markh1289@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I did a dumb thnig (no, a VERY dumb thing).
> I'd just like to confirm it was an irreversably stupid thing, but if
> there's any way of me recovery I'd love to hear it.
>
> I booted Knoppix (in the form of Auditor Security Collection) from CD
> in IBM T43.
> Then,
> mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1
>
> thinking this was a USB flash drive.
> I mounted it as type vfat, created a directory & wrote a small text
> file to it all off which worked.
>
> Turns out /dev/sda1 is WinXP partition of the HD, hence when CD is
> removed & laptop booted, C: is no longer bootable.
>
> The C: drive has 2 partitions, /dev/sd1 mentioned above & /dev/sda2
> which I think is where the IBM Recovery data is for getting laptop back
> to factory default.
>

Did you leave the USB key drive plugged in?

The T43 can (and tries) to boot from USB. If that fails, the grace of
failure is determined by the boot sector code on the USB device.
/dev/sd* are SCSI or emulated SCSI devices (such as USB drives). The
IBM T43 uses an IDE hard disk, whose partitions are on /dev/hda.

In short, unless you have a very weird setup, or actually typed an h
instead of an s, your laptop should be fine.

HTH,
Mike