"Invalid Partition Table"... NOT a problem with the drive(s)

[Axon]

Turned on computer this morning (Dell T5810, legacy BIOS, W10, )... won't boot and displayed "invalid partition table". Normally that's a problem on the drive (MBR?), but I swapped drives from other computer and got the same message.

The problem is not with the drives themselves, but coming from elsewhere.

Any ideas? Tks.

I had a mechanical keyboard once that caused intermittent booting problems so maybe try removing every piece of unnecessary hardware all the way down to where nothing is left but the motherboard, CPU, monitor, and a stick of memory and see if you can boot up on just that. If it boots, add your hardware back one peripheral at a time until you get the error. Another possibility is to just reset the bios completely, either via jumper or pulling the little button battery out for a few seconds with the motherboard unplugged from the wall. See if you can boot then.

As you know everything is integrated these days but it could still be the drive controller is having issues so try plugging the drive into all the different SATA ports and see if one of the other ones work. If you happen to have a pci express card that has some SATA ports on it, try plugging it in and hooking the drive to that and see if it works then.

If you have a USB hdd enclosure you can put the drive in that and see if it boots. If so, you can try updating the BIOS. I would suggest booting up with a Linux live CD but you probably won't be able to update the BIOS with that.

Good luck.

 

[ph1l]

Try looking at
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/...rror-on-a-system-with-a-ssd-solid-state-drive
How to fix an Invalid Partition Table error on a system with a Solid-State Drive (SSD)

 

[M.W.]

This guy apparently shilled cheap dell systems for years and spoke of hardware,only. Completely omitted the software and backup side of things. I can't imagine anyone,who takes this business seriously ,to not make backups. My main data repository is stored on a striped nvme array (14GB/sec throughout) and backed up automatically every two ours onto a local mirrored hdd array, every 12 hours the mirrored array is synced with my backup in the cloud. Never had an issue of data loss and can restore in minutes and even in the event of a complete loss locally I can restore the backup from the cloud in several hours.

I'm critical because your DR plan sucks donkey cock. The fact you're having difficulty is proof enough... don't cry to me about it or try to defend it. Man up and admit it needs improvement; even if that means having a spare barebones machine around to confirm the disks are ok. If you really had good clone and image backups you'd be done by now.



It absolutely is something else... your human error. You're overlooking something... either the disks are fubar, the bios/UEFI settings are out of wack, or some component of your machine (other than disks) is busted; eg controller, cabling, mobo. There's literally nothing in between.

You're asking hit/miss questions on some random forum... this isn't the time to reject tough love.

We're pulling for ya!

 

[Bad_Badness]

This guy apparently shilled cheap dell systems for years and spoke of hardware,only. Completely omitted the software and backup side of things. I can't imagine anyone,who takes this business seriously ,to not make backups. My main data repository is stored on a striped nvme array (14GB/sec throughout) and backed up automatically every two ours onto a local mirrored hdd array, every 12 hours the mirrored array is synced with my backup in the cloud. Never had an issue of data loss and can restore in minutes and even in the event of a complete loss locally I can restore the backup from the cloud in several hours.

I just started, my yearly "audit" for stability and failure recovery. Updated network drivers (picked up 10ms improvement on the ping to IB central as a benchmark), and will a clean up old backups and images, and then a failure recovery test. Review those logs!

A lot of people back up but don't bother to actually try to recover. Either you are serious or not. It is as if it is some game with no consequences for some people. Or they cannot be bothered with anything but the trade part and no IT work.

 

[Scataphagos]

Attach a spare HD. Boot from your rescue disk / thumb drive. Install windows on the HD. If successful you will know it was software problem, if not it's hardware.
If it is hardware repeat the above but attach your HD to a different controller port.

