Windows 7 setup was unable to create new system partition

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Cause of «Setup Was Unable to Create A New System Partition Windows 7»
Workable Solutions for Setup Was Unable to Create A New Partition
«Fail to Create A New Partition» FAQs

When I try to install windows 8 on my hard drive it says «Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup Log files for more information. my hard drive has 2partitions and 1 unlocated space just in case.please help.  — Microsoft

The error happens while installing Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 — «Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition». The reasons come from many aspects, but it’s not our main topic(We need methods instead of too much explanation.) In short, it happens because your Windows fails to identify which device to install Windows operating system.

Workable Solutions for Setup Was Unable to Create A New Partition

And this undesirable warning often goes with a USB flash drive. The following method lets Windows identify the correct location for installing the operating system. The article puts effective ways in the front position. Select the method your can try.

Method 1. Create System Partition in Manual Way
Method 2. Change SATA Controller to IDE Mode
Method 3. Install Windows with Another Partition Manager Tool
Method 4. Eject and Reconnect the USB

Method 1. Create System Partition in Manual Way

Leave this USB plugged in.

1. Press «Shift + F10» to open the Command Prompt window.

2. Type «diskpart» and press Enter. (Remove quotes.)

3. Type «list disk» and hit Enter. (Then you will see all hard drives listed. If you have more than one drive, remember to pick the correct disk in the next step.)

4. Type «select disk X» and press Enter. (X presents the partition you want to install OS.)

5. Type «clean» and hit Enter.

6. Enter «create partition primary size=5000» and press Enter key.

7. Continue to type: format fs=ntfs quick and press Enter.

8. When formatting completes, type the following command lines and press Enter for each command.

• assign
• active
• list volume
• exit

9. Then, change the directory location where your Windows installation file is located. Please enter the command to copy the installation files from the CD to the C drive:

• cd e: (cd equals to change directory. e means the location where your installation files are. You can change it with an actual letter.)
• xcopy e: c:/e/h/k
• Hit Enter.

Please type exit to quit the command prompt window and eject your USB if it is done. Then turn off the «Install Windows» window.

10. Reboot the computer, and the installation process starts.

• Follow the installation process:
• Click «Next» and then click «Install Now».
• Check «I accept the license terms» and click «Next».
• Select «Custom» and then choose the installation location. Click «Next».
• Final step — Click «Restart now».

Video Guide — How to Fix Installation Error with CMD

• 0:42 Use CMD to solve «Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition».

Method 2. Change SATA Controller to IDE Mode

If method 1 is beyond your desire, wait and try to change SATA controller mode (SATA Controller mode serves as a bridge to connect a hard drive and motherboard. It also manages other data.)to IDE mode.

Step 1. Reboot your computer and press the F2 key to enter bios. (See BIOS key: Dell BIOS Key Windows 10.

Step 2. Follow to «Advanced» > Choose «Storage Configuration» > Click «Configure SATA as» and press Enter > Choose «IDE» under «Options» and hit Enter.

Step 3. Press F10 to save changes and exit from BIOS.

Method 3. Install Windows with Another Partition Manager Tool (EaseUS Partition Master)

Changing your mind and turning to another method — an error happens when using the USB. Skip this bothering issue and move your Windows system to another drive. To install Windows OS to another drive easily, you can use a professional OS migration tool — EaseUS Partition Master. It works to migrate OS to SSD.  

Steps to migrate OS to HDD/SSD:

• Run EaseUS Partition Master, and select «Clone» from the left menu.
• Check «Migrate OS» and click «Next».
• Select the SSD or HDD as the destination disk and click «Next».
• Check Warning: the data and partitions on the target disk will be deleted. Make sure that you’ve backed up important data in advance. If not, do it now.
• Then click «Yes».
• Preview the layout of your target disk. Then click «Start» to start migrating your OS to a new disk.

• After this, click «Reboot Now» or «Done» to determine if you want to reboot the computer from the new disk immediately.

«Reboot Now» means to keep the changes instantly, while «Done» means you need to restart the computer later manually.

Картинка с сайта: www.easeus.com

Note: The operation of migrating OS to SSD or HDD will delete and remove existing partitions and data on your target disk when there is not enough unallocated space on the target disk. If you saved important data there, back up them to an external hard drive in advance.

Method 4. Eject and Reconnect the USB

The last method is to eject and reconnect the USB. If you are getting the «setup was unable to create a new system partition» error when installing Windows 7 from USB, you can try ejecting and reconnecting the USB. Sometimes the setup program can have trouble accessing the files on the USB if it is inserted into a port that needs to be fixed. Ejecting and reconnecting the USB may help to fix this problem. 

«Fail to Create A New Partition» FAQs

1. How do you fix error «we couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one»?

This error typically occurs when installing Windows on a computer with an existing operating system. Some factors can cause the problem, but the most common cause is that the computer’s BIOS is not configured to boot from the correct drive. To fix this error, you must change the boot order in the BIOS so that the right drive is listed first.

2. How do I create a partition in Windows 7?

Windows 7 includes a built-in utility for creating and managing disk partitions.

• To create a new partition, open the Disk Management tool by hitting Start and typing in «diskmgmt.msc.»
• Once the tool opens, right-click on the unallocated space on your hard drive and select «New Simple Volume.» This will launch the New Simple Volume Wizard, which will walk you through creating your new partition. You’ll be able to specify the size of the partition, as well as the drive letter and file system.

