Partition Signature !=55AA

July 27th, 2007 | by Marcin Juszkiewicz

Due to fact that some of embedded devices require using vendor tools I decided to install Microsoft Windows XP Professional on my Dell D400. As this machine lack CD-ROM drive I had to find other way. “Unattended” project provides boot discs which allow to make installation over PXE (netboot).

I followed DOS way and gave my tweaked copy of installation CD for it. The first problem was that I got “Partition Signature !=55AA” message after reboot and machine was unbootable. Hopefully I can boot grub4dos over PXE so I was able to go back to the Debian.

How to fix it? In my situation marking FAT32 partition as bootable solved problem.

The message is messy because there was 0×55aa signature at the end of MBR…

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  1. 2 Responses to “Partition Signature !=55AA”

  2. By pfalcon on Jul 28, 2007 | Reply

    You installed it on raw unprotected hardware?! How cruel! Try QEMU next time ;-).

  3. By Marcin Juszkiewicz on Jul 31, 2007 | Reply

    pfalcon: I need RS232 and PCMCIA access without anything between M$ Windows and hardware.