- Messages
- 182
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
I wish I could make the title more descriptive, but cant since EightForums seems to not allow titles that are sufficiently long enough to descibe problems..........but anyways, my error when trying to install Windows 8 Pro is:
"We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". I get this error at the screen where the installer creates the partitions (if you choose the custom/clean setup option).
I'll go ahead and disclose all the information needed. This is a laptop with 2 HDD bays, and I just installed 2 brand new HDDs just yesterday (to allay any concerns or questions from users here that the drive might be failing). One is a HGST/Hitachi TravelStar 7K1000 (1 TB, 7200 RPM) and the other is a Western Digital (also 1 TB, 5400 RPM). The Hitachi is installed in the slot where the original OEM boot drive was before it crapped out. The WD is installed in the other slot that was empty when I bought the laptop. I assume the laptop (BIOS?) sees the Hitachi drive as being in the primary slot since that's where ASUS put the original boot drive, and they always put it there by default to my knowledge). Although I do know that an OS can be booted from any internal drive regardless of location as long as it's set up correctly in the BIOS. And of course I want the Hitachi to be the boot drive since it is 7200 RPM whereas the WD is only 5400 RPM. I plan to use the WD mainly for static data storage, the page and hibernation files, some games, etc.
I have things set up in the BIOS so that the PC boots from the Hitachi first, the WD second (even though no OSes are on the WD currently and probably never will be), and then usb flash drives. My BluRay drive is also listed in the boot drive right after the Hitachi, but I rarely use it and prefer installs from USB. I also have AHCI turned on, and in that menu (which is separate from the boot order menu), it "sees" the WD first, the Hitachi second, and the usb drive third. I'm not sure if that's playing a role but I suspect the WD's presence is confusing the installer or something. I can install 8 if I remove the WD and reinsert it afterwards, but I dont want to, since it's just a bit of a hassle to have to open the laptop and always be carrying a screwdriver toolkit around. And I'm pretty sure I could just format the WD but also dont want that because it has Steam game data on it and it numbers in the several hundreds of gigs, would take hours to temporarily transfer off to an external HDD. The point is to not have to reinstall all my Steam games every time I reinstall 8 (which can be quite often), so I just want to leave them there and let Steam reverify the files.
In addition I have also tried creating an empty NTFS filesystem on the Hitachi and still get the error. Have also tried deleting all partitions on the Hitachi so that all space is listed as unallocated, but still the error is there. And have tried manually creating partitions via the Diskpart CMD utility and making sure that the partition is set as primary and active. I just didnt think that Windows would have an issue installing to a drive that is empty, new, unallocated, and unformatted, since I've never gotten this error before. And as I said before I could probably get past this thru other methods like just removing the WD and/or formatting it, but I prefer to get the experience and learning from this so I know how to handle things if something similar/identical happens in the future, which I'm sure it will as long as I continue to use these drives.
Thanks for any help!
"We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". I get this error at the screen where the installer creates the partitions (if you choose the custom/clean setup option).
I'll go ahead and disclose all the information needed. This is a laptop with 2 HDD bays, and I just installed 2 brand new HDDs just yesterday (to allay any concerns or questions from users here that the drive
I have things set up in the BIOS so that the PC boots from the Hitachi first, the WD second (even though no OSes are on the WD currently and probably never will be), and then usb flash drives. My BluRay drive is also listed in the boot drive right after the Hitachi, but I rarely use it and prefer installs from USB. I also have AHCI turned on, and in that menu (which is separate from the boot order menu), it "sees" the WD first, the Hitachi second, and the usb drive third. I'm not sure if that's playing a role but I suspect the WD's presence is confusing the installer or something. I can install 8 if I remove the WD and reinsert it afterwards, but I dont want to, since it's just a bit of a hassle to have to open the laptop and always be carrying a screwdriver toolkit around. And I'm pretty sure I could just format the WD but also dont want that because it has Steam game data on it and it numbers in the several hundreds of gigs, would take hours to temporarily transfer off to an external HDD. The point is to not have to reinstall all my Steam games every time I reinstall 8 (which can be quite often), so I just want to leave them there and let Steam reverify the files.
In addition I have also tried creating an empty NTFS filesystem on the Hitachi and still get the error. Have also tried deleting all partitions on the Hitachi so that all space is listed as unallocated, but still the error is there. And have tried manually creating partitions via the Diskpart CMD utility and making sure that the partition is set as primary and active. I just didnt think that Windows would have an issue installing to a drive that is empty, new, unallocated, and unformatted, since I've never gotten this error before. And as I said before I could probably get past this thru other methods like just removing the WD and/or formatting it, but I prefer to get the experience and learning from this so I know how to handle things if something similar/identical happens in the future, which I'm sure it will as long as I continue to use these drives.
Thanks for any help!
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1 Pro x64, Windows Server 2012 R2 x64
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Lenovo G700
- CPU
- Intel Core i7-3632QM, 2.20 GHz
- Motherboard
- Lenovo
- Memory
- 6 GB DDR3
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVIDIA 720M, Intel HD 4000
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 1 monitor
- Screen Resolution
- 1600x900 (max)
- Hard Drives
- 1 TB HDD (5400 RPM), 1.5 TB HDD (5400 RPM) installed in a 12.7mm disc drive caddy
- Case
- Lenovo
- Keyboard
- Lenovo
- Mouse
- Laptop/notebook keyboard/touchpad
- Internet Speed
- It varies, since I'm mobile most of the time
- Browser
- Chromium (the open-source browser which Google Chrome is derived from)
- Antivirus
- Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Spybot, Privatefirewall
- Other Info
- I will add more information here later