Windows 10: It says I can’t install windows on either partition, how do I fix this?

submitted by /u/Bill_Cipher42
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:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

Background

GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a boot sector technology poised to replace the venerable Master Boot Record (MBR) principally because MBR has a maximum capacity of 2 TB for a single partition (some single disks have reached 3 TB). Installing Windows on a GPT is a bit tricky because Windows wants to default back to MBR. In order to force Windows on to a GPT, we have to pre-format the drive prior to Windows installation. You can do that during Windows setup using the console.

Requirements

• Windows Vista or 7 (must be 64-bit no matter which OS is used)
• A motherboard with EFI BIOS
• A means to EFI boot the Windows setup (I had to use a USB DVD drive on MSI Z77A-G65, the internal SATA Bluray drives didn't have an EFI option)

Instructions

• Boot into Windows setup using EFI. On the MSI Z77A-G65, it showed up as UEFI:USB-ATAPI DVD ... This will change according to your motherboard and how you are attempting to enter setup. This step is critical. Without booting into setup via EFI, only MBR is available to the setup. There's no easy way to tell from within setup if it is running via EFI or not.
• Once you have booted into setup, continue through the process as you would normally until you reach the dialog which shows you the available drives. Load a driver, if necessary, then press SHIFT+F10 to open the command prompt.
• In the command prompt, enter the following lines, pressing enter after each one. Note that the <id> field below is the disk ID that you want to format as GPT from the "list disk" command. If there's only one drive, <id> will likely be 1. Note: All data on the drive will be lost during this process. Make sure to select the correct drive.
  • diskpart
  • list disk
  • select disk <id>
  • online disk
  • attributes disk clear readonly
  • clean
  • convert gpt
  • create partition efi size=102
  • create partition msr size=32
  • create partition primary
  • format fs=ntfs label="Operating System"
  • assign letter=C
  • exit
  "online disk" and "attributes disk clear readonly" are likely to fail. Don't worry, they are only precautionary. Change the drive letter and label to whatever you want. Also, the above command (specifically "create partition primary") will consume all remaining space on the drive. If you want multiple partitions with fixed sizes, substitute what you want in place of "create partition primary."
• You may now close the command prompt and click on "Refresh" back in the dialog to choose where to install Windows. You should now see at least 2 partitions (I think Microsoft Reserved is hidden) and it will only let you install on a non EFI/MSR partition. Click on the primary partition and proceed with the installation as normal.
• Note that in the EFI BIOS after installing Windows via EFI, you can no longer directly boot the volume Windows is installed on. Instead, you must boot via "Windows Boot Manager" (on MSI Z77A-G65, it was "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager"). Keep that in mind if you wish to tweak the boot order.

Conclusion

That should do it. You should be in Windows with >2 TB of hard drive capacity available if you had more than 2 TB on the Windows partition. Congratulations being on the bleeding edge of technology! *Rockout :rockout:

 

Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

I've never tried multiple partitions so this is a shot in the dark...

At step #10, I would try setting the size parameter (it is in mebibytes) to how large you want the partition windows is installed on to be, then go ahead and install windows. This will leave the rest of the drive raw instead of consuming it into the OS partition (C drive). Once you successfully boot into Windows, you should be able to use Computer Management -> Disk Management to create partitions in the raw space.


If you really wanted to do it with diskpart before Windows is installed, you basically repeat the following lines making sure to specify a size if you don't want it to consume all remaining space:

• create partition primary size=size in mebibytes here
• format quick fs=ntfs label="appropriate name here"
• assign letter=C thru Z here

Obviously, you can use quick formatting or leave it out for full format. Leave off the size parameter when you reach the final partition that should consume all the remaining space. Also remember that the order you do this in goes from the outside of the disk (where it is fastest) to the inside of the disk (where it is slowest). Because of this, it is recommended to put EFI (e.g. size=300), then MSR (e.g. size=300), then Windows (e.g. size=30000), then Applications (e.g. size=70000), then Storage (e.g. no size parameter).

If I'm right, the above example would look like this:

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk <id>
• online disk
• attributes disk clear readonly
• clean
• convert gpt
  
• create partition efi size=300
  
• create partition msr size=300
  
• create partition primary size=30000
• format fs=ntfs label="Windows"
• assign letter=C
  
• create partition primary size=70000
• format fs=ntfs label="Applications"
• assign letter=D
  
• create partition primary
• format fs=ntfs label="Storage"
• assign letter=E
• exit