Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Windows 7 USB install error (Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition)


Error: "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information"

Are you are seeing this error (above) while trying to install Windows 7 from a bootable USB?

Now what you are going to do is this -> after booting and selecting the language, but before clicking the "Install" button, remove the USB drive, wait a second, then reinsert it.

Then continue as you were thinking it would go.

Hope I helped you today!


74 comments:

  1. Sry man this didnt work for me

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  2. holy shit what... It worked when nothing else would!
    how...
    why?
    someone tell me how this even works...

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    Replies
    1. I am glad it worked for you.

      Does it not looks like a secret MS defect ?? ;)

      Delete
  3. THIS IS CRAZY !!!!! I AVE TRIED ALL OTHER OPTIONS I COULD FIND ON THE INTERNET ..... THIS WORKED 10000000% ....

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

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  4. yo man...u rock...working 100 % really thx :)

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  5. Wow dude, thats awesome! I wasn`t expecting it to work, as it seems like a dumb thing to do. Did it anyways( I was THAT desperate) and it worked like a charm! Thank you man!

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  6. one of the strangest things of IT

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  7. thank you for your help

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  8. wow man ..cant believe !!!!Thanks a lot

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  9. thanks God its work i tried all idea for this probs,!! thanks a lot men keep sharing God Bless!!

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    Replies
    1. welcome!

      and thank you so much for appreciating :)

      Delete
  10. Holly crap it worked for me too. from other research I figured out that I would have to either use a DVD disk to install Windows or take the hard drive out of the PC and format it elsewhere. I guess there may have been another option to use some sort of Linux bootable USB thing to format the disk.

    Anyway, all that was not needed.

    What I did was after selecting the language, I clicked OK and then Windows gave me an error message saying that the installation disk was removed from drive D. Mind you Windows was being installed off a USB flash drive.

    So I placed the USB stick back into the USB port. Clicked OK thinking that Windows would find it. Instead it rebooted (i.e. hot boot).

    However, this time after I deleted the partitions that I made earlier Windows was able to create a new partition properly.

    I noticed that this time Windows was able to create a 100MB partition first and then create the primary partition.

    I think that that 100MB system partition may be needed for NTFS to store its references but I may be wrong.

    Either way, it now installed like a champ.

    Thank you!!!

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  11. THANK YOU! This worked. After trying (and trying, and trying...) to format, create new partition etc, I found this post. I ended up rebooting and following the above tip and now Win7 is installing.

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  12. Yes indeed, it also worked for me. I didn't expect that.
    Thanks man !

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  13. Thank you so much☺

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  14. Replies
    1. It was really super strange and did really worked :p

      welcome :)

      Delete
  15. WTF... thanks, i was about to commit a tech sin if i had to restart this one more time

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  16. Like everyone else here, I was ready to jump from a bridge until I found your simple yet totally unintuitive fix. Who would have guessed? Yet again, take the team of "programmers" and feed them to large tank of piranhas for ever letting that stupid winner make it past beta testing.

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  17. Worked, amazingly enough, worked.
    Let me drop you a few related keywords for thanks,
    GA-Z77N-WIFI
    Gigabyte USB Windows 7 installation

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  18. Thank you. Worked for me. I'll add some keywords too.

    netbook clean install format delete

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  19. It Worked!

    Many thanks Man!

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  20. lol its work...searching this for 3 day...thanks man...

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  21. I was absolutely stumped before this. It worked for me, but I would love to know why. I can't thank you enough!!!!

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  22. yep it works...after it restarts pull out usb drive and leave it out and windows will load as its suppose to

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  23. Thanks heaps!!!

    I'd been struggling with the same problem for days after installing a SSD in my netbook.

    Simple and worked first time!

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  24. Many thanks for this. I encountered this error while installing win7 next to a linux install using a sd card reader. Some of the "solutions" found elsewhere are quite funny (like formatting the target drive, seriously). Anyway it sounds to install smoothly now. Thanks again.

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  25. WORKED for me thanks!!

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  26. thanks mate........
    it really worked......

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  27. Worked, Thanks lot!

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  28. Thank you! You rock! Thank you thank you!

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  29. After hours of faffing trying to get my SSD working....and it was this simple.Many thanks. I had changed all the .BIOS boot order, removed myDVD drive but couldn't work out how to stop it seeing the USB key I was using. I even tried removing the USB before choosing the Partition but NO - you have to remove it just as Robin Says!!!!!!

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  30. WHOOOTTT !!! it worked unbelivableee..... WHOOOOOOTTTT ???!!!!

