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Help - Invalid Partition Table??

  • 30-10-2010 11:01am
    #1
    Ms Inquisitive
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 364 ✭✭


    I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 and when I turned it on this morning, without even booting up, I get a message saying "Invalid Partition Table".

    I've looked through numerous websites, some say restore the operating system and drivers, while other say to boot up using a floppy disc (???)

    I'm not very tech savy and have no idea what way to proceed. I've looked through the Dell support site and its not very helpful on this issue.

    I have the operating system disc and the two drivers & utilites disc which came with the laptop, should I re-install???

    Any help please?
    THANKS!


Comments

  • #2
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,857 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    do not reinstall

    first remove all any usb drive or disks from the machine just in case that is confusing it

    the partition table tells the computer where windows, so it's chicken and egg , you can't start windows till you get it sorted.


    the program you need to run is www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk (it has windows and linux versions) to find the partition, but it won't run on your laptop since windows wont' start so two choices here, take the drive out of the laptop OR use a linux live CD to do it in the laptop


    If you know someone techie they could put the laptop drive in an external usb drive to use on the other machine

    with linux you would need an ubuntu live CD , choose the option to TRY rather than install

    to install testdisk you can goto
    applications / accessories /terminal
    and in the black screen type
    sudo apt-get install testdisk (password is ubuntu if it asks)

    but best ask for someone to hold your hand if you get that far

    btw
    another way to install testdisk is to open firefox browse and type apt:testdisk in the address bar (program install in ubuntu can be that easy )




    the problem could possible be caused by a virus but unlikely

    if the drive is making strange noises then it might be a drive problem - when you boot press F12 to get the menu and run diagnostics


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