Hello help!
I have a Dell Mini 9 Netbook. The 16G SSD failed and I have replaced it with a 32G PCIe type (similar) SSD. All good so far. I have been trying to load ubuntu 10.04 for a netbook and when that didn't work I tried the Eeebuntu OS. The live USB sticks work well but there is an issue with my new SSD. When I go to install the OS I can prepare the partition and all looks ok until installation. I get I/O errors writing to the /dev/hdb. Using GParted its shows the SSD as having 28.75GB and the file system is "unallocated". I get a warning "invalid partition table on /dev/hdb -- wrong signature 0". I have used Hirens boot disk and its utilities to try and fix the partition without success. I have spent hours trying to move forward on this and would appreciate any assistance.

Using a linux live CD, execute this command:


dd if=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1 | hexdump -C

and post the results here.

Your error message is pretty clear, but I would like to see what is actually in the master boot record - particularly at the end of the partition table. The value at the end has to be 0xAA55 or else you'll get the message you are getting.

Thank you for you reply jiml8. I have run the test but am having a hell of a time trying to get the results in text form to paste here. I eventually took a photo of the results and coverted to a pdf but I can't see how I attach here. I tried to ethernet the netbook to my laptop to ftp a result file across but I need a root password to config the etho. So I struck out there. I tried to copy the file to the live USB but it was read only and I couldn't chmod the live dir. The last line printed is 00000200 with nothing to the right of it. The line before it is 000001f0 with values to the right being:-
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa
A few lives above this says "GRUB Geom. Hard Disk read Error".
Regards

Well, the output of that command sequence is text. You should be able to directly copy/paste it.
However, at the very end, you do NEED to see that string 55 AA. That is the partition table signature, and it is right.

Now, I still want to see the output from that command, but I ALSO want to see the output of fdisk, listing your partitions, so that we know what the system thinks the partition organization is.

So, enter the command:
fdisk -l

and paste the results here.

Hello jiml8.
I can create a text file a number of ways; using script, the > command or just copy/paste. But my issue is that this is on the standalone netbook running the Live USB eeebuntu. No other OS is on it. I can't setup a network card or save the data/text to the USB hanging out of the netbook because I can't write to it, and I can't be root user to config eth0 or change the privilages of the /live dir's. I did try to put in another USB stick which was formated to FAT32 and mounted it then copied the file to it. I could see it work as the led on the USB stick flashed. But when I stuck it in my laptop, Windows wanted to format it and I could't access the data. Unless you know of a way, I can see only a photo-->pdf the only solution or retyping the results like below. I have done a fdisk -l before. The result is below:-
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 0f partition table 5 will be corrected by w(rite)
Disk /dev/hdb: 30.9 GB, 30869766144 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3753 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 2405 19318131 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 2406 2498 747022+ 5 Extended

Disk /dev/sda: etc etc which is the USB Live stick.

Thanks again for you help.
regards

That looks like you have a problem with a logical partition. If it were me I'd use fdisk from the liveUSB and then "p" (no quotes) - write it down. Then "w", then "q".
See if that works.

Else we can give you a command to erase the partition table.

The SSD is a new drive so I am happy to erase everything and start fresh.
The (w) command gives:-
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Error closing file.

root@eb4:/home/eb4#

the partition table did not change. Nothing I do in fdisk will change the table.

I used the hformat -f /dev/hdb 0 command with the result:-
hformat: /dev/hdb: not a macintosh HFS volume (Invalid Argument)
root@eb4:/home/eb4#

Is the SSD perhaps not write enabled? Is there a switch (either hardware or software) to do that?

Clearly, you need to be able to change that partition table.

What happens if you try to blow off the whole MBR and partition table using dd?

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

Remember, SSD drives can break / be broken.

I have a 16GB SDHC card that was broken from the start. It is made by "Transcend".

It's Ok up to about 120MB, thereafter "I/O Error". No amount of repartitioning or dd-ing will fix it.

Stupidly, I had already thrown away the receipt. One of these days I am going to take it apart.

Well jiml8, I think its about time I went back to the supplier and asked for a new one. The dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1 command resulted in:-
l+0 records in
l+0 records out
512 bytes (512B) copied, 0.00247147 s, 207 kB/s
root@eb4:/home/eb4#

I still couldn't change partitions and the same SSD parition still read 'unallocated'. I retried installing eeebuntu again and still get the input/output error during write on /dev/hdb. As tredegar has mentioned, the era of the SSD seems to be a fickle one. Thank you again for your assistance with this, but unless there is another way, I think replacement is the only answer.
Best regards.

Yup. Looks like time to give up.