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    Invalid Partition Table

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by druddz, Feb 25, 2008.

  1. druddz

    druddz Newbie

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    I was having trouble booting from the hidden partition to re-install Vista as I had installed XP on another partition. So, O followed some advice in this forum but now i get I message when I turn my laptop on (Aspire 5633wlmi) that says -

    'Invalid Partition Table'

    I changed the boot order to try and boot from an old copy of XP that I have on CD but I got the same message.

    My laptop wont boot at all, not from CD or from Hard Drive...... what do I do??

    If anyone has some advice I would be very very grateful.

    Cheers :confused:
     
    druddz, Feb 25, 2008
    #1
  2. TravisA

    TravisA Notebook Geek

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    In order to boot from your optical drive you need to check your boot priority in your BIOS. It is usually F2 on most notebooks and located under one of the Tabs located near the top of the screen listed as Boot Device Priority. If you have CD or DVD Rom Drive listed first it should be able to boot from any Windows disk in order to reformat. I am not sure why your Partition Table was corrupted but deleting all partitions and reformatting the drive would be advisable in my opinion. Hope this has been helpful.
     
    TravisA, Feb 25, 2008
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  3. druddz

    druddz Newbie

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    Thats great, thanks. I have booted from the CD and installed Windows XP. But what I really want is to boot from the hidden partition to re-install Vista. When I press ALT + F10 nothing happens and windows boots up.

    Do you know what I can do?
     
    druddz, Feb 26, 2008
    #3
  4. Zoomastigophora

    Zoomastigophora Notebook Evangelist

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    That's because reinstalling Windows XP overwrote the custom MBR set up by Acer that allows the use of Alt-F10 to boot from the hidden partition. If you reformatted the drive while installing Windows, you no longer have that partition. If you did a simple reinstall and left the partitions intact, there's a guide somewhere that guides on attempting to restore the custom Acer MBR. I believe it's in the Guide's subforum.

    Good luck.
     
    Zoomastigophora, Feb 26, 2008
    #4