grub2 invalid partition table

vhristev · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

Hey guys ,

I have strange behavior with Grub

Laptop: Dell e6400
BIOS: latest A16 (update it)
SSD: Samsung 850 PRO - swap from Samsung 840 EVO

Clean install after configure grub and reboot i get "invalid partition table!" tried with MBR and GPT same behavior.

When i hit any key Grub loads without issues
Double check BIOS boot order even left only Internal HDD so there is no other drivers / dvd's / usb / nic's

Roman_Gruber · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:16 pm Post subject:

i read something about those particular drives. in short data corruption with those kind of samsung drives.

https://blog.algolia.com/when-solid-state-drives-are-not-that-solid/

vhristev · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

Hello ,

Thank you for that i also catch some posts about TRIM issues but not sure why i got Invalid Partition table.

Fun thing is that i have also Samsung 840 EVO but the problem is just in Samsung 850 PRO .... karma.

Still searching for some explanation what that is happening. Also i could test with other boot loader because i think things get ugly on 1st stage of boot loader
_________________
Being lazy means being smart

Roman_Gruber · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 10:32 pm Post subject:

Do you really believe that error is reproduceable? i doubt. because the mcu has some sort of algorithm and depending on the age of the cells the data is saved in some sort of pattern and compression ...

well teh firmware is buggy.

and data corruption just means it can catch any area of the drive. you never know how the sectors are mapped and how the data is saved. thats an endless topic ...

and are you sure that the drive do not have other flaws? says all when a data center finds such issues and samsung is unable to provide firmware without issues at the time of shipping the product.

**
off topic, why i do not buy any samsung product again.
**

and i had a samsung phone which i bought recently and the calender on it from samsung did not had the month march of year 2015 ... says all, right, samsung... unable to make a calender, with all months and all days. thats just a click on these days software projects. and they did not even test the hardware. on the televisions i did not bought samsung on purpose because they have useless features and everywhere states, security risks, and slow interface. samsung television costs nearly as twice as much as other brands when you do not care for smart television thingy. and from the electronics perspective, you can be sure the browser and other stuff in the television will never get any security fixes. and they just need an mcu anyway, they just add some more flash rom with a bit more code lines for the smart tv, basically same hardware in the end, ... just overpriced gadgets which are hardly tested.

you also see it for samsung smartphones that these hardly get any updates after a few months. older android is prone for security risks for example. google tried to circumvent with the google play services framework which gets updated over the playstore but a few main components of the os have some serious issues. ... samsung does not allow root / custom firmware you loose the gurantee ... bad company anyway and stay away from products...

manufacturers hide those flaws in weird descriptions of their firmware update reasons.

vhristev · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

Hey ,

From my years of exp i know that every couple of years some hardware vendor screw things up and new leader is there so the idea is to buy the more reliable hardware for current time. We can have new firmware from Samsung that fix everything and then it's not point to buy Intel but for now yes maybe after this crap i will buy Intel.

This weekend i will put that SSD on my Workstation (i have ~5 SSDs) and will try to boot from there to check if i will get again partition table issue. Then i will be sure its a combination with Dell and Samsung.
_________________
Being lazy means being smart

py-ro · Veteran Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 1734 Location: Velbert

Just mark a Partiton bootable, if you use GPT, then mark the protective mbr partition bootable.

Py

vhristev · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

Hello ,

I set BIOS_GRUB then i set legacy_boot on both 1st 2MB and /boot partitions without any difference.

As i explained MBR was the first time i partition the disk but it has the same issue. I will try to boot that on my Workstation to see if the problem is combination Laptop e6300 BIOS and Samsung SSD FIRM

Thanks for the suggestions

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:30 pm Post subject:

vhristev,

Use fdisk -t dos to set the boot flag. You will only see one partition. Thats correct.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:44 am Post subject:

I own the Samsung 850 Pro 512GB and no problems at all.

I think the error "invalid partition table" comes from the Bios or an imcompatibilty drive - bios (mainboard).

vhristev · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

I already did that when first time I setup the MBR partition table without success