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Problem I'm trying to install Windows 8.1 from a USB key however when I go through the set up and it asks you to select a drive or partition a problem occurs, it says "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information see the setup log files". Attempted fixes By this point I let the set up process format the computers hard drive as I thought that would work but the same error still comes up, I've also followed some guides linked to me by the Windows 8.1 thread which instructed me to do the following; 1.Open an elevated command 2.Start diskpart 3.Enter list disk Locate your USB stick, no room for mistakes here or you might destroy the wrong thing. image 4.Enter select disk # (where # is the number of your USB drive, in the example above it’s number 3) 5.Enter the following commands, keep in mind that all data on the USB device will be deleted: ◦clean ◦create partition primary ◦select partition 1 ◦active ◦format quick fs=fat32 ◦assign ◦exit 6.Mount or extract the Windows 7 or 8 ISO 7.Copy the contents from the ISO to the USB stick ◦xcopy S:\* D:\ /s /e (S = the ISO drive or contents, D = the USB device) 8.Reboot your computer and enter the “BIOS” by pressing one of the F keys, this key varies depending on hardware manufacturer and model. 9.Enable the option “UEFI only” or similar option. 10.Save and exit, boot from your USB stick to start the installation. I have no option to disable/enable UEFI or or any 'secure boot option when I enter my BIOS, although I have checked (Win+R and MSINFO32) and that says my computer uses UEFI. Trying without step 9 hasn't worked, in the comments someone said that you should try "convert GPT" after clean but all that has done is make it impossible to boot from the USB drive at all! Other people have suggested that the boot order matters but it's unclear if the USB key or the SSD Drive should be first, either way doesn't seem to make a difference. The ISO I'm trying to use is from Microsoft's media downloader tool which was linked a number of times in the W8 thread. Operating system Windows 8.1 Pro (although not installed yet) I'm doing all the command line stuff on my Surface Pro 3 which also has Windows 8.1 on it. System specs An Acer Aspire 5750G with 4 GB ram and an SSD added to it. The processor is a Core i5 Sandy Bridge. Location UK I have googled and read the FAQ yes Sri.Theo fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 12:51
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:20 |
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Looks like your USB key is set up just fine. However, the error message suggests a problem in partitioning your hard drive. UEFI makes creation of USB boot sticks simple: if the stick is formatted as FAT32 and it has \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI on it, it is technically a valid UEFI bootable stick. Removable media does not need to have a GPT partition table. However, the requirements for a UEFI bootable hard drive are a bit more strict: - the hard drive must be GPT formatted - it must have an UEFI System Partition (= about 100M FAT32 partition, marked with a special UEFI System Partition identifier) - the UEFI System Partition must contain the \EFI directory, and within it, either the same \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI as the USB stick, or an OS vendor specific bootloader directory (e.g. \EFI\Microsoft\...) If the hard drive is completely blank, the Windows installer should automatically generate the necessary GPT partition table and all that UEFI stuff. But if your hard drive has a valid non-GPT partition table on it (i.e. an old-school MBR partition table), the installer might be getting cold feet and refusing to change it to GPT, as that might destroy existing data. So, you should try to wipe any existing partition table off the hard drive/SSD you wish to install Windows 8 to. If you can, plug the drive as a second drive to another computer and use it to ensure that it's either completely wiped (no partitions, not even partition tables: use DBAN or something to write zeroes all over the partition table), or has a valid **GPT** partition table.
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Feb 19, 2015 11:37
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http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/1840-installing-windows-from-usb-stick-to-a-gpt-drive I had this bookmark saved from when I was doing something similar at work. Basically what telcoM is telling you.
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Feb 19, 2015 18:42
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telcoM posted:Looks like your USB key is set up just fine. Hmm so there's a valid non-gpt partition lurking on the hard drive? Do you know any way to zero it via the command line? I don't have any way to remove the drive sand plug it in elsewhere. I have formatted it using diskpart like 5 times by now!
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Feb 21, 2015 23:15
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Sri.Theo posted:Hmm so there's a valid non-gpt partition lurking on the hard drive? Do you know any way to zero it via the command line? I don't have any way to remove the drive sand plug it in elsewhere. I have formatted it using diskpart like 5 times by now! Not necessarily a non-gpt partition, just the partition table. If diskpart detects an existing partition table (of any type), it won't convert it to another type unless you explicitly tell it to do that, by using the "convert" command. In diskpart, if you type "list disk", it should display a list of disks it detects. The right-most column is labelled "Gpt". You'll want to see an asterisk in that column for your hard drive. To convert a non-GPT disk to GPT in diskpart, you must first remove all existing partitions from it. The "clean" command will do exactly that. Then, use the command "convert gpt". Don't create any partitions after that: a completely virgin GPT partition table is exactly what the installer needs to see. Here is an explanation of the UEFI installation procedure with pictures: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2328-uefi-unified-extensible-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html In particular, note the steps 6-8. The installer needs to create a specific set of four (!) GPT partitions on the disk. Partition 4 will be your C: drive, and it can be sized to match the free space on your hard drive, but the first 3 partitions must be exactly as described.
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Feb 22, 2015 10:32
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:20 |
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telcoM posted:Not necessarily a non-gpt partition, just the partition table. Interesting. When I do 'List disk' there's only an empty space under the GPT header, and when I tried the 'convert GPT' command it gave me an error the first time then worked the second, so could there possibly be a hardware issue? There was no sign of one when I started this but I'm a bit worried formatting the drive about a dozen times by now might have done something to it! I double checked with list disk and the asterisk appeared in the correct header so the SSD is now in GPT. Regardless after the convert GPT command worked and I clicked new > OK > next, it came up with a popup saying "We couldn't create a new partition. [Error 0x80004005]. I did not get the 4 partitions the linked guide describes, only Drive 0 Partition 1. No recovery partitions or anything. It's frustrating because I'm doing everything the guide says, it just doesn't want to cooperate.
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Feb 22, 2015 20:26
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