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I have a Windows 10 and Ubuntu 14.04 dual boot system. I am a novice at Ubuntu but managed to get the dual boot up and running reliably. I am now trying to add a 3TB HD and partition it for use by ubuntu. When I start gparted I get the following error:

Libarted Warning: /dev/sdc contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a
 GPT table.  However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it
 should.  Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't
 understand GPT partition tables.  Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are
 now using an msdos partition table.  Is this a GPT partition table?

When I open a terminal window and start sudo gdisk for the same drive /dev/sdb I get:

Type device filename, or press <Enter> to exit: /dev/sdb
Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by
typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions
to GPT format!
***************************************************************

I have been looking at "GPT partition table warning message during install of ubuntu" but it doesn't appear to be an exact match for my system and I have so far been too cowardly to do anything but quit. All I really want to do is get the new drive online so I have some room to start making virtualbox VMs without trashing my existing dual boot set up. I got enough out of previous link to make me concerned that if I messed up I will trash my windows 10 partition. Any suggestions?

For now I'm gonna go make backups of both my windows 10 and ubuntu partitions. Thanks

Community
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Rick
  • 11
  • Operator error is probably most of my problem. /dev/sdc was the unpartitioned HD so the Libarted error is probably meaningless. In any case it's gone since I partitioned the drive. Don't know why gdisk wants to convert my MBR to GPT or why I would want to let it for /dev/sdb which contains my windows 10 and ubuntu partitins. SInce It doesn't seem to be hurting anything I think for now my solution is to not use gdisk. – Rick May 06 '16 at 19:15
  • Taking your question at face value, you used Gparted on /dev/sdc and gdisk on /dev/sdb, so you weren't using the programs on the same disk. If your new disk was indeed /dev/sdc, then chances are it just had some "junk" where the partition table normally is. Be aware that gdisk will automatically convert MBR to GPT (in memory only unless/until you save changes with w), and that's what its messages meant. Most of the time you do not want to convert from MBR to GPT, hence the warnings it gives you on this matter. – Rod Smith May 09 '16 at 17:57

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