I'm about 100% confident that it's not a software problem. I've got 4 identical computers on the network. If I take a drive from the failing computer (which messages, "invalid partition table"), and swap it to one of the another comptures.... it runs just fine. So obviously the partition table on the drive is OK... it's just that the failing computer cannot read it. So... what on a computer "reads" the drive partition(s) during boot?? That's what is failing.

(BTW... Dell workstations come with hardware diagnostic feature. Ran it... said, "100% OK... no errors")

 

[Scataphagos]

I just started, my yearly "audit" for stability and failure recovery. Updated network drivers (picked up 10ms improvement on the ping to IB central as a benchmark), and will a clean up old backups and images, and then a failure recovery test. Review those logs!

A lot of people back up but don't bother to actually try to recover. Either you are serious or not. It is as if it is some game with no consequences for some people. Or they cannot be bothered with anything but the trade part and no IT work.

Ditto. I have LOTS of backup... cloned drives, saved images, even backup machine. None of that is helping on this one.

 

[spooz]

I'm about 100% confident that it's not a software problem. I've got 4 identical computers on the network. If I take a drive from the failing computer (which messages, "invalid partition table"), and swap it to one of the another comptures.... it runs just fine. So obviously the partition table on the drive is OK... it's just that the failing computer cannot read it. So... what on a computer "reads" the drive partition(s) during boot?? That's what is failing.

(BTW... Dell workstations come with hardware diagnostic feature. Ran it... said, "100% OK... no errors")

If it is a hardware problem then the disk controller on the motherboard is the most likely cause. To fix that without a new MB you could get a controller card to install on the MB. You say that the disk in question runs fine on another machine, have you tried using a disk from the other machine on the problem one? I forgot to mention this in a previous post: if you boot your rescue media there is a "Fix Boot Problems" option. It works most of the time particularly if the partition table is corrupt. All the tests you have run show there isn't a problem, and yet there clearly is. So whatever is wrong is not being detected. My best guess is it's your disk controller.

PS. Before you do any of the above connect your problem drive to a different connector on the MB. Good Luck!

 

[spy]

This guy needs to consider a new career because "elite trading" is a long way off. Everything necessary has already been suggested... someone even pointed him to Dell's site for updating the bios.

The bottom line is he's unable to perform a basic binary search within the problem domain. Until he learns how to do that, problems like this will always get in the way.

Sad that he won't accept constructive criticism. Perhaps elite pizza delivery or gas station attendant is better for now. Sometimes the truth hurts, there's no point in coddling anymore

 

[Scataphagos]

If it is a hardware problem then the disk controller on the motherboard is the most likely cause. To fix that without a new MB you could get a controller card to install on the MB. You say that the disk in question runs fine on another machine, have you tried using a disk from the other machine on the problem one? I forgot to mention this in a previous post: if you boot your rescue media there is a "Fix Boot Problems" option. It works most of the time particularly if the partition table is corrupt. All the tests you have run show there isn't a problem, and yet there clearly is. So whatever is wrong is not being detected. My best guess is it's your disk controller.

PS. Before you do any of the above connect your problem drive to a different connector on the MB. Good Luck!

That's what I was thinking... add a disc controller to the mobo.

I've been trying and swapping 4 SSDs. None work in the trouble computer, all work in the other computer. Yes, I've tried to connecting to different SATA ports... replaced SATA cables, too.

I have a boot disk where I could install an image to a drive, but I don't have an actual "rescue disc". Will look into that.

 

[M.W.]

If you refer to @Scataphagos then yes, he is a little deluded. Blocks everyone who disagrees with him. Unstable character.

This guy needs to consider a new career because "elite trading" is a long way off. Everything necessary has already been suggested... someone even pointed him to Dell's site for updating the bios.

The bottom line is he's unable to perform a basic binary search within the problem domain. Until he learns how to do that, problems like this will always get in the way.

Sad that he won't accept constructive criticism. Perhaps elite pizza delivery or gas station attendant is better for now. Sometimes the truth hurts, there's no point in coddling anymore