I asked on current-users and got another answer that worked. I ran
'strings | less' on /dev/rwd1d, looking for the backup disklabels current
plus in /var/backup! I copied the output to a file, and then did a
"disklabel -r" to reinstall it.

Not perfect, but it worked.

On Thu, 23 May 2002, der Mouse wrote:

> > I was moving disks and using partition magic, and I deleted my
> > partition table.  And my disk label.
>
> Ouch.
>
> > The data, I'm pretty sure, is still there.  There's a win98 partition
> > still alive, and the netbsd stuff is hidden behind it.  [...]  Anyone
> > have any hints for me?
>
> [in another message, same person]
>
> > Can I search through the data still physically on the disk for
> > something that identifies the start of a partition?
>
> Yes, loosely speaking.
>
> I have a program that reads through a raw disk device looking for
> blocks that might be valid superblocks.  It's fairly old and it may
> have bitrotted a little.  But it may be worth trying anyway.

-- 
Hisashi T Fujinaka - htodd@twofifty.com
BSEE (6/86) + BSChem (3/95) + BAEnglish (8/95) + $2.50 = mocha latte