Re: Busted FreeBSD VM ZFS can't find boot block

From: Graham Perrin <grahamperrin_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2021 18:12:10 UTC
On 31/10/2021 14:45, Kurt Buff wrote:

> All,
>
> I'm running a FreeBSD 12.2 VM in VMware Workstation Pro under Windows.
>
> My Windows machine froze, and I couldn't recover except with a hard power
> off.
>
> The FreeBSD VM is now complaining, emitting the following lines:
>
>     ZFS: i/o error - all block copies unavailable
>     ZFS: can't read MOS object directory
>     ZFS: can't find root filesystem
>     gptzfsboot: failed to mount default pool zroot
>
>     FreeBSD/x86 boot
>     ZFS: i/o error - all block copies unavailable
>     ZFS: can't find dataset u
>     Default: zroot/<0x0>:
>     boot:
>
> I've done a fair amount of STFW, but I'm not seeing how to recover from
> this - most of the entries I've found are about performing upgrades of
> various sorts..
>
> Can anyone point me to a doco that can help me recover?
>
> I have booted the VM from the bootonly livecd option, but am at a loss as
> to how to proceed.
>
> Thanks,
> Kurt
First: are you certain that the underlying storage and file system are 
still OK, at the Windows level?