Major problems formatting/partitioning Intel SSD for Windows 7 install

I’m going a little crazy right now and hoping that someone can help me out.

I just purchased a new Lenovo x200 laptop and an Intel 160GB X-25M SSD. I put the new hard drive in the laptop and booted from the Windows 7 DVD that I burned. Everything is fine until I get to the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen which lists the drives and partitions available. I have gone through this screen under several scenarios (don’t ask me how I’ve gotten these scenarios), and have not been able to get a successful install on any of them. The scenario I’m in right now is that there are no drives or partitions listed on which I can install Windows 7. There is a “Load Driver” option so I downloaded the firmware update tool for the drive (this is the only download available for the drive on Intel’s site) and attempted to load the driver to no avail. The second scenario I can get to is by doing a full un-provision on the drive. Once I do this, there are three items listed on the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen: 100MB Unallocated, 100MB Partition 0 (System), and 149GB Partition 1 (Primary). I’ve tried two things under this scenario. First, I’ve tried formatting the Primary partition. When attempting to do so, I get an error saying that the partition cannot be formatted. The second thing I’ve tried is just selecting that drive to do the install on. I do this and get to the next step where it appears Windows 7 is being installed, and then moments later I get an error saying that Windows 7 was unable to create a partition on the drive.

Pleeeeease help. It’s driving me crazy and I’ve run out of ideas.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to hazarrd

delete ALL partitions
Create ONE partition with the maximum capacity of the drive.
Install Windows

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to doormatderek

Just tried that.

Windows could not format a partition on disk 0. The error occured while preparing the partition selected for installation. Error code: 0x80070057.

If I try and click the format link before going to the next step, I get:

Failed to format the selected partition. [Error: 0x80070057].

Then the drive and all partitions completely disappear from the list and I have to do a full un-provision to get it back. I've done this several times now.

Message edited by hazarrd on 06-12-2009 at 01:54:21 AM

Reply to hazarrd

Resolved! As suggested from another forum, I booted from a Vista install CD, did a partial install (it was from a recovery CD so I couldn't get it to the point where I could login), and then booted from the Windows 7 CD and clean installed on the larger partition created by Vista. I'm not sure why it has to be done this way, but hopefully this helps someone else out. Now if only I could figure out how to get rid of the dualboot menu screen on startup (there is some weird non-OS option in it). Also, is it a big deal that I did not format the hard drive before doing a clean install? Are there any files that I can/should manually remove from my system from the Vista install?

Reply to hazarrd

Hello,

Would be interested to discuss with an SSD Expert here.
What do you think about a MBR / GPT issue?

When Windows Seven creates and formats a partition, is it he fully compliant with GPT standard?

Now we are in a new era where we should move to EFI and maybe SSDs require newer firmwares or maybe Windows 7 needs a dedicated driver for SSD support (I'm not talking about TRIM command support here)

Best Regards

Reply to pbony

I seem to be experiencing the same issue on a Compaq b1900 Notebook when installing Windows 7 on a supertalent 32gb SSD. I have also attempted the before mention vista install and i am experiencing the same format error as in 7. I managed to get 7 installed on a 2.5" SATA drive then cloned the drive to the SSD.

Unfortunately when booting off the SSD i get a windows error on the black screen notifing me of a corrupt or missing file. It prompts me to load install disk and choose "repair". After running the repair. the system restarts and WOW windows 7 launched successfully.

After rebooting the laptop after windows updates. I'm back to square one. 7 Can't find a file on the boot partition. The previous repair steps failed as it can't detect the primary partition. Time to clone the 2.5" SATA back to the SSD and do some more troubleshooting.

Forward.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to forward

forward wrote :

I seem to be experiencing the same issue on a Compaq b1900 Notebook when installing Windows 7 on a supertalent 32gb SSD. I have also attempted the before mention vista install and i am experiencing the same format error as in 7. I managed to get 7 installed on a 2.5" SATA drive then cloned the drive to the SSD.

Unfortunately when booting off the SSD i get a windows error on the black screen notifing me of a corrupt or missing file. It prompts me to load install disk and choose "repair". After running the repair. the system restarts and WOW windows 7 launched successfully.

After rebooting the laptop after windows updates. I'm back to square one. 7 Can't find a file on the boot partition. The previous repair steps failed as it can't detect the primary partition. Time to clone the 2.5" SATA back to the SSD and do some more troubleshooting.

