Installation Issues

[christophb2]

I have a copy of windows 7 from a friend. (USB, possibly enterprise)

It runs well, is official and can be re installed and is verified through the Microsoft site, so the media doesn't seem to be a problem.

I was able to install Win7 Ult x64 on my WinVista HomePrem x86, but I went back through to clean the hard drive (it was full, I didn't format before) and after low level formatting I cannot reinstall the OS. The harddrives are completely empty, and I get stuck at "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition," after hitting next when you are selecting the HD partition to install on.

I tried a couple of things already:

-Installing on another harddrive
-Formatting using Hiren's bootcd
-Using a hard drive with XP installed to see if it is an upgrade and not a full version (no luck, still wouldn't install)
-diskpart > list disk > select disk 0 > list partition > active \\ in cmd

Does anyone have any additional solutions? I have three hard drives attached to the computer right now, they can't all be broken. T.T

 

[skaz]

Possibly enterprise? What happened to the media that came with your purchased product key?

 

[Dogsnake]

I would disconnect all other drives but the one I select for the OS. The format the disc. Make a boot disc or use one if you have one. Do a full format. Then try a clean install of windows. Once you have windows going you can connect the other drives and format them through windows.

 

[vegettonox]

Windows has to create a small 100 mb system partition prior to the primary one, if you have a formatted partition already allocated on the drive it will not be able to do this, you need to click tools and delete the current partition. Reselect the disk and hit next, it should then work.

 

[christophb2]

@DogSnake: I have tried this one, to no avail, it is quite frustrating, that was my first thought to do too.

@Skaz: I won't be receiving the original media, I have a bootable USB, which I can make a DVD from, but I haven't had to use the serial to install and it gives me the option to run Win7 HomePrem, Pro, and Ult at both x86 and x64, it also is valid for updates and works on the Microsoft site for general support. (I am not pirating this if that is what you are thinking :X)

@Vegettonox: I deleted all partitions from every drive, disconnected all but one which is a 7200rpm 250gb HD. That should be more than enough. It still is having me be stuck.

Currently I am going to let DBAN do its work, I heard that the tool can help with the problem, if not my next plan of action would be to produce a DVD to boot from. If not, anymore suggestions? Even if you think I have tried it already, if it isn't posted, post it, other people might have the same problem and/or I may actually not have tried it yet and it will solve it for me! The help is greatly appreciated!

*EDIT!*

After running DBAN on my drive I was able to use it and install windows! (I recommend it to anyone DBAN is Darik's Boot and Nuke, it is freeware and is included on Hiren's boot CD, it takes time though :X)

Thanks to everyone who posted too, I wouldn't have run DBAN if I didn't read it and then realized I had done everything else to usually fix it.