Once you’ve created your new partition, it will appear in Windows Explorer, just like any other drive on your computer.

3. How do I fix Windows Cannot be installed in this partition?

The most straightforward solution is to delete the partition in question and then recreate it.

You need to boot from your Windows installation media and select the «Delete Partition» option from the menu. Once the partition has been deleted, you should be able to proceed with the Windows installation without any other errors. If you continue to experience this error, read on:

Картинка с сайта: howisolve.com

In this post, we will see how to solve the error

Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition see the setup log files for more information

This error message setup was unable to create a new system partition. Happens quite often when you install Windows system using a USB drive.This error is basically hardware dependent and depends on your motherboard USB interface USB stick using for installing the OS and the version of Windows. Broadly the main result of this error is windows cannot identify the disc on which it should install the system partition.

We will show you four methods to solve this error

1. Remove Unwanted Storage Devices
2. Remove and Reinsert USB Pen Drive
3. Use a Generic USB 2.0 Pen Drive
4. Installing Windows Directly from Hard Disk

Method 1 Remove Unwanted Storage Devices

To make it easy for Windows for identifying the disc. Remove all the additional storage devices like SD Card, Internal External Hard Disk, USB Drives. Only keep the devices that are required for installing the OS. That is your USB pen drive and the drive in which you’re installing Windows. After doing that Windows should be able to identify your disk properly for installation of the system partition. If this method doesn’t work now let’s start with method two.

Method 2 Remove and Reinsert USB Pen Drive

In this step remove the USB pen drive when you receive the error message

1. Click the cross icon it will ask you to confirm whether you want to close the windows installation click on yes
2. Start the installation from beginning by clicking on install now
3. At this stage, you might receive an error indicating the medium is not present just ignore that error and click okay
4. Click I accept agreement click on next
5. Select custom installation and now reinsert the USB pen drive
6. Click on next at this stage you shouldn’t receive the error message any longer

Windows installation should continue normally if it still doesn’t work then it means that the USB drive is not compatible to install Windows. So let’s head to method three

Method 3 Use a Generic USB 2.0 Pen Drive

Use a USB drive which is generic and is a USB 2.0 device .Any non-branded USB pen drive no Kingston no SanDisk. Any cheap generic USB 2.0 device and reinstall the windows setup on it then try again using that.If this method also didn’t work then we’re left with just one option. So let’s head to method four installing windows directly from hard disk.

Method 4 Installing Windows Directly from Hard Disk

It’s not that difficult I’ll show you step-by-step how it is done so follow me

1. Click the cross icon it will ask you to confirm whether you want to close the windows installation click on yes
2. Click on repair your computer now it will search for Windows installation which it won’t find
3. Select use recovery tools and click next
4. Select command prompt now

Create partition for Windows Installation

1. Type diskpart and press enter.
2. Type list disc note the disk in which windows is required to be installed(Caution: be very careful at this stage because next we’re going to format that disk so if you accidentally select the wrong disc your data might get deleted ) press enter
3. Type select disk 0 (or whatever is your disk number of your windows installation disk ) press enter
4. Type clean (Caution: This command will erase the entire disk proceed only if you know what you are doing) press enter
5. Create a 5 GB partition for saving the installation files Type create partition primary size=5000 and press enter
6. Type select partition 1 and press enter
7. Type active and press enter this will make the partition bootable
8. Let us format the partition with NTFS files system type format fs=ntfs quick and press enter
9. To assign the partition a drive letter type assign and press enter
10. Type list volume and press enter this will list down all the drives that are currently loaded in the system we will use it later.
11.  type exit and press enter

Identify the drive letter for your windows installation medium in my case it is d: and the drive letter for your newly created partition in my case it is c:. Change the below-mentioned commands accordingly.

Copy the installation files to the newly created partition

1. Type d: and press enter (windows installation medium)
2. Type xcopy d: c: /e /h /k and press enter
3. After the copying finishes around 15 minutes depending on the speed of installation medium
4. Type exit
5. Remove the windows installation medium ie usb drive or cd
6. Click restart

After this process you should now able to boot into windows setup using your hard disk itself and the error setup was unable to create a new system partition  should no longer be coming.

Remove Windows Setup Entry from the Windows Boot Manager

After completing the windows installation we will remove the windows setup from the boot manager menu as it is no longer needed.

1. Click on Start type in cmd
2. Right click on the search result and select run as administrator
3. Type bcdedit and press enter
4. Locate the boot entry with description value Windows Setup note it’s identifier value in my case it is {default}
5. Type bcdedit /delete {default} and press enter

I hope this post helped you if so please share this website with your friends that allow me friends thanks for reading see you later bye

Have some questions join the discussion.

Questions @ HowISolve Community

When you try to install Windows 7 from USB flash drive you may get following error message:

«Setup was unable to create a system partition or locate an existing partition.»

This happens when you have more than one partition on your drive.

In google you could find many solutions which require manipulations with your disk (formating, changing partition structure, etc.), but I have found one tricky solution:

1. When you see the error — remove the flash drive from the computer

2. Press exit (red cross in the top right corner)

3. Start installation from the beginning (without reboot)

4. After selecting Windows 7 edition you will get new error

5. Press OK in error window, you will be redirected to installation main menu

6. Insert your USB Flash drive in to the computer

7. Install windows

That’s all

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