Unable to partition drive

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  1. Posts : 24
    Wn7 Home 64bit
       #1

    Unable to partition drive


    My build:
    Intel core i5 2500k
    ASUS P67P8 Pro MOBO
    F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL G.Skill 2x4gb
    CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1


    So I put the computer together and attempted to install Windows 7 home premium 64. I got the same error over and over again than fixed it by changing ram positions and was able to install W7 onto the SSD. It worked fine for a day. I then loaded gfx card drivers and loaded all the drivers off the MOBO disk. I rebooted a few times and it lal worked fine. Then I opened up the case again and installed a SATA dvd drive. After booting up again it said it couldnt find the required drive. It wasnt able to find any operating system.


    I went through DISKPART and did list drive and it shows the drive. how ever when I select the drive there are no partitions and no volumes. So I attempted to reinstall W7 but everytime I try it gives me the error Unable to install to the selected location. Error: 0x80300024. When I try and make a partition it looks like its trying then it stops and it did nothing. I also tried doing all the startup repairs from windows. I also tried using bootrec.exe to fix mbr and bcd both returned success but neither fixed anything. When i did bootrec scan os it said there was no OS. I also tried using DISKPART to do Clean all on the drive and i get an error, "DiskPart has encountered an error: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error. "
    So it wont let me do anything to the disk.


    I have tried running it from two different sata3 ports and 1 of my sata2 ports they all have the same issue. I have tried disconnecting other drivers and just running the SSD and it still doesnt work. I tried removing the dvd drive and that did not fix the problem.


    I am at a loss for what to try now or what is really causing the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you,
    Adam
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,752
    Windows 7 Pro x64 (1), Win7 Pro X64 (2)
       #2

    Win7 must be installed either (a) to the FIRST hard disk, per the BIOS settings... indicated as the boot drive in your boot drive priority lists, or (b) a second location on an environment with an existing Windows already installed (in which case that existing Windows is the "boot drive" and Win7 will install a multi-boot Boot Manager setup on that other "boot drive" for the other Windows.

    You will not be allowed to just pick an arbitrary location to install Win7. That's why you're getting "cannot be installed here" message.

    You first have to update your BIOS, to mark the new SATA drive as the first hard disk so that it is the boot drive. Then you'll be able to install Win7 there.

    Did I understand your problem correctly?

    Now to make it even more complicated, if you want to divide that new SATA drive into several partitions, you cannot just install Win7 to any partition on it. Win7 wants to be in a primary partition, and if the new drive was completely empty when you started the install Win7 would actually create a 100MB "system reserved" NTFS primary partition for its boot/loader files, and mark that primary partition as "active+system". Win7 itself would then be installed in a second primary partition (taking up the rest of the drive, unless you partitioned it otherwise), marked as "system".

    These two partitions would all go at the front of the drive. It normally is an easy way to get started, just to leave it like this and not worry about partitioning using Win7 itself (at least I don't).

    After you complete the Win7 install on the new SATA drive, you can use a product like MiniTool's Partition Wizard or similar to shrink the size of the Win7 partition on that drive and create additional partition(s) in the rest of the space. They will be LOGICAL partitions carved out of the remaining free space as opposed to the PRIMARY partition type for Win7 itself and that special "system reserved" space.

    If Win7 can't build that 100MB "system reserved" partition on the new drive as well as the Win7 partition itself, you'll also get "cannot install" messages.

    Again, easiest thing for a brand new install to a brand new SATA drive (forgetting about what you've got on the SSD for the moment, as I can't remember) is just leave it totally blank, and Win7 will install there (as long as the BIOS says it's hard disk #1 and named in the boot sequence). Then carve up the drive later, with Partition Wizard.
      My Computer


  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #3

    Hmm, let's see - so all you did is install an optical reader and the thing went bust. That is very hard to believe especially looking at the extend of the apparent damage. Are you sure you did not change things in the BIOS - e.g. IDE to AHCI - although even that should not have wiped out your partitions and your OS.

    Suggest you take a second look at the SSD with the bootable CD of this program. Maybe you see something strange. If possible take a picture with a camera and post it here so that we can all sing from the same sheet.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,752
    Windows 7 Pro x64 (1), Win7 Pro X64 (2)
       #4

    I think I confused things, not remembering what you'd done with the SSD drive.

    So you really want Win7 on the SSD drive (by itself, not in a multi-boot arrangement say with another WinXP partition on the same machine). You made that happen because your BIOS pointed to that disk as hard disk #1, and it was named in the boot sequence.

    When you added the SATA drive, apparently your BIOS decided that this new hard disk should be hard disk #1 instead of your SSD drive. And if you've partitioned that new SATA drive incorrectly before getting Win7 installed on it as I described above (or correcting the problem by getting into the BIOS setup and pointing back to the SSD drive as hard disk #1 so that the SATA drive is just for data), well now you can't install Win7 on that drive at all.

    I think you need to get back into your BIOS setup and re-point the SSD drive as disk #1 and as your boot drive. Then the second SATA drive is disk #2 and pure data, and you can partition it any way you want under Win7 (or with Partition Wizard, either running under Win7 or standalone off its boot CD) which is what you should really be using rather than DISKPART.

    You don't want to install Win7 to the SATA drive. My mistake. But my comments above about Win7's pickiness about hard disk #1 and the boot drive, and the "system reserved" partition for boot manager files, etc., are all valid and correct.
      My Computer


  5. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #5

    dsperber, he was trying to install with everything (except the SSD) disconnected. That shows that something is mucked up on the SSD. The SSD can be on any port, that does not matter. I have one on port3 and on another system on port4. But the smart way is to disconnect the HDDs because the Win7 installer has this habit to put the bootmgr on the first Sata it finds - even if the system itself gets to the right disk.

