On a Dell, I get the error of "Invalid partition table" when booting system

Question

I have a Dell Latitude E5430 laptop. I have replaced the CD drive with SSD. Then I partitioned both disks, They both have msdos partition table with two primary partitions. No flags on the partitions. I installed GRUB on SSD and it runs a nixOS system from one of the partitions on SSD. The partitions on HDD are used as /home and /var.

My problem is: when booting I get a "Invalid partition table" message (just it, black screen besides it). After I hit Enter, the system will boot normally, so this is more of an annoyance, than critical problem. I have edited the boot sequence in BIOS, and disabled everything except "drive bay".

My questions: Where does this message come from (BIOS or GRUB). How can I squelch this message or at least how can I debug and see what is the exact problem with my partition table?

Answer 1

Besides updating the BIOS/UEFI which Dell says to do for that error.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-uk/sln133635/how-to-fix-an-invalid-partition-table-error-on-a-system-with-a-ssd-solid-state-drive?lang=en

There is another possible cause..

Short answer is.. the error message from Dell's BIOS/UEFI is misleading, it can mean simply can't find bootable partition or bootable device. So look at the boot sequence and what is in the USB sockets and that if booting off USB then that the USB is bootable.

Longer answer-

Maybe the solution revolves around.. these things

• Check what is in the boot sequence and uncheck anything irrelevant. For simplicity have just one thing in there e.g. USB Storage Device. (Dell BIOS/UEFI does have the option to check/uncheck boot options and decide what's in the boot sequence)

• Check on another computer that the USB stick is bootable!

• Check that you don't have another USB stick plugged in e.g. at the back out of sight!

Personally, for scenarios i've tried, when I get "Invalid partition table", if I push ENTER then it doesn't continue trying to boot the next thing, but that slight difference could be irrelevant to the issue you have.

Once you are able to boot off a USB, then uncheck that and try to boot off your internal drive. Check that your internal drive is the only one selected. And if that still doesn't work then try that internal drive in another computer(a computer you trust you can boot things from / get bootable things booting from!) to see that the drive is indeed bootable. (Doesn't matter if it doesn't get far, you're just testing that it's able to boot up). Then try it in the Dell.

The message is a poorly worded current Dell way of saying the more familiar invalid boot device or can't find boot device, kind of message.