Cannot Install Win7 on GPT drive with UEFI?

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MouseBerry

MouseBerry

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Oct 19, 2015
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Hello everyone,

So, I'll just jump right in. I'm trying to install Windows 7 from a USB stick onto a small partition (100GB) of a 4TB HDD for an HTPC. When I first tried to create a partition during the windows install, it made the 100GB partition I wanted, but it also split the remaining HDD space into 2 different drives. After some reading, It seemed like the problem was that the drive needed to be formatted/partitioned in the GPT style rather than MBR (in order for windows to accurately see the full 4TB drive).

So, I created a boot disk with the program Parted Magic, formatted the whole drive with the GPT format, and created my 100GB partition in NTFS. Now when I try to install Windows 7 on the partition, it says, "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style." And this is essentially where I'm stuck...

I've tried updating my UEFI firmware, and playing with various settings (turning safe boot off/on, changing legacy support options, etc...) but nothing seems to work and/or I just create new issues.

At this point, I'm in way over my head. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix my issue? Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 
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MouseBerry
Thank you popatim for your answer, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I figured out what the problem was. The issue I was having is that the USB Windows 7 boot drive I made using the Windows 7 to USB/DVD download tool was not correctly formatted for GPT. So, when I was booting from the USB, it wasn't using the UEFI USB boot option, it was just using USB. I used Rufus to create a new boot USB, made sure it was formatted correctly for GPT (and in FAT32), and voila. For some reason, the Windows install still didn't like my GPT formatted partition, so I had to delete it and make a new one within the install, but that was a minor issue. Windows is now installed on my 100gb partition, and the OS sees the rest of the...
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popatim

popatim

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Dec 2, 2009
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in the bios, set the boot drive up to your hdd, save and exit.
during POST, look for the F-key option that corresponds to "Select Boot Device" and press it.
now on the list you will see a UEFI: option that matches your usb drive - select it and boot that.
The rest of the UEFI install is handled by windows and the rest of the setup is the same as a non-uefi install.

BTW - a UEFI install create 5 partitions on its own. I havent tried what you are doing to know if it will even work that way but good luck and keep us posted.
 
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MouseBerry

MouseBerry

Reputable
Oct 19, 2015
4
0
4,520
Thank you popatim for your answer, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I figured out what the problem was. The issue I was having is that the USB Windows 7 boot drive I made using the Windows 7 to USB/DVD download tool was not correctly formatted for GPT. So, when I was booting from the USB, it wasn't using the UEFI USB boot option, it was just using USB. I used Rufus to create a new boot USB, made sure it was formatted correctly for GPT (and in FAT32), and voila. For some reason, the Windows install still didn't like my GPT formatted partition, so I had to delete it and make a new one within the install, but that was a minor issue. Windows is now installed on my 100gb partition, and the OS sees the rest of the remaining 4TB partition as its own drive. Problem solved.
 
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