Forward.

This happens when you ghost vista even... I've used this trick for Vista and Win7 images but I don't know if it can be done AFTER you reimage...

if you want to make a bootable Win7 image you need to run this command before making it:

bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot

after that you can create a good image that will not need repair after EVERY reboot.

Reply to xghoulx

Hello

I have similar but I would say even worse problem. After several years I have bought a new PC and tried to install WinXP first (I like it the most and know about it more than about the others) but I got stopped pretty early couse at the start of XP installation I got blue screen of death, and seems its becouse graphic card does not support WinXP :-/.

So I have decided to install win7 but then got stucked at the same spot as few people here - choose a partition to install to. I have almost empty 160GB disc without any OS on it, some data on 1 of 3 partitions, but cant install it on either of them. Tried to format, merge partitions etc - nothing works.

A friend told me that its easier for win7 if you upgrade it from some previous OS rather than installing a new one, but I hate vista (and I dont have it :-s) and I cant install XP, and ofc cant install win7.

I am also out of options and slightly going crazy. Any suggestions?

Reply to Cr00xY

doormatderek wrote :

delete ALL partitions
Create ONE partition with the maximum capacity of the drive.
Install Windows

i did this and the partition wont leave i have even low level formatted the drive and both partitions still come back?

Reply to jimbo_10

the only solution i have found so far is to go buy a new hd

Reply to jimbo_10

I don't know if this will help at all, however I have replaced my hard drive in windows 7 twice, and both times it would fail to boot after I had put my hard drive image on the new drive.
This last time this weekend was with a new Inferno ssd. Both times I used a repair disk I had created on the Windows 7 backup/restore screen. When I boot this disc, it finds the problem (missing MBR) and repairs it. Sometimes you have to do this step twice (as on my ssd) but afterwords you should no longer have to do a repair for every reboot.
Another trick you can use is to insert an old floppy windows 98 boot disk and use it to partition the drive. Windows 7 will fix the MBR up right during the install. One final option I've heard about is to download some software that will blank out the drive completely, erasing everything. I haven't tried that one yet. Another option may be to install the drive in another computer and partition and format it from that computer, or install it as a 2ndary drive in your computer and partition and format it before removing your original drive.

I can't believe the hoops we have to jump through to get Windows 7 to install properly. I really thought they would have eliminated problems like this during the last 20 years or so. Hey, at least I made a repair disk this time. It saved my bacon.

Of course, it's always possible that I have no clue wtf I'm talking about and I should just stfu.

Reply to mergatroid

I have had this issue as well, my solution to it is:

Go back to the first screen (of the Win7 install) and go to the repair section, let it try and repair, then get to the Command Prompt.

Once in the Command Prompt, run DISKPART
Then type in each line below and press enter after each command. You'll have to wait for the format, it will take a while.

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK # (where # is the corresponding disk number that you want to install Windows onto from the list you just pulled up)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

ASSIGN

EXIT

CD\

SETUP

That will take you back to the initial screen, then run the setup from there. Do not try to change the partitions or reformat, when it asks what disk you want to install 7 onto, just select the disk and press next.

Hope this helps!

Message quoted 3 times

Reply to killbucket

I registered just to say Thank You, killbucket. Your solution was wonderfully quick and easy, and well described. Kudos!

Reply to davidq

[quotemsg=1842863,12,835654]I have had this issue as well, my solution to it is:

Go back to the first screen (of the Win7 install) and go to the repair section, let it try and repair, then get to the Command Prompt.

Once in the Command Prompt, run DISKPART
Then type in each line below and press enter after each command. You'll have to wait for the format, it will take a while.

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK # (where # is the corresponding disk number that you want to install Windows onto from the list you just pulled up)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

ASSIGN

EXIT

CD\

SETUP

That will take you back to the initial screen, then run the setup from there. Do not try to change the partitions or reformat, when it asks what disk you want to install 7 onto, just select the disk and press next.

Message edited by jr67 on 04-23-2011 at 06:39:00 AM

Reply to jr67

killbucket help? i try what u just wrote and i still have problem my computer says that diskpart has encountered an error; the parameter is incorrect. see the system event long for more information plz anyone help

Reply to jr67

got the same problem after the format its complete it say diskpart has encountered an error; the parameter is incorrect. see the system event long for more information

Reply to nanuk

@Newcomer, possibly you need to reboot after doing the steps, to get the system to properly load/recognize the new configuration.