    I suggest we wait until he reports back with his findings from PW. He may have to setup the SSD again on another system - either in a bay or in an external enclosure.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 24
    Wn7 Home 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    I have the drive plugged into the sata slot labeled 1 of 6 on my board. I installed W7 once but then the OS disappeared and I have no idea where it has gone So I am trying to either recover it or reinstall it. I dont want multiple partitions just the Primary and the System reserved.

    I just ran the start up repair again and looked at the Log file. the test it fails on is,
    Repair action: Disk metadata repair
    Result: Failed. Error code = 0x45d
    it also states above that MBR is corrupt.

    I looked up the error code and from what I see it is most likely the HD that is bad but I dont truly know.

    I am in the process of running that bootable cd now. And will post the results shortly.

    Thanks,
    Adam
      My Computer


  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #7

    I would take the SSD out and put it into an operational system (or an external enclosure). First I would rebuild the MBR. That you can do with the bootble CD of PW.

    Then you can set it up with elevated Command prompt. The commands are - each followed by Enter

    Diskpart
    List disk
    Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
    Create partition primary align=1024
    Active (assuming you want to install an OS)
    Exit

    Then try installing in the new build again. The advantage of installing to a predefined partition is that you do not get the dreaded 100MB active partition but the bootmgr will be on C,
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 24
    Wn7 Home 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    When i Ran that i get stuck at,
    ata1.00 status drdy
    ata1: hard resetting link
    ata1: link is slow to respond please be patient
    ata1: comreset failed errno=-16
    ata1: hard resetting link
    repeated 3 times
    ata1: limiting sata link speed to 3gigabits

    It did that a few times
    After it made it past all of that. I got an error saying it doesnt support windows servers.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 2,752
    Windows 7 Pro x64 (1), Win7 Pro X64 (2)
       #9

    whs said:
    dsperber, he was trying to install with everything (except the SSD) disconnected.
    Well, I'm certainly confused enough.

    I thought he'd already succeeded in getting Win7 installed onto the SSD when there was no SATA drive in the machine.

    Then he installed the SATA drive, and problems ensued. Did I get this wrong?

    My theory was that the installation of the second drive caused his BIOS to designate the new SATA drive as "hard disk #1", i.e. the boot drive. There obviously was no OS on it yet, since it had been installed on the SSD drive previously.

    I was speculating that all that was really needed to get things back to "working properly" was to get back into the BIOS and rearrange the hard disk sequence, so that the SSD drive was again either (a) hard disk #1, if that's what an SSD drive looks like... I don't have one so I don't really know, or (b) change the boot sequence order to go to the SSD drive first and not the SATA drive first (which it seems is what the BIOS did, on its own, when it saw the installed SATA drive for the first time).


    That shows that something is mucked up on the SSD. The SSD can be on any port, that does not matter. I have one on port3 and on another system on port4.
    Right. The SATA port number itself really means nothing. It's just a connector.


    But the smart way is to disconnect the HDDs because the Win7 installer has this habit to put the bootmgr on the first Sata it finds - even if the system itself gets to the right disk.
    Win7's installer is not just picking the first SATA drive as the target for the boot manager files.

    It's picking the hard disk #1, i.e. whatever is specified as boot drive in the BIOS setup. That's what the BIOS is going to boot to, so that's where the boot manager files need to go... no matter where the actual Win7 or WinXP or whatever OS(s) are placed. That's where BCD puts its ini file with the names and locations of the other bootable OS's, and where they are (drive number and partition number on that drive)... on the BOOT DRIVE, which is that first hard disk per the BIOS.

    Seems to me if you want the SSD to be the boot drive, just rearrange the hard disk sequence in the BIOS to list it as the first hard disk, and specify it first in the boot device sequence (if it's not already there) and not the SATA drive.


    I suggest we wait until he reports back with his findings from PW. He may have to setup the SSD again on another system - either in a bay or in an external enclosure.
    I admit, I was kind of confused about the whole story in the original post.

    But getting Win7 to install where you want it, which may or may not require that special 100MB "system reserved" partition if you're not installing in an environment which already has another bootable Windows (located on what the BIOS currently considers "the boot drive"), requires that the Win7 installer can pretty much have its way... and that is most easily done by just leaving all space on the target drive completely free. Let Win7 do whatever it wants. Then you can come back later and shrink the Win7 partition, and allocate other logical partitions if that's what you want to do.

    From that point on, that first "boot drive" (actually, the 100MB "system reserved" partition) will be the location for the boot manager files, which will point to the Win7 partition also on that same drive. There should then be no problem installing the SATA drive as a second drive... as long as that doesn't trigger the BIOS to fool with the hard drive numbers and boot drive sequence, in which case it just needs to be reset manually to resolve any confusion. Obviously, the bootable system (i.e. boot manager) is not on the SATA drive, so you can't let the BIOS boot to the SATA drive... if the "system reserved" partition is on the SSD.
      My Computer


  10. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #10

    narayanjr said:
    When i Ran that i get stuck at,
    ata1.00 status drdy
    ata1: hard resetting link
    ata1: link is slow to respond please be patient
    ata1: comreset failed errno=-16
    ata1: hard resetting link
    repeated 3 times
    ata1: limiting sata link speed to 3gigabits

    It did that a few times
    After it made it past all of that. I got an error saying it doesnt support windows servers.
    Hmm, that gets even stranger. Looks like there is something wrong with your Sata. Better check your BIOS what that could be - I have no clue.
      My Computer


 
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