>> The problem here is that NetBSD really wants a NetBSD disklabel on the disk.
>> It doesn't find one, so it can't access any partitions.  That's why you
>> get the "no disk label" message.
>
>OK, but if I try to disklabel the disk, I get the same message. How am
>I supposed to deal with this problem if I can't even run disklabel on
>the thing?

If you _did_ manage to disklabel it, you would have almost certainly managed
to destroy something (possible your MS-DOS bootblock).  I believe if you
give disklabel the -r and -w options, it _will_ complain about it, but it
will also manage to write the label.

>And why isn't this a problem for floppies?

Somewhere (I believe in arch/i386/i386/disksubr.c) there is code to provide
a default disklabel for a floppy device.  The kernel just uses that disklabel
if one doesn't exist on the floppy.  Way back in the 0.9 time frame, you
used to have to disklabel floppies.

--Ken