Backup GPT table corrupt on a new Seagate, now nothing boots!?!

linuxStudent11 · 03-18-2016, 12:18 AM

I just bought a Seagate 8TB drive. I plugged it in. Then I ran kvpm and gnome-disk to have a first look.
Funniest thing...kvpm complains (version list below) that "the backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used."
No problem. So I mount it. No problems. 7.4TB space available.
So later I reboot one of my OTHER os installs...and BEFORE it gets to grub (but after(?) bios) I hang with the error "Partition table not valid". So I try to boot from a different partion, older OS. "Partition table not valid." and hang, etc. etc. etc. for all my installations on this machine.(???)
So I unplug the drive. The problem goes away (whew!).
QUESTIONS:
Is there a NEW MBR/GPT format that Jessie/Grub does not support?
Is this error coming ONLY from the new drive? Is it likely a bios error?
My machine is 5-6 years old.
Would anyone like to see a dd of the first meg?
I assume I can just reformat and the problem will go away forever. I intend to use this drive as a Backup Only forever....never to boot from it.

Code:

sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdg
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdg: 15628053167 sectors, 7.3 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 9FBAE37B-F9FB-4A3A-878C-F16DF327C241
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 15628053133
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2668 sectors (1.3 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              34          262177   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved ...
   2          264192     15628052479   7.3 TiB     0700  Basic data partition

_______________________________________________________________
kvpm 0.9.9
gnome-disk-utility 3.12.1
UDisks 2.1.3
grub 2.02-beta2-22+deb8u1
System: Host: <snip> Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
btw: UEFI not present
Desktop: KDE 4.14.2 (Qt 4.8.6) Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Crosshair III Formula v: Rev 1.xx
Bios: American Megatrends v: 1503 date: 03/15/2010
CPU: Quad core AMD Phenom II X4 B55 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 25686
Clock Speeds: 1: 3210 MHz 2: 3210 MHz 3: 3210 MHz 4: 3210 MHz
ID-7: USB /dev/sdg model: Backup+_Desk size: 8001.6GB

syg00 · 03-19-2016, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxStudent11

QUESTIONS:
Is there a NEW MBR/GPT format that Jessie/Grub does not support?
Is this error coming ONLY from the new drive? Is it likely a bios error?
My machine is 5-6 years old.
Would anyone like to see a dd of the first meg?
I assume I can just reformat and the problem will go away forever. I intend to use this drive as a Backup Only forever....never to boot from it.

- unlikely
- almost certainly BIOS problem on a machine that old.
- not me
- bad to assume. Just what/how are you planning to reformat ?. MBR will not allow you to address past halfway through the drive - i.e the latter 4T will be unaddressable.

sgosnell · 03-19-2016, 09:44 AM

I think your older systems that don't recognize the drive are too old to know about GPT, They expect DOS/MBR. But Jessie, and current grub2, should recognize it. You don't say what OSs are failing to recognize the partition table.

Pyrotech72 · 03-24-2016, 06:38 AM

Before doing anything to that drive, I would boot up a Live USB (or Live CD) that contains a fairly recent version of GParted, such as PartedMagic. I use a version from 2013 (before they started charging for it) that works well with GPT. Kali has it, but I haven't used it yet.