Invalid partition table

[Arad016]

Hello,
I am new member, so I am not sure where to post this question so i am gonna post it here.....
So I use to have windows 7 in my dell latitude 3330 but one day it got stuck in boot loop, means when I start the laptop the black screen with dell logo appears and then it restarts again, and the same thing keeps happening until I get the battery out out....
So I tried a couple of solutions that I found on Internet, as expected nothing worked, instead it got worse, and now I am pretty sure that whole hard drive got formatted and now there isn't any operating system on the laptop.....
So now whenever I try to start my laptop it says invalid partition table, well I know that it won't start without the operating system, but still it's response is a bit annoying...

When ever I boot the laptop it shows "invalid boot table"

And its stuck on that screen, and never go any further


So I am now trying to install a new window, right now I only have windows 7 bootable USB available , so when I try to boot from usb nothing happens at all.
I have set the boot sequence to USB, and when I reboot the laptop nothing happens at all

So I reboot the laptop again and press f12 to get to the bios setup

And from that when I press enter on the USB storage device
nothing happens except for a small dash to keep blinking on the top left corner of the screen.

So if any of you guys know if there is a way to fix it, I will very much appreciate it.
Thank you

[Berton]

From what I see I'd surmise the HDD/Hard Disk Drive has or is failing. I'd also wonder it a different Fx key is used to access the BIOS such as F2 or maybe even the Del key then when in the BIOS set the Boot sequence to show on the screen which would be the F10 or F12 key. And with my Dells and probably other brands that key has to be pressed immediately when showing on the screen, maybe even a few times rapidly.

[dg1261]

A lot of incomplete information, but a failing hard disk, though possible, would not be high on my list of suspects.

I'm guessing "invalid boot table" is a typo and, per the subject line, you really meant "invalid partition table". But the msg actually comes from the MBR so if any repair attempts replaced the MBR with something nonstandard, "invalid boot table" wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, and in that case all bets are off.

It isn't clear to me if "I use to have windows 7" means it now has something else (Win10?). That's relevant because we don't know if the BIOS might be set to UEFI vs. MBR boot. If it's set to UEFI that could affect whether a USB stick boots. The 3330 is a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge era laptop, so it for sure included UEFI-boot capability.

Either way, the fact the machine gets to the F12 one-time-boot menu indicates the machine POST'd, and I would think a failing hard drive would cause it to have trouble POST'ing.

As for the USB-boot fail, do you know for sure that the USB stick works? Does it boot in other machines? The 3330 is new enough it has the capability to boot from a USB stick, provided it's properly made. If the USB stick is good and you aren't in UEFI mode, it should boot regardless of the state of the hard drive--because you are bypassing the hard drive when you boot from USB.

As for what caused this problem in the first place ...

IIRC, wasn't there a problem update sometime last year that caused computers to go into a boot loop? Anybody else recall that? I never ran into the problem so didn't really pay attention. Does that ring a bell with anyone else?

[Arad016]

Dg1261 sorry about little bit of information..... Actually I had posted this issue over another forum as well with a few pictures as well, take a look if it is clear enough
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/for...rtition-table/

[Paul T]

We don't like double posting without notification - see Rule 14.

cheers, Paul