SDB:"Disk doesn't contain a valid partition table"

Symptom:

The error message:

Disk doesn't contain a valid partition table

is displayed:

while partitioning during the first installation
or later on, when you execute the command fdisk (or specially fdisk -l)

Unfortunately, the message does not inform about what partition is affected.

Cause:

fdisk cannot find any valid signature in the first partition sector on a block device (signature 0xAA55, see the LILO chapter in the SuSE manual).

In most cases, the cause of this message is more harmless than the message implies. Two frequent causes are:

YaST/YaST2 or perhaps you have executed fdisk -l during the first installation while a CD is inserted in your CD-ROM unit.

In this case, the message refers most likely to the futile attempt of fdisk to read a partition sector from the CD. In fact, fdisk -l probes all hd? and sd? block devices, including IDE CD-ROM units (provided a CD is inserted). Test: (do not conduct this test during the first installation, only during operation.) Remove the CD from the CD unit and execute fdisk -l a couple of times: the error message is no longer displayed :-)

The system contains a new hard disk not yet partitioned. The partition sectors of those disks are usually blank (filled only with logical zeros) and thus, not valid for fdisk. This "error" solves by itself during the first partitioning, when every fdisk writes the right signature at the end of this sector.

Solution:

No call for action in either of these cases :-)

<keyword>fdisk,partition,installation</keyword>