Windows 7 - Unable to Create System Partition

I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (pre SP1 DVD) to my SSD, a Crucial C300 SSD. I have an Asus P8P67 motherboard and it is connected to the mobo via the 6Gbs SATA ports.

The setup can detect the drive but trying to install to it gives this error:
I have put the drive into another machine and used the same DVD and the setup worked flawlessly and I booted to the desktop.

What am I missing? I figure it could be BIOS related.

hi there

have you any other discs connected to the motherboard? if so unplug and install with just the disc you want the operating system on
please read brinks tutorial >>> How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7 >>> Clean Install Windows 7

Hello davidmn, welcome to Seven Forums!


Here's the best way forward.

Power down the PC and disconnect all HDDs and connect the SSD to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard and set the SSD as the second boot device in the main BIOS after the CD/DVD drive then boot the Windows 7 installation media.

Since you have installed to the SSD on another machine, I would do a wipe secure erase to the SSD before you start the clean install using the info presented in Step One of this tutorial at the link below, then Step Two #1 to create and format a partition(s) to do the install to.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Here is additional information you may want to consider before you get started and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

If you installed successfully in another machine, you can SysPrep the SSD to remove all drivers in that machine before swapping it back to the target machine where it will startup and install all the drivers fresh: SysPrep to move HD to another computer

Or you can prepartition the HD and mark the partition Active so it's more likely the target machine will see the SSD.

Problem solved.

I moved the SSD to a SATA 3.0Gbps socket and then did the formatting via the command line and I used the align=1024 command.

Thanks for your help.

Hello David.


Good to see you got it running and thanks for the update.

Many solutions available to solve this problem..

I did my though command prompt and thought ill make a video
tutorial on how to do this

Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition - YouTube

Hope you enjoy let me know if it worked for you



Muhammad Ali
MAk Productions