Unable to partition drive

Ok sorry if my post was confusing it made sense in my head lets try this again.

So I built a brand new computer and was able to install W7 onto my SSD drive. It worked fine. I then proceeded to install an optical drive. After doing so the computer would no longer boot saying it couldnt find a required device. I removed all other devices except my SSD and tried booting again, I got the same Error. I then ran Start Up repair and it had no effect. I tried manually running parts of bootrec.exe. Still this produced no results. I then tried to use DISKPART to see if it saw the drive or anything on it. DISKPART is able to see the drive but tells me that there are no partitions and no volumes on it. At this point I decided to just reinstall W7. I tried to do CLEAN ALL to the drive but I get a device I/O error every time I try. I also tried doing "create partition primary" and It gives me the same error. When I try to install W7 from the disk it says, "Disk 0 unallocated space" its the entire disk. However it will not let me partition it there either. If I tell it to just install with manually making the partition, It gives me the "0x80300024" error and will not let me proceed.

I hope that makes more sense. Thanks for the hlep.
Adam

Is there anything else I can do to help limit it down more? Will testing the SSD on the Marvel Sata ports, Intel Sata 6gbit ports and Intel sata 3gbit ports help limit it down. The first time it was installed, the SSD was on the Marvel Sata ports and not the Intel ones if that matters.

narayanjr said:

So I built a brand new computer and was able to install W7 onto my SSD drive.

Did you install from a Win7 installation DVD?

So you had a DVD drive on the machine, as well as the SSD drive.

And at that point your motherboard BIOS specified that SSD drive as the first (and only) hard disk, and obviously had it in the boot sequence (after the DVD drive, I'm sure).

Hard drive number assignment and boot sequence order are two settings available to you in all motherboard BIOS.

It worked fine.

Not surprising.

I then proceeded to install an optical drive.

Huh?? A SECOND DVD drive?

A CD/DVD drive is an optical drive, and you'd already installed Win7 which comes on a DVD. So you must already have had one CD/DVD drive in the box.

Do you mean you now tried to install a second HARD DRIVE... e.g. say a 300GB SATA drive? To supplement your SSD SATA drive?

After doing so the computer would no longer boot saying it couldnt find a required device.

I am speculating that when you physically installed the SATA hard drive (I'm not going to believe you got these problems from adding a second CD/DVD drive) that the BIOS on your motherboard assigned IT to be hard disk #1, and put it into the boot sequence order.

Obviously that is not what you wanted, but I'm guessing that's what happened... unbeknownst to you.

I believe if you get into the BIOS right now (most commonly just press the DELETE key when booting the machine, and you'll enter the SETUP of the BIOS... but check your hardware manual for the computer) you'll have an opportunity to examine both (a) your hard drive numbers, and (b) your boot sequence order.

You want to reset things the way they were when you first got Win7 installed to the SSD successfully without a problem. You want the SSD drive to once again be disk #1, and you want it to appear early in the boot sequence order (certainly in front of the SATA drive which is meaningless for booting, since it's intended for data just now... but probably after your CD/DVD drive).

I removed all other devices except my SSD and tried booting again, I got the same Error.

Again, I am most curious as to what your BIOS says right now... both for hard drives and also your boot device sequence.

This is the absolute first thing we need to know, in order to prescribe any further remedies.

I then ran Start Up repair and it had no effect.

Because the problem is in the BIOS settings of the motherboard, not in Win7 or on the installed Win7 on your SSD.

Again in my opinion things happened in the BIOS settings that you didn't expect (or know about) when you added the SATA hard drive. You're now trying to reset the BIOS back to the way it looked when you first installed Win7 successfully on the SSD.

That SATA drive should be hard drive #2, not #1. And the SSD drive should be named in the boot device sequence.

If you don't have a device actually installed that for some reason is named in the boot device sequence, you're going to get very strange errors... like "required device not found" or something equally strange.

