invalid partition table

[wardred]

All,
I've installed Gentoo, grub, and WinXP on one machine in a dual boot enviroment a number of times before, but the last time I did so I messed up my partition table.

The error I would get on boot was: Invalid Partition Table.

I think I discovered what I did wrong.

My partition layout:
/dev/hda1 - NTFS
/dev/hda2 - Linux
/dev/hda3 - Linux-swap
/dev/hda4 - Linux

When I setup the system I ran grub with root (hd0,1), but instead of running setup(hd0), I BELIEVE I ran setup (hd0,0). If things work the way I believe they do, this means I borked my NTFS partition, but that my Linux partitions are still in good shape. I can re-run fdisk, re-write my partition table, re-run grub with setup(hd0), and get Linux to boot. Then I have to re-install windows.

This is basically what I've done. If anybody has a more elegant solution for the invalid partition table error, I'm all ears. (This wasn't even an error 17 message.)
_________________
Austin W. Dunham V
The Eagle

[Mamour]

Installing GRUB has no effect whatsoever on the partition tables. It just modifies the boot record wherever you put it. By doing setup(hd0,0), you installed GRUB into the boot record of your hda1 partition (that is, it installs after the MBR, so the partition table is left untouched). Had you put setup(hd0), it would have installed itself into the MBR of hda.

Anyway, I'd say only fdisk (and siblings) could be the culprit here, as it's the only program to actually change the tables. Still, it shouldn't throw an invalid partition table error...

EDIT: On second thought, the setup(hd0,0) command overwrote Windows' own bootloader, NTLDR, which most probably caused Windows to be unable to boot. Yet, that doesn't explain the partition error. Your NTFS partition itself should have been left unharmed though, and it would have been possible to restore NTLDR by using the Recovery Console on your XP installation CD. There's an application called "fixboot" I believe, which does just that. It probably overwrites the MBR as well, so you'll have to put GRUB back by using the Gentoo LiveCD or a GRUB floppy.

EDIT II: On third thought (third time's the charm ), I think I've figured out what happened. By putting setup(hd0,0), you overwrote the boot record of hda1, essentially destroying NTLDR. BUT, the MBR still contained NTLDR's loader. The latter attempted to find NTLDR on your NTFS partition when you tried booting, and since it didn't find it, it assumed that the partition table was borked. So the "Invalid Partition Table" error was actually thrown by NTLDR's loader, and not by GRUB, which explains the lack of error number. This mistake could have been fixed by using Microsoft's own fixboot utility from the Windows Recovery Console... But I guess it's too late for that.
_________________
//Markus.