How to fix "invalid partition table" error on Windows 10/8/7/XP?

Invalid partition table causes problems like partition loss and system boot issue. Do you have any ideas on fixing invalid partition table on Windows 10/8/7/XP? This instruction will help you solve this problem through multiple methods.

Symptoms of invalid partition table issue

Partition table is stored on hard drive, containing information which is used to describe partitions on the disk. Usually, partition table is talked about with the term MBR (Master Boot Record). MBR partition table is one of the most widely used disk partitioning format.

Operating system reads information in partition table to access partitions and files in each partition, as partition table stores partition numbers, location, size, partition type, etc. If partition table gets corrupt or invalid, operating system won’t be able to access partitions, including system partition, which means the boot process cannot continue.

The invalid partition table error mainly appears during a failed system booting process, and you can see words “Invalid partition table” on black screen, as follows:

Causes of this Error

The warning “Invalid Partition Table” Windows 10 on startup or installing appears mainly due to the following reasons:

• The boot sequence is wrong.
• The BIOS is out-dated.
• There are two or more partitions are marked as active partition on the hard drive.
• MBR (master boot record) is corrupted.

How to fix “invalid partition table” error?

Solution 1: Rebuild the MBR

Step 1: Create WinPE bootable USB drive of PartitionGuru.

Step 2: Boot your computer from the bootable USB disk.

Step 3: Rebuild MBR (Master Boot Record).

Solution 2: Rebuild MBR using Command Prompt

If you can access the Recovery Console, you can fix MBR via Command Prompt and the operations are as follows:

Step 1: Boot from Windows install disc and click “Repair your computer”

Step 2: Select Command Prompt in the “System Recovery Options” window.

Step 3:Type “bootrec.exe” and press “Enter”.

Step 4: Type “/FixMbr” on Windows.

Solution 3: Change the boot sequence

If your computer is connected with external hard drives beyond one, most of time, the error “Invalid Partition Table” occurs on account of mistaken boot order. In this circumstance, you can restart your computer. Then enter BIOS on startup and set the disk that contains operating system as the first option for booting. Finally, reboot computer to see whether the Windows system can boot normally.

Article source: http://www.eassos.com/how-to/how-to-fix-invalid-partition-table.php

MBR VS GPT, which one is better for your computer?

MBR VS GPT, which one is better for your computer? How to choose partition table style while installing Windows 10? This post will explain the difference between MBR and GPT and tell how to choose partition table.

MBR Partition Scheme

MBR partition table scheme saves partition information on the first sector of disk. The entry for each partition is 16 bytes and the total is 64bytes, thus the maximum entries MBR partition table can save is four. That is to say MBR partitioning can have up to 4 partitions. But many users are not satisfied with 4 partitions and want to create more partitions. To eliminate this limitation, extended partition is introduced. Users can create multiples logical partitions in an extended partition. The following picture shows MBR partition scheme. 

GPT Partition Scheme

Compared with MBR, GPT is relatively new partitioning scheme. If your computer is brand new and it is likely to use GPT partitioning scheme. GPT is much more complicated and this part will dig a little about it. If you are not into technical details you can skip this part to read its main features.

First, you may notice that this picture uses LBA 0, LBA 1…to represent disk address, which used CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing method. LBA (Logical Block Addressing) method is another important method to partition mass storage device such as hard drives and SSDs. LAB 0 means the first sector whose physical number is 0 and LBA represents the second sector whose physical serial number is 1.

How to choose partition plans between MBR & GPT?

This post talks about MBR and GPT partition able and the previous section explains basic information about BIOS and EFI. This part devotes to how to choose partitioning scheme.

BIOS + MBR

If motherboard in your computer is BIOS or UEFI with BIOS mode, MBR partition plan is the correct choice.

UEFI + GPT

Oppositely, if your computer is using UEFI motherboard and enables UEFI mode, then please employ GPT partition scheme.

You might be confused by the conclusion above, as there are many guides online teaching users to install operating system on BIOS+ GPT or UEFI +MBR. My advice is that if you are not technical geek or professional user, you’d better choose BIOS + MBR or UEFI +GPT, as you can benefit:

1. Better performance in hardware and software, faster speed.

2. Avoid many potential issues that may occur to installation or running Windows. Professional users can easily fix these problems, but common users can’t get rid of any system errors easily.

Some users may ask whether it is OK to use Legacy BIOS if the motherboard is UEFI. The advice is that for the consideration of performance and speed do not use Legacy BIOS unless hard drive’s capacity is very small. EFI+GPT takes more disk space (100MB or so) than BIOS+MBR, if 100MB matters much on your hard drive, you can choose Legacy BIOS.

How to convert MBR to GPT without data loss?

Step 1: Launch PartitionGuru from your computer. Select hard drive you want to convert and click “Disk” to select “Convert to GUID Partition Table”.

Step 2: Click “Yes” on the message box. Please note that only new operating system can use GPT disk, for example, 32-bit Windows XP does not support GPT disk. Also, only the EFI-based computer can boot from GPT disk. Thus your computer won’t be able to boot normally if it doesn’t support GPT and you need to reinstall Windows.

Step 3: Click “Save All” button and the conversion takes effect.

Article source: http://www.eassos.com/tutorial/hard-drive/mbr-vs-gpt.php