Error (0x80300024)

theres a lot to read here but heres my solution
disconnnect all drives but the one you want to install on
delete the partition creat a new partition
it should make 2 partitions format and install on the larger partition
reconnect all the other drives use a bcd editor edit the the bcd
to include your other installes

Yep, this did it for me, too, I had placed a couple of data drives in the machine prior to installing to a clean system drive, and was getting the 0x80300024 "windows cannot install" error. Scared me there for awhile.

After I removed the two drives, the Win 7 64 saw the 0 drive as being just one partition. Before that it saw the drive as having a second partition which actually was not there yet.
No thanks to MS for not posting this so anyone who searches for 0x80300024 would see it before everything else.


There's the value of a forum like this. Thank you.

And PS on this install, I did not need the OPK that the OEM disc is rapping about.

chandanab said:

hi all had the error 0x80300024 on my macpro on attempting to install win7 64 bit i followed the message posted and disconnected all the harddrives except the install drive and alls well

Yes - it is, in fact, the presence of another HDD that causes this problem. Here's something that changes in the setup when the disk is going to work: After you choose the entire disk for loading windows, the installer will let you know that it will also automatically add system partitions (1 x 100Mb) and you confirm this.

And it's ONLY the presence of more HDDs that does this. CD/DVD drives are OK (probably necessary) to leave connected.

Hey guys,

I just found this thread after nearly having a heart attack when I couldn't reinstall install my OS. Completely passed my mind that only one hard drive should be present during install. Anyways I had to register and say thanks to those helping out here. I got my install underway now.

... really makes you wonder why this is not stated during your partition selection. A simple note like this could have saved all of us here some headache.

Gotta love Google !

Thanks guys ! This shaved a few hours off my fault finding for sure - 3 days before Xmas

One thing I would like to add, I only disconnected my 3 TB drive to enable Windows to continue. My other non OS drive (1 TB) is still powered and shes happy. Thought I'd try this to hone in on the actual issue.

FYI - I remember having an issue when the 3 TB drive initially went in, Windows wouldn't recognise the full 3 TB. Unsure of the relation there - if any.

Thanks again to all !

Regards

I joined up just to post on this thread.

I have a Lenovo U510 and in order to disconnect the secondary drive I would have had to tear the laptop apart just to to that. I found a much faster way to fix this problem and it involves booting into WinPE off the install disc, accessing DISKPART and running the clean command on drive you're trying to install Windows on.

Worked like a charm, and I hope it helps someone in the future!

Had the same error.

Booted Linux Live CD.
Start GpartEd
Select the offending disk :P
Redo/install Partitition table from Drive menu (erases all data!)
Create a new unformatted partition to see if its all oke.

Reboot

Restart Windows installer
Remove the new unformatted partition (Windows doesn't recognize the partition)
Select unused space and continue install.

Fixed problem :P.

For the first time EVER I had this error today. Usually I have only the main drive installed but for some reason I left the other 2 drives hooked up, silly me. One of the other drives had an operating system before and I thought I had removed it all, silly me.

Thanks for this thread :)

Thanks bro.
I spend last 2 days finding a solution to this error.