diff --git a/components/partition-table-editor/PartitionTableEditor.vue b/components/partition-table-editor/PartitionTableEditor.vue
index 4147d02..838b0ce 100644
--- a/components/partition-table-editor/PartitionTableEditor.vue
+++ b/components/partition-table-editor/PartitionTableEditor.vue
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <script setup lang="ts">
 import { ref, computed } from 'vue';
+import { ElMessage } from 'element-plus';
 import {
   type PartitionTable, type PartitionEntry,
   PartitionType, PartitionFlags,
@@ -20,8 +21,6 @@ const props = defineProps<{
 // ── Core state ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 const table = ref<PartitionTable>({ entries: [], md5Valid: false });
-const statusMessage = ref('');
-const statusType = ref<'success' | 'error' | 'info'>('info');
 
 // Add dialog
 const showAddDialog = ref(false);
@@ -51,9 +50,7 @@ function getSubtypeOptionsForType(type: PartitionType) {
 // ── Helpers ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 function showStatus(msg: string, type: 'success' | 'error' | 'info' = 'info') {
-  statusMessage.value = msg;
-  statusType.value = type;
-  setTimeout(() => { statusMessage.value = ''; }, 4000);
+  ElMessage({ message: msg, type, duration: 4000, showClose: true });
 }
 
 function formatHex(val: number): string {
@@ -262,18 +259,6 @@ function handleExportCsv() {
 
 <template>
   <div>
-    <!-- Status message -->
-    <transition name="el-fade-in">
-      <el-alert
-        v-if="statusMessage"
-        :title="statusMessage"
-        :type="statusType"
-        show-icon
-        closable
-        class="mb-3"
-        @close="statusMessage = ''"
-      />
-    </transition>
 
     <!-- ── Toolbar ── -->
     <div class="flex flex-wrap items-center gap-2 mb-3">
diff --git a/lib/partition-table/validator.ts b/lib/partition-table/validator.ts
index cc713eb..5296580 100644
--- a/lib/partition-table/validator.ts
+++ b/lib/partition-table/validator.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import type { PartitionEntry, PartitionTable } from './types';
 
 export interface PartitionValidationError {
-  type: 'overlap' | 'alignment' | 'duplicate_name';
+  type: 'overlap' | 'alignment' | 'duplicate_name' | 'invalid_encoding';
   message: string;
   entryA?: PartitionEntry;
   entryB?: PartitionEntry;
@@ -13,6 +13,17 @@ export function validateTable(table: PartitionTable): PartitionValidationError[]
   const errors: PartitionValidationError[] = [];
   const entries = table.entries;
 
+  // Encoding validation — partition names are stored as null-terminated Latin-1 byte strings
+  for (const entry of entries) {
+    if ([...entry.name].some(c => c.charCodeAt(0) > 0xFF)) {
+      errors.push({
+        type: 'invalid_encoding',
+        message: `Partition name "${entry.name}" contains non-Latin-1 characters (binary format only supports 8-bit characters)`,
+        entryA: entry,
+      });
+    }
+  }
+
   // Duplicate name detection
   const names = new Map<string, PartitionEntry>();
   for (const entry of entries) {