Unable to get fresh install of Windows 7 on SSD

Yesterday I attempted to install a few new components in my computer and have been having issues installing windows

New components
Asus M5A97 Mobo
AMD Phenom X4 965 3.4 Ghtz
Samsung 830 128gig SSD

In the system I have my previous working
Samsung DVD drive
500v power supply
Radeon HD 6850 graphics card

I do not currently have my 1tb Samsung drive connected

I have the SSD hooked up in the first 6b/s SATA port and the DvD drive in port 2.
BIOS finds the hard drive and the setting in BIOS are ACHI

When I get to the windows setup screen where it asks me to pick the drive to install windows on I choose the SSD which shows 120g unallocated space,

At this point I get a Windows cannot create partition error.
I have gone into Diskpart and created the partition and set it to active and again tried to reinstall and get the same message

I have followed some Windows forums post (SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation) regarding a clean install on SSD which says to create a NTFS format partition in Diskpart but when I attempt to format the SSD in Diskpart I receive an I/O device error.

At one point I actually got passed the initial step in setup and go to expaning files where it failed with the message unable to install files. Since then it has reverted back to the unable to create partition error.

I also tried doing the installation using the UEFI boot option in BIOS and when I create the new partitions (as an article I read was saying it should) The 3 partitions were created but when I selected the partition to put windows on I received the unable to create partition error.

I have a burned windows 7 disc I made using ISOBurner, a USB stick to use for install, and have even tried a previous Vista disk retail (not burned) to see if it was perhaps the installation.

I have also hooked up my previous Samsung 1tb HDD to see what happens if I were to try to boot from it, I have seen 2 outcomes to doing this.

The first is Disk Read Error press cntrl alt del to reset and the second (which I only had happen once) the windows login screen came up, then flashed blue and reset the pc.

I built a PC for my brother in law 3 weeks aho using an Asus mobo with the same BIOS screen, that install I had a fresh HDD and a SSD and it allowed me to install windows without a problem to his SSD (again from a burned ISO disk). I did not have to do anything out of the ordinary.

This has been really frustrating and at this point I am not sure if there is just something wrong with the Mobo or I am missing a tiny step in the process, any help would be greatly appreciated.

johnearle99 said:

When I get to the windows setup screen where it asks me to pick the drive to install windows on I choose the SSD which shows 120g unallocated space,

At this point I get a Windows cannot create partition error.

I have gone into Diskpart and created the partition and set it to active and again tried to reinstall and get the same message

You successfully created an active partition in Diskpart and then get a "cannot create partition error"???

An Install should be able to use a new drive without problems. Are you using the same motherboard you used for your brother-in-law's install? I don't run AMD motherboards, so I would be unaware of situations involving that motherboard.

Any bios updates for the board?

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello johnearle99, welcome to Seven Forums!


Why are you trying to use the installer to create a partition after you use diskpart to do that?

When I create the partition in Diskpart I don't try to recreate it using the installer (I may have mistyped that) I simply highlight the partition and choose next and I still get the partition error.

My first thought would be to go back to diskpart and use the "clean" command to wipe the drive.

Then make one new active primary partition covering the entire drive, assigning the C drive letter.

Then exit diskpart and drop back into the Windows installation and choose that new C as the destination for Windows when you get to "drive options, advanced".

What is the source of the ISO you burned to make the install disc?

Saltgrass said:

An Install should be able to use a new drive without problems. Are you using the same motherboard you used for your brother-in-law's install? I don't run AMD motherboards, so I would be unaware of situations involving that motherboard.

Any bios updates for the board?

It is on the most current version of BIOS.

My brother in laws mobo was different as was his SSD, but I did not have to do anything to get windows to install on his SSD it just ran the first time.

ignatzatsonic said:

My first thought would be to go back to diskpart and use the "clean" command to wipe the drive.

Then make one new active primary partition covering the entire drive, assigning the C drive letter.

Then exit diskpart and drop back into the Windows installation and choose that new C as the destination for Windows when you get to "drive options, advanced".

I can successfully run a clean on the drive but once I try to format the drive I run into issues.

I am getting errors in Diskpart usually an I/O device error or parameter error, right now I am trying to format the drive and it says 0 percent completed, and has been sitting that way for 7 minutes or so now.

It just failed stating
Diskpart has encountered an error: The parameter is incorrect.
See system event log for more information.

I do not know how to look at the system event log through the command prompt