Windows 10: Windows 11 Installation Issue - No Drive Showing for Partition Selection

Hello,I am trying to install Windows 11 on my laptop after using Linux for a while. I created a bootable USB using Rufus with GPT format. However, when I reach the screen to select a partition for installation, no drives are listed – it’s completely blank.Here’s what I’ve done so far:Used Rufus to create a bootable drive Windows 11 ISO in GPT format.Boot mode in BIOS is set to UEFI, and Secure Boot is disabled.I tried using the Command Prompt via Shift + F10 during installation to check if the drives are showing, but only my USB drive is listed, not my internal storage.Could this be a driv

:)

 

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:

 

Clean Install Windows 10 partition issue

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I appreciate the troubleshooting steps performed to resolve the issue. However, let’s try with the further troubleshooting steps and see if it works. Initially, I would suggest you to create a bootable media with a USB/Flash drive of capacity 8GB.
For better understanding, you may watch the video with the procedure from the article on
How to Clean Install Windows 10 on a PC Step-by-Step
Guide.

Set the boot priority to USB once after creating a bootable media using a USB and proceed with the Windows Installation. On the drive selection window, press Shift + F10 keys to open the Command Prompt. Then follow the steps listed
below:

• Type the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter:
  diskpart
  
• Once after executing the above command, type the following command to list the current drives and press Enter:
  list disk
  
• List disk will give you the list of drives, use the following command to select the drive and press Enter: select disk 0
  
• Type the following command to check if the disk is online: online disk
  (if the disk is not online)
  
• Type the following command to clean the drive and press Enter:
  clean
  
• To create a partition, type the following command and press Enter:
  create partition primary
  
• To select the partition that you created, type the following command and press Enter:
  select partition 1
  
• To set the partition active, type the following command and press Enter:
  active (if this is the boot partition)
  
• Type the following command to assign a drive letter and press Enter:
  assign letter(letter)
  

• After completing all this, close the command prompt screen and click on
  refresh button.
  
• Then you will only have one drive with “unallocated space”, just select the partition to start the installation.
  

Let us know how it goes and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator