Startup problem: invalid partition table or use UEFI BOOT

Question

I'm working on a Dell Latitude E5430. Recently I booted pcbsd from USB using this file:

PCBSD10.1.1-RELEASE-01-31-2015-x64-DVD-USB_0.iso

But I guess I did something wrong. I was trying to install Solaris earlier, and I think I accidentally changed disk setup somehow.

Now, if I try to start up, I get the message

invalid partition table!

and fail to start.

If I press F12 and enter the boot option screen, I can choose:

UEFI BOOT:UEFI: Hard Drive

This way, I can start the system.

If I change the BIOS setup and disable the internal HDD, I get:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check table
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM.
No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot the machine 

Does anyone know how to solve this?

Answer 1

The F12 boot option screen seems to indicate that the disk is currently configured as UEFI-bootable. That is, it has a GPT partition table and an ESP boot partition.

If the system is now configured to attempt legacy-style booting, it would try to find a legacy-style boot code (Master Boot Record, or MBR for short) in the first block of the hard disk. A GPT-partitioned disk will have a "protective MBR": a MBR-compatible first block that basically says: "this disk is completely used by a strange partition type that is not bootable using legacy-style methods".

If your system is now configured to attempt a legacy-style boot off the hard disk, that would explain the invalid partition table message: the GPT-partitioned disk is indeed invalid for legacy-style booting.

Press F2 at boot to enter Setup for your system, and find the Boot List Option setting. If it is set to Legacy, that might explain the problem: change it to UEFI and then look at the Boot Sequence options again: they might look slightly different now. Make sure that the hard disk is still selected and try again. If you see the name of your OS/bootloader in the UEFI boot sequence list, pick it instead.

Answer 2

Might be a missing "active partition" within DOS Partition Table, just ran into that with E5450 and Linux -- fire up fdisk and check/set.

Answer 3

From telcoM:

If your system is now configured to attempt a legacy-style boot off the hard disk, that would explain the invalid partition table message: the GPT-partitioned disk is indeed invalid for legacy-style booting.

This solved the issue for me on my Latitude E5440.

Specifically:

From the BIOS I went to "Other Options" -> "BIOS setup" -> "Advanced Boot Options" and unchecked "Enable Legacy Option ROMs", and the system booted just fine.