invalid partition table

mpelts · 08-28-2006, 02:58 PM

Dell D600 laptop - 60G HDD - Suse 10.1

I installed Suse 10.1 (using the Internet install CD). It will not boot after the install, returns "invalid partition table" error. I then used DBAN to wipe the hard drive. Reinstalled and I still get the invalid partition table error.

Could this be an issue with the MBR still having information about the previous OS? I thought that DBAN would blow away the whole drive, allowing me to start from fresh.

Suggestions? Should I just dd the MBR?

Thanks!

ramram29 · 08-28-2006, 03:06 PM

Yes, boot into rescue mode and blank the MBR with:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/zero bs=512 count=1

Assuming your hard disk is IDE. This will blank the first 512 bytes of your hard disk (the MBR). Also make sure your motherboard BIOS is not virus-protecting the MBR.

Matir · 08-28-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramram29

Yes, boot into rescue mode and blank the MBR with:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/zero bs=512 count=1

Assuming your hard disk is IDE. This will blank the first 512 bytes of your hard disk (the MBR). Also make sure your motherboard BIOS is not virus-protecting the MBR.

Actually, this has if and of reversed. This will just read the first 512 bytes and dump it to /dev/zero.

Use this instead:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

ramram29 · 08-29-2006, 07:33 AM

Oh! Sorry.