Sometimes it happens that the user turns on the computer or laptop, and instead of the usual start with loading the OS, the system suddenly gives many an incomprehensible message like No bootable partition in table. What to do in this situation, ordinary users for the most part do not know. Let's try to understand why such failures occur, what they may be associated with, and how to fix possible problems.
What does the message No bootable partition in table mean?
Let's start with a description of the notification itself. If you follow its generally accepted interpretation, it means that the computer system does not find the active partition or device used to boot as a priority in which the operating system is installed. In other words, the BIOS cannot transfer OS startup control to the system loader. Some people believe that this message appears when it is the boot record that is damaged on the zero track of the hard drive, but this is not always the case.
Possible reasons for the failure
As for the reasons causing the appearance of such a notification, the following are called the main ones:
- a disconnected or damaged hard drive;
- "Gathering" of BIOS settings;
- incorrectly exposed first boot device;
- damage to operating system components;
- viral effect.
No bootable partition in table at boot: what to do first?
To begin, consider a simple and far from the most critical situation. Suppose that when the computer starts, the system displays a message No bootable partition in table. What to do? The very first solution to the problem will be disassembling the system unit of the PC or laptop (if possible) with checking the connection of the hard drive.
It is possible that before that the computer was moving from place to place, or you accidentally dropped it. The cable could simply fall out of the socket or move away, as a result of which the contact disappeared. At the same time, if you can, check whether power is supplied to the hard drive.
Now suppose that everything is OK with the connection, but the system again displays a No bootable partition in table notification. What to do in this case? Reboot the computer or laptop, go into the BIOS settings, and then in the boot section (Boot, Boot Sequence, Boot Device Priority) look at which device is first in the system boot priority.
If it is not a HDD (or an external hard drive with an installed OS), put it in the first position.
If this does not help, perform a complete reset of the BIOS. Alternatively, check that the CMOS battery on the motherboard is working, and if it fails, replace it.
But often the hard drive or removable HDD in the list may be absent altogether. At the same time, the message No bootable partition in table may also appear. What to do? On a laptop or desktop PC, this may indicate that the hard drive itself is out of order (or close to it).
In such a situation, it is strongly recommended that you create bootable media with the Victoria HDD program, then set it up first for loading in the BIOS, and then conduct a full test of the hard drive for bad sectors.
Error No bootable partition in table: what to do with software crashes?
In some cases, the above steps do not solve the problem, since everything can be in perfect order with the settings of the primary system and with the hard drive itself. But why then does the No bootable partition in table notification appear again? What to do in this case? Here you will need any media with a Windows installation distribution or a LiveCD boot disk. Boot from it, call the command line and enter two commands:
- Bootrec.exe / fixmbr;
- Bootrec.exe / fixboot.
After they are completed, restart the computer from the hard drive by setting it first in the list of devices. If this does not help, return to using removable media and optionally specify the command Bootrec.exe / RebuildBCD in the command console. As a rule, this command, which is responsible for completely overwriting the bootloader, helps almost always (of course, provided that the hard drive does not contain errors, it does not have bad sectors, or it is not damaged by mechanical stress).
If none of the above results yields, it may very well be that the start of the system is blocked by a virus. Since it is not possible to boot from the hard drive, create bootable media with the Kaspersky Rescue Disk antivirus utility, boot from it and check the system for viruses by marking everything in the list of scanned objects.
If this does not work, most likely, you will have to either completely reinstall the system (if it is possible) or change the hard drive, because, most likely, it has already reached its end of life.