Major problems with formatting and partitioning an SSD for Windows 7 install

Hazarrd

Junior Member
May 26, 2009
9
0
0
I?m going a little crazy right now and hoping that someone can help me out.

I just purchased a new Lenovo x200 laptop and an Intel 160GB X-25M SSD. I put the new hard drive in the laptop and booted from the Windows 7 DVD that I burned. Everything is fine until I get to the ?Where do you want to install Windows?? screen which lists the drives and partitions available. I have gone through this screen under several scenarios (don?t ask me how I?ve gotten these scenarios), and have not been able to get a successful install on any of them. The scenario I?m in right now is that there are no drives or partitions listed on which I can install Windows 7. There is a ?Load Driver? option so I downloaded the firmware update tool for the drive (this is the only download available for the drive on Intel?s site) and attempted to load the driver to no avail. The second scenario I can get to is by doing a full un-provision on the drive. Once I do this, there are three items listed on the ?Where do you want to install Windows?? screen: 100MB Unallocated, 100MB Partition 0 (System), and 149GB Partition 1 (Primary). I?ve tried two things under this scenario. First, I?ve tried formatting the Primary partition. When attempting to do so, I get an error saying that the partition cannot be formatted. The second thing I?ve tried is just selecting that drive to do the install on. I do this and get to the next step where it appears Windows 7 is being installed, and then moments later I get an error saying that Windows 7 was unable to create a partition on the drive.

Pleeeeease help. It?s driving me crazy and I?ve run out of ideas.
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
3,050
65
91
Can you get the drive partitioned and formatted by attaching it as a secondary drive to another computer (desktop)?
 

Hazarrd

Junior Member
May 26, