I have an old Sparc 5 170 that was sold to me with an OS, can't find user and login and I'm trying to do a fresh install of Solaris. When I do, I get a message "bad magic number". Tried probe-scsi and test cdrom to see if it's a hardware problem. Probe-scsi lists the disc and cdrom, test cdrom gives me an "ok" with the cd in the unit, and a -1 with no cd in place. Any suggestions?

You should try booting from cdrom. Open a command tool window, and type "format". You need to select the disk, then type "label", I believe. It will say something like, "Ready to label disk, continue?" or something like that. Select "y". Try a fresh Solaris install after that. Let me know if this works. Good luck.

Thanks for the responce Bill. How do I open a command tool window? ( I'm such a newbeeeee)

When the CD is booted, and the window system starts up, you should be able to left click on the background and get a menu. I think it will say "Utilities->command tool or shell tool.

But that's the problem, I can't get the system to boot from the cdrom. Can't get the window system to start up. I've since tried to boot from cdrom in single user mode using "boot cdrom-s". Here I get a message "enter filename [cdrom-s]". Again, thanks for your help Bill.

Hi Kevin, Try it : 1.at the ok prompt, type ok boot cdrom -sw (Enter) 2.after that, you can see the # prompt, and then type #format (select disk 0 or 1, and then type format> la (there may be need to select the disk type, for example, if your disk is 1.05GB , select the 1.05GB and then label again, or there may be need to format the disk and then label, try it) format> for (there may take several times........)

Kevin, I know this may sound silly but are you actually trying to boot a Solaris OS CD? Bad Magic Number when trying to: boot cdrom -s Usually indicates: 1. Cdrom drive is bad 2. CD is not bootable Make sure it is not Solaris on Intel, or an Update CD. Ensure it says Solaris on SPARC, English, French, Spanish etc.