I tried manually running parts of bootrec.exe. Still this produced no results. I then tried to use DISKPART to see if it saw the drive or anything on it. DISKPART is able to see the drive but tells me that there are no partitions and no volumes on it.

Don't get carried away here trying to repair something, until we know what the BIOS thinks is in your machine.

Hard drive numbers, and boot device sequence. Report back with those answers.

At this point I decided to just reinstall W7. I tried to do CLEAN ALL to the drive but I get a device I/O error every time I try. I also tried doing "create partition primary" and It gives me the same error. When I try to install W7 from the disk it says, "Disk 0 unallocated space" its the entire disk. However it will not let me partition it there either. If I tell it to just install with manually making the partition, It gives me the "0x80300024" error and will not let me proceed.

Don't get distracted here. It will all go away and your situation will once again be normal.

We'll get your SATA drive partitioned properly, if that's what you want to do. But we're not going to do it using DISKPART... you're going to use Partition Wizard, but only AFTER we get your Win7 properly installed (and or just running again) on your SSD like it was originally.

Patience is a virtue. What does your BIOS say is physically on your machine, as far as (a) hard drives, and (b) boot device sequence.

I tried the SSD on the all three sets of ports with the same results from each, the all produce the 0x80300024 error when I attempt to install windows. I also tried doing bootrec.exe again to repair the /FixMBR however this time instead of returning successful it returned errors. Also doing the /FixBoot returned "No drive found"

I will get my 2.5 external inclosure tomorrow and try and do the DISKPART on another computer and see what happens. If that doesnt work is it most likely that the drive is dead and I need to RMA it for a new one?

Thanks for all the help guys. I posted this on about 6 different sites and you are the only ones that have responded and you have been very helpful in getting closer to an answer.

*Edit* Give me a few min and ill get all that info, and explain the dvd drive thing.

Did you install from a Windows 7 installation DVD?

Yes, W7 was installed from a DVD. I used an external USB dvd drive.

So you had a DVD drive on the machine, as well as the SSD drive.

I had the SSD and a USB Dvd drive.

Huh?? A SECOND DVD drive?

It wasnt a second drive, I used a USB drive to install and just obtained the internal drive today.

Do you mean you now tried to install a second HARD DRIVE... e.g. say a 300GB SATA drive? To supplement your SSD SATA drive?

No, it was an DVD drive. I did however initially have my SSD and a WD drive installed. But I was able to install to my SSD just fine with both drives connected. Once W7 was up and running It recognized both drives fine.

*Edit* However when I did first install I had issue with windows installing. I first tried installing to my SSD, and it would error out, but did create the 100mb MSR. I tried a few more times. Then I attempted to install to the WD drive and got the same error. It again created another 100mb MSR partition. I then tried again on the SSD but it did not work. I ended up fixing it by removing 1 stick of ram and change the position of the other stick. Then I was able to install to my SSD without any problems. The ram was reinstalled after W7 was installed and everything still worked fine.

Again, I am most curious as to what your BIOS says right now... both for hard drives and also your boot device sequence.

Currently,
Boot Order:
1: P5: DVD Drive
2: P1: SSD
3: UEFI:P5: DVD Drive.

As for hard drives, I currently only have the SSD Installed into Intel Sata port 1.

I believe that was most of your questions.

narayanjr said:

Did you install from a Windows 7 installation DVD?

Yes, W7 was installed from a DVD. I used an external USB dvd drive.

So you had a DVD drive on the machine, as well as the SSD drive.

I had the SSD and a USB Dvd drive.

It wasnt a second drive, I used a USB drive to install and just obtained the internal drive today.

I see.

I think your "couldn't find a required device" errors were perhaps due to the disappeared USB DVD drive which had been used as part of the original Win7 installation. Was that still connected after you completed the Win7 install and tried to install this genuine internal CD/DVD drive?

