> The problem is that I've got my NetBSD partitions (/ and /usr) backed up 
>but now I can't get the install disks to install any way but on the whole 
>disk. (hard write fails if I try to install the normal way 

Err, sorry, but I can't parse this last sentence - what do you mean when
you say "hard write fails"?

> normal way:
>	pfdisk 0
>		set partitions:
>		0 6 0 200
>		1 165 201 522
>		w
>		q
>
>	install dos in partition 0
>
>	boot from kcaha disk and install like 
>	normal (It lets me input all the information about the drive in, 
>but when it comes to it's labeling the disk and putting binaries onto 
>the drive it runs into the old 
>disklabel and dies, trying to install to /mnt on the file system floppy.)

Errr, you mean it can't copy over disklabel?  Exactly what does it do?  Does
it ever ask you if you want to "overwrite DOS partition table?"  If so, then
you gave a wrong answer when you inputted all the drive info to the install
program.

> What I think I really need to do is eliminate the pre-existing disklabel 
>from the drive. But I don't seem to be able to.
>
>	I've tried fdisk'ing the drive (doesn't seem to get rid of it)
>		fdisk /mbr             		""
>	fdisk'ing and formatting as dos  	""

I'm a bit confused ... how was there a disklabel on the drive if it was all
DOS previously?  And if you could just mount it from your old installation,
why not use disklabel -e from your currently running Unix, mount the partitions
and just copy everything over from your running system?

>I don't know if it's part of the problem but the drive's a AC540H 
>(Western Digital 540) which has the following real geometry:
>cyl 1048
>   ^^^^ note this is > 1024
>head 16
>sec  63
>
>but pfdisk reads: (twice as many heads/half as many cyls)
>cyl 523
>head 32
>sec 63
>
>Is there an updated version that'll use bios (enhanced IDE) settings 
>instead of these messed up values?

Those _are_ the bios values ... DOS can't handle greater than 1024 cylinders,
so most newer drives use some form of translated geometry.

--Ken