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  31. First I think is a bad joke (After 4 hrs surfing in the net).
    Okay give a try... Surprise! IT WORKS! Thanks a lot!

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  32. AMAZING! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  33. Dude you're a life saver, this works also with DVD install,spent hours trying to figure out what was going on, thank you

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  34. FOR ANY OF THOSE WHO THIS DOESNT WORK FOR :

    For me this didn't work the first time I tried it, nor the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time. I was pulling my hair out reading all these comments of ppl who it worked for.....but I kept trying it, and eventually it just worked.....I would say the only thing different I did the last time is I only unplugged the usb key for about 2 seconds and then immediately clicked install now pretty much right after I inserted the usb key again.....
    I have no idea why the timing of these things would be that precise and important but thats what what ended up working for me even after it appeared like this wasn't going to help me at all

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    Replies
    1. I am glad you finally had it working.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  35. Thank you!!! It worked great
    When you had to select where to install I removed the USB stick for one second, and was finally able to install

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  36. Ho-lee shit. Thank you dude. Thank you.

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  37. Thanks! I also spent a long time looking for a solution. The only other solution I found was to format the USB Flash Drive (being used to install windows) into FAT32. But my custom image file was larger than 4 GB, so that didn't help.

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  38. This didn't work for me, tried about 20 times, if I take it out for too long I get the error: .Windows is unable to install to the selected location' but if I do a refresh I'm back at the previous error. No idea why this would work, I've got to put my 2c in.

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  39. HOOLLY MOTTHERRRRR OF GOOOODDDDDD!!!!!!! IT worked!!!!!! kazam!!!! dude. my life is saved. it didn't work for me the first few times, like maybe 5 or 6 times. but SHAZAM keep trying!!! i wish i could kiss you Robin.

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  40. Dammm MS, it worked for me too. Thanks

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  41. Thanks, it worked perfectly. All the other sites I checked had generic run of the mill answers, like "format your drive first", meh.

    Big props!

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  42. Dude that was a Rocking Post !!!
    One Hell of a solution!!!

    I was searching for the Solution for a long time!!

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH

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  43. Dude that was a Rocking Post !!!
    One Hell of a solution!!!

    I was searching for the Solution for a long time!!

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH

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  44. it's working, at last! i waste 6 hours
    Thank very-very much

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  45. ooooouuuucccchhh shit.... this is the way it worked... i try everything but not work..

    thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannkkkkkssss verrrryyyyy muuuuccccchhhh....

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  46. Brilliant! Thanks mate, spent an hour searching for an answer and this did the trick! Thanks heaps! :D

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  47. what the hell man....it worked perfectly....I have been banging my head for past two nigths and nothing worked. Thanks a lot !!!!

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  48. this worked perfectly. but sadly before I read this, I erased my other partition which contains some files. thanks! all worth it :)

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  49. awesome
    had a severe headache for like 3-4 hrs trying to find the damn solution.
    it worked like charm. such a silly solution too.
    thanx a ton.

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  50. I had such a hard fixing my stuff then I found your tip and IT WORKS!

    It's actually the only thing that works over the 1001 solution I did try, thanks for sharing.

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  51. Thanks for help! It worked but not really the way it says, It did not work by unpluging usb flash drive before Install button, but what I did, was on the screen with your partitions, (I had 100 meg of reserved, 250 gb - My all data and 215 gb) partitions), I deleted 100 meg one and 215 gb one and then DID not format, just Unplugged USB and pressed NEXT, obvious did not work, then plugged back in, pressed NEXT again, error message again, Unplugged usb, pressed next, and like this few time until it started istalling, weird but it worked, it seems my SanDisk 16 GB does not like Booting from it, I know friends 4 gig one worked just fine. Nearly smashed my laptop but at the end managed to install that damned Windows. THANKS AGAIN FOR HELP!!! p.s Sorry for my english.

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  52. Wow, it worked!!! Spent 4 hours trying to find a solution. Thanks a million.

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  53. I thought this was bullshit, but it actually wworked...

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  54. it didn't work.. :( i tried more than 20 times..help please..

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  55. You my friend are a GENIUS!!! It worked!!

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  56. It worked! Great! Thanks!

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  57. you save me dude, so many thanks...^_^

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  58. WHAT!!!!...How Crazy is that! Like the many others above me I had also worked by googler out trying to fix this lame MS flaw through using disk part > active, changing my BIOS Boot order, disabling other SATA drivers, etc to no avail. Your solution actually worked for me...THANKS!!!!!

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  59. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THIS HAS SAVED ME TONS OF (EXTRA) FRUSTRATION. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

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I would be glad to know if this post helped you.