Reply to davidq

I am having the same problem and cant find a solution ... Did anyone found something for this error ?
Windows could not format a partition on disk 0. The error occured while preparing the partition selected for installation. Error code: 0x80070057.

Reply to Soul_analyzer

I have tried every proposed solution on all of the various forums. The best was taking out all of the memory, all of the USB connectors, and all of the other drives. Then I prepared the SSD directly through Diskpartition, which entails doing a clean all, manually creating partitions and then formatting them. I was then able to install Windows 7 more or less.

I say more or less because the Windows 7 would start to malfunction almost immediately. The best I did was have it up and running for 4 days before it crashed again. It seemed that it picked up a new corrupted file every time it was booted. Each time a different corrupted file.

After two weeks screwing with it, I finally installed it on one of my regular storage drives. So far it is remarkably stable. I have run a SFC /scannow at every step, and it remains clean.

Now, I have to see about returning it to Crucial and getting a regular hard drive for booting.

There is, of course, a chance that it is the disk controller. I have an Asus p8p67 pro mobo, which has a Marvell Sata 6.0 GB/s controller and an Intel Sata 6.0 controller. As only the Intel controller was capable of handling RAID disks, I had used it for my storage disk and used the Marvell controller for the SSDs.

If anyone knows of a good way to check the Marvell controller or the mobo, I would appreciate hearing about it before I send the SSD back.

Reply to El Bosque

I'm having problems that are partly similar to the ones described in this thread.

I've been running a desktop computer with Windows 7 64-bit from my 128GB Kingston SSDnow, with just one system partition. It ran fine for some months, but then something went seriously wrong and some corrupt files emerged. Also, after every reboot (which seemed normal) windows informed me that it did not shut down properly and I discovered that no changes since the last reboot had taken effect -- even deleted files reappeared. Chkdsk produces "An unspecified error (696e647863686b2e dee)" and fails to fix anything. sfc /scannow also terminates unsuccessfully at 6%.

It's worth noting that I first thought this to be a RAM issue, but memtest gives a clean bill to my RAM.

After some frustration I decided to just format the thing and reintall Windows 7 from the original dvd. Not so easy: I've done a format, a 'clean' and 'clean all' in diskpart, deleted the system partition and created a new one, formatted again and again, deleted everything from the ssd manually with rd /s (expect for the corrupt files, which failed to delete). Same result every time: after a reboot all the old windows system files are there, as if nothing had happened. It's as if the ssd is in read only mode or something (but it's not, which I also checked from diskpart). I've also tried changing the SATA port which I use.

So, I'm completely baffled by this, and I wonder if the drive is just somehow physically damaged. The one thing that I haven't done is plugging it into a different computer, as I don't have an external case for it (and only a laptop in addition).

Any ideas?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Rembrandt_82

killbucket wrote :

I have had this issue as well, my solution to it is:

Go back to the first screen (of the Win7 install) and go to the repair section, let it try and repair, then get to the Command Prompt.

Once in the Command Prompt, run DISKPART
Then type in each line below and press enter after each command. You'll have to wait for the format, it will take a while.

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK # (where # is the corresponding disk number that you want to install Windows onto from the list you just pulled up)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

ASSIGN

EXIT

CD\

SETUP

That will take you back to the initial screen, then run the setup from there. Do not try to change the partitions or reformat, when it asks what disk you want to install 7 onto, just select the disk and press next.

Hope this helps!

i followed all this, but when i format it stalls at 0%...it's been 15 min and still 0%...i want to kill a puppy.

Reply to adreen

Rembrandt_82 wrote :

I'm having problems that are partly similar to the ones described in this thread.

I've been running a desktop computer with Windows 7 64-bit from my 128GB Kingston SSDnow, with just one system partition. It ran fine for some months, but then something went seriously wrong and some corrupt files emerged. Also, after every reboot (which seemed normal) windows informed me that it did not shut down properly and I discovered that no changes since the last reboot had taken effect -- even deleted files reappeared. Chkdsk produces "An unspecified error (696e647863686b2e dee)" and fails to fix anything. sfc /scannow also terminates unsuccessfully at 6%.

It's worth noting that I first thought this to be a RAM issue, but memtest gives a clean bill to my RAM.

