it to boot once in a while I would take a copy of the files and in general just a print out of your report.txt is all you really need. But it can NOT be used directly in any other version of FREESCO and it is just used as a reference for filling in the new setup. Regardless of what you do, a different hard drive is going to be required.

In this process though it would be highly recommended to update to one of the newer versions of FREESCO and making the hard drive install on an ext2 file system rather than a FAT/DOS file system using the package menu once the floppy is configured to move the system to a new hard drive. In the 0.4.x series there is self repairing for the ext2 file system whereas with FAT you have to boot to DOS and run scandisk to repair any errors.

[lgrfbs]

I see now, I forget to write that I have run scandisk on the DOS partition of the start disk and it gave a "All okay after surface area scan" then I have a chance it is ext2 partition on this system. Okay, it is high time to build the next hardware for the 0.4.x system.
if I want to try to do a freesco "scandisk" on a running system, how do I do it?

Edit:
This system have 2 HDD so can I read "device 01:00" as it is the boot drive as is not working?
The harddrive problemes come after several power grid failure, if it matter.

[Lightning]

The problem is you can't do scandisk on a running system. The system must be rebooted and scandisk ran from DOS before FREESCO boots. That is just one of the BIG advantages in switching to an ext2 partition because the "e2fsck" binary can be ran while the system is running. ext2 also has auto defragementation so the files stay defragmented all of the time.
As for the hard drive problem happening after some power grid failures. I would have already suspected such a thing because from the logs it looks like the drive is not physically damaged, but rather electronically damaged.

[lgrfbs]

I will build a new 4.x.x system, but until all parts is in.
I suspect e2fsck not can be runed on a umsdos disk, rigth?

I would have already suspected such a thing because from the logs it looks like the drive is not physically damaged, but rather electronically damaged.

Okay, can it be fixed/adjust with some tool like e2fsck ?

My system -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filesystem: /mnt/bootdev
Device: /dev/hda1
Type: umsdos

Filesystem: /www
Device: /dev/hdb1
Type: ext2

LIST OF ALL INSTALLED PACKAGES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
edrive_1.02_gnork e2fs_1.01_gnork
mc-4.6.0-lightning usergui_1b_tiger
perl_5.6.1_dingetje openssl-0.9.6g_user_nadegda
apache_1.3.27_dingetje webcam-0.90pre1-talkingtoes
utils_1.1_dingetje darkstat_2.3_dingetje
webmin_1.110_howler bash_1.14.7_tiger
wget-1.9.1-lightning
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Lightning]

Hmmmm, the only tool that I can think of that MIGHT help this drive is "spinrite". But if you don't already have spinrite it costs a few dollars to own (but well worth it). But in general physical problems can be fixed, whereas electronic errors can't be fixed without a board replacement and I would never even consider a board replacement unless the data had a pretty high value.

As for e2fsck, it will only work on ext2 partitions and not on FAT/umsdos. scandisk and checkdsk are the only tools that can be used as far as I know that come with DOS.

[lgrfbs]

If I want to do a ext2 bootdisk for my freesco 4.x.x, how do I do it?

[Lightning]

Just configure the floppy as you normally would so that it is capable of accessing the Internet. Then reboot so that it is actually connected to the Internet and run the "setup" manually and go into the package menu setup. The ext2 package is on the last line of the package menu main options page and it is mostly automated on how to create and move the system to an ext2 partition.

[lgrfbs]

How shall the harddrive be before I start this "setup" of the ext2?

[Lightning]

The state of the hard drive makes almost no difference. It can be brand new or it can have another OS on it. The ext2 package is capable of starting from scratch using Linux fdisk and reformatting the drive to an ext2 partition.

The two things that can sometimes go wrong are the fact that the BIOS should be set in "LBA" mode and if the drive has had a special boot loader on it then it is recommended before you start to boot a DOS boot disk and use "fdisk /mbr"

Both of these two problems will result in rebooting the system to the hard drive and it just showing "LI" and stopping. However they also can be fixed after the fact as well if you just want to try and see first.

[lgrfbs]

Thanks, again!
It is my motherboard it do not like the harddrive (tryed with a 40 gigabyte and a 20 gigabyte) so I have swiched off onboard IDE and pluged in a ATA-133 PCI card, and now do the harddrive show up under boot but the freesco do not see it. I will swich motherboard.
and THANKS for the new GUI on the freesco 0.4.2 I like it