unable to delete partitions for clean install windows 7

[western hognose]

Trying to do a clean install Windows 7, have enough space, Dell Studio 1555 laptop. When I get to the screen "Where do you want to install Windows?" I have:

Disk 0 Unallocated Space 298.1GB

At the bottom of the screen:

Refresh
Load Driver
Delete (grayed out)
Extend (grayed out)
Format (grayed out)
New

When I tried to delete Disk 0, not able to.

Been searching on the net for a solution, none found. I am unable upon boot to a command prompt in order to run diskpart. Lost.

 

[theog]

Have read of this tutorial from Step 6.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52291-partition-hard-drive-windows-7-install.html

 

[western hognose]

That's my problem, the
Delete is grayed out, I am unable to delete anything

 

[Sir George]

That's my problem, the
Delete is grayed out, I am unable to delete anything

Try using the boot disk from MiniTool;

MiniTool Free Bootable Partition Manager | Partition Wizard Bootable CD

HTH

 

[Kaktussoft]

All greyed out because only partitions can be deleted, extended or formatted.
DISK 0 has no partitions yet! It's totally empty. That's why it says "unallocated space"

 

[pbcopter]

Trying to do a clean install Windows 7, have enough space, Dell Studio 1555 laptop. When I get to the screen "Where do you want to install Windows?" I have:

Disk 0 Unallocated Space 298.1GB

At the bottom of the screen:

Refresh
Load Driver
Delete (grayed out)
Extend (grayed out)
Format (grayed out)
New

When I tried to delete Disk 0, not able to.

Been searching on the net for a solution, none found. I am unable upon boot to a command prompt in order to run diskpart. Lost.

Select New.

 

[Brink]

Hello western hognose, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like you are good to go actually. You should be able to select the Disk 0 Unallocated Space to install Windows on like in step 7 of the tutorial below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[western hognose]

Brink, tried step 7 on the tutorial, some reason it didn't work. When I clicked on "New" and entered another value for a partition, the error message says "Failed to create a new partition on the selected unused space" Error: 0x8007045d

 

[gregrocker]

Work through the steps for Overcoming Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[western hognose]

Problems installing Windows 7 on a blank hard disk

I really hope someone can help me with this. I have tried everything to no avail. Dell Studio 1555 laptop is the culprit. I am unable to delete a partition, also unable to create new partitions. I have struggled with this for a week now, and I do appreciate all the fine people that have tried to help me. I have set the SATA controller to AHCI, Hard drive first to boot, Save changes and exit. Here is where it gets tricky:

I am unable to access System Recovery Options (there is none on the advanced boot menu), Shift + F10 does not open a command box, so I am left with no other options.

This is very strange, I have never had any issues with installing any Linux or Windows O/S's in the past. This one really has me baffled.

Disk 0 Unallocated space 298.1 GB
"Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log files for more information"
This is what I am seeing.

On the Windows 7 screen, the only thing that is highlighted is "New"....everything else is grayed out.

I kindly appreciate any help on this matter.

 

[gregrocker]

You were advised above that Unallocated Space means the partitions have already been deleted and there is nothing left to delete, and to click on New to create and format your partition. Did you try this?

If so I just gave you the steps which overcome 90% of installation failures. Have you started on them yet? Overcoming Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums

Use the Command Line on Win7 installation media http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html, not the F8 key Advanced Boot options.

Where did you get win7? How is the disk burned or flash stick formatted. If in doubt try another provided in tutorial.