After some frustration I decided to just format the thing and reintall Windows 7 from the original dvd. Not so easy: I've done a format, a 'clean' and 'clean all' in diskpart, deleted the system partition and created a new one, formatted again and again, deleted everything from the ssd manually with rd /s (expect for the corrupt files, which failed to delete). Same result every time: after a reboot all the old windows system files are there, as if nothing had happened. It's as if the ssd is in read only mode or something (but it's not, which I also checked from diskpart). I've also tried changing the SATA port which I use.

So, I'm completely baffled by this, and I wonder if the drive is just somehow physically damaged. The one thing that I haven't done is plugging it into a different computer, as I don't have an external case for it (and only a laptop in addition).

Any ideas?

I had the same problem on a 64 gb Kingston SSDnow. I've messed with it in every way I knew how until, I finally just bought a new Crucial SSD. I'm going to give it another go, but what I've found so far is that by having the new drive plugged in when I start messing with the old Kingston it will mess up the new drive as well. So I think I'm going to just have the one Kingston drive plugged in alone so I don't mess up my other drives when running the diagnostic stuff and repairs from the windows dvds and bios options.

Reply to vonbose

killbucket wrote :

I have had this issue as well, my solution to it is:

Go back to the first screen (of the Win7 install) and go to the repair section, let it try and repair, then get to the Command Prompt.

Once in the Command Prompt, run DISKPART
Then type in each line below and press enter after each command. You'll have to wait for the format, it will take a while.

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK # (where # is the corresponding disk number that you want to install Windows onto from the list you just pulled up)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

ASSIGN

EXIT

CD\

SETUP

That will take you back to the initial screen, then run the setup from there. Do not try to change the partitions or reformat, when it asks what disk you want to install 7 onto, just select the disk and press next.

Hope this helps!

I registered to say thank you for this very helpful post.

I had to do one more step to get Windows 7 loaded.

After I finished the above procedure it would not let me load Windows on that partition. I booted again from the Windows 7 DVD and then I was able to install.

Thanks again for this post,
Steve Brown

Reply to slb5146

hazarrd wrote :

I’m going a little crazy right now and hoping that someone can help me out.

I just purchased a new Lenovo x200 laptop and an Intel 160GB X-25M SSD. I put the new hard drive in the laptop and booted from the Windows 7 DVD that I burned. Everything is fine until I get to the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen which lists the drives and partitions available. I have gone through this screen under several scenarios (don’t ask me how I’ve gotten these scenarios), and have not been able to get a successful install on any of them. The scenario I’m in right now is that there are no drives or partitions listed on which I can install Windows 7. There is a “Load Driver” option so I downloaded the firmware update tool for the drive (this is the only download available for the drive on Intel’s site) and attempted to load the driver to no avail. The second scenario I can get to is by doing a full un-provision on the drive. Once I do this, there are three items listed on the “Where do you want to install Windows?” screen: 100MB Unallocated, 100MB Partition 0 (System), and 149GB Partition 1 (Primary). I’ve tried two things under this scenario. First, I’ve tried formatting the Primary partition. When attempting to do so, I get an error saying that the partition cannot be formatted. The second thing I’ve tried is just selecting that drive to do the install on. I do this and get to the next step where it appears Windows 7 is being installed, and then moments later I get an error saying that Windows 7 was unable to create a partition on the drive.

Pleeeeease help. It’s driving me crazy and I’ve run out of ideas.

Reply to bikrm

i got this to work now it just freezes when i install windows 7 right after "installing features". This is killing me please help.

Reply to kthphotos

killbucket wrote :

I have had this issue as well, my solution to it is:
Go back to the first screen (...)
Hope this helps!

I have registered only to say: The God bless you killbucket. Thank you very much.

--
Charlie3D

Reply to Charlie3D

I am having similar problems re-installing Windows 7 on an 90 GB SSD. When we see these problems over and over again the real answer is not forthcoming --- there is a limitation of reformatting SSDs.

killbucket is essentially telling you that GUI Windows format or re-partition does not work. I keep going round and round in a loop. The boot sector is not being written. If it does work from the command line, then this information should be more readily known.

Reply to bodywise

killbucket

i just want to say thank you this worked very well for me and my crucial M4 128 GB SSD

to be on the secure side i did a restart after the partitioning

Reply to Anonymous