Hard Drive Preparation For Windows 7 Installation

Honduras2811 · 05 Oct 2014

What do I have to do to a hard drive that has had Windows XP on it to get it ready for a Windows 7 installation?

I can get to the point where it says to select a partition, but no further.

I've tried wiping the drive, installing over the old OS, reformatting, removing the partition and adding a new one and I still get the same error message: Cannot create a system partition or install to any existing partition.

I even re-installed Win XP, and I can see the system partition. Same error message. I tried it with Win 2K also.

DocBrown · 05 Oct 2014

Make a bootable CD of Partition Wizard. Then use it to delete, clean, and make a raw new looking hard drive for installation.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

Honduras2811 · 05 Oct 2014

TY. I'll give it a try.

But what do you mean by 'make a raw, new looking hard drive'?

Do I partition, format, none of the above?

DocBrown · 05 Oct 2014

NO partition, NO format, basically a blank HD like you would buy in new from the manufacturer.

Then let your install automatically do the partitions and format.

Honduras2811 · 05 Oct 2014

Didn't work. Same error message. ??

bigmck · 05 Oct 2014

Honduras2811 said:

Didn't work. Same error message. ??

You didn't say anything about an error message earlier.

Honduras2811 · 06 Oct 2014

The message that said it couldn't create a system partition.

Problem solved any way.

I created a partition and tried that. No luck.

I formatted the partition and install ran.

But that led to another problem.

Honduras2811 · 06 Oct 2014

I gave you the full error message. Stop posting here.

bigmck · 06 Oct 2014

Honduras2811 said:

I gave you the full error message. Stop posting here.

Did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed today?