Q:
Recently my HP laptop got such an error prompt “invalid partition table” when starting, what does this mean? Which part has a problem? What should I do to solve it?
A:
Computer hard disk allows several partitions, but there’s only one active partition (bootstrap partition), the boot mark is “80H”. When could not find the mark or several marks of this from master boot records, then prompt “Invalid Partition Table” would appear.
Master boot record (MBR) locates at 0 magnetic head/0 cylinder/1 sector, FDISK.EXE creates disk partitions. MBR includes three parts: master boot program, partition table and finish mark 55AAH, totally occupying one sector. The master boot program includes the application code, error message and solution for error to check up the disk partition table.
1) The simplest solution is to repair by tool software NDD, which would check up the error in partition table. Once some error is found, it would ask you whether you are willing to change. And you’d just need to answer “YES” continually, and then the error could be fixed.
2) It’s OK to cover it with the backup partition table. However, if virus infects the partition table, then this method might fail to solve the problem. But you can first use FDISK to repartition, and then format to solve the problem; what needs attention is: if there’s important data on hard disk, then you need to back it up before doing this.
3) As for more detailed information, please refer to