So there is no true SATA hard drive at all. But there is a WD hard drive in the story, but you're not going to retain it. You're simply going to end up with just the 128GB SSD drive, is that right?

So all you want is a machine that has a 128GB SSD drive (SATA), and a CD/DVD drive. Yes?


Here's what I recommend. Start over. You've now got your internal CD/DVD drive which can be used for the Win7 install, and the drive letter and device id seen by the Win7 installer will not disappear.

Forget whatever you've done. Forget the WD drive. Forget everything.


First, assuming you have another system from which you can download something, download Partition Wizard (free) Home Edition v5.2 from this page. You will install that on your Win7 system eventually.

Also, down toward the bottom of that same page there is a second download link (off to the right) for an ISO file from which you can burn a standalone boot CD for Partition Wizard. Download that ISO file, and burn it to a CD. You're going to boot from this CD and "cleanse" everything off of your SSD. Period.

I am assuming that the SSD doesn't come with its own special formatting utility or something, that it appears to be just another 128GB drive, so that Partition Wizard (booted from the CD) can simply see it and delete all partitions off of it, returning 100% of its capacity to free space.

But if there is some kind of "factory format" utility available from Crucial for the drive, maybe you should just run it and clean house for sure.


Once you return the SSD to pure unformatted form, now once again install Win7 to it. With the completely empty target drive and a constant lettered internal CD/DVD drive to install from, it should all proceed with no problem (as it did originally, as you described at the start of the story).

You will get the 100MB "system reserved" partition followed by the rest of the 128GB allocated to C, for Win7. This is fine for now. If you want to shrink C later and allocate a second D partition in the remainder of the 128GB you can use Partition Wizard to do that.

That's my suggestion.

P.S. - your BIOS settings for boot device sequence looks fine, but I assume the second DVD drive is the external USB device? Or is it no longer connected? Why don't you purge it from your BIOS list, if it is no longer going to be used.

You're simply going to end up with just the 128GB SSD drive, is that right?

I intend to have W7 installed on my SSD as well as a few applications, but I do need my 1TB WD drive as storage so I intend to have that also.

I will attempt the Partition Wizard again but I did try it once before and I got a few errors that I have posted previously in this thread. Ultimately I wasnt able to use it because after it booted it said it would not work on a "Windows Server" however I dont understand that as I downloaded the Bootable Windows 7 Home ISO. But I will try it again and see what I get.

As for the UEFI DVD Drive I have no idea what that is. It has the same name as the internal DVD drive it just has the UEFI in front of it. It is not the USB one.

narayanjr said:

You're simply going to end up with just the 128GB SSD drive, is that right?

I intend to have W7 installed on my SSD as well as a few applications, but I do need my 1TB WD drive as storage so I intend to have that also.

Should be no problem. You can put it in the box now if you can, as I always like to do a cold install with all relevant hardware installed. That just seems to work better than adding additional hardware later... although I realize it should probably make zero difference for things like hard drives.

I will attempt the Partition Wizard again but I did try it once before and I got a few errors that I have posted previously in this thread. Ultimately I wasnt able to use it because after it booted it said it would not work on a "Windows Server" however I dont understand that as I downloaded the Bootable Windows 7 Home ISO.

I don't believe the error message pertains to the bootable CD you're running, or the hardware you're running on.

I think that error message is saying that the hardware formatting of the SSD hard drive that Partition Wizard is trying to analyze appears to be that of Windows Server, not of Win7 or the normal home Windows OS's (e.g. NTFS partitions, FAT32, etc., or unallocated free space but formatted according to intended use for a PC).

I wouldn't have thought Partition Wizard would have any problem dealing with an SSD drive... but that message suggests to me it thought it was not a normal PC-supported hard drive in its physical structure, "sector layout" etc.

That's why I questioned whether you had a "factory reset" utility from Crucial, to basically restore it to pure zero as you got it. If you do I'd strongly recommend using it.

Don't know. I don't have any firsthand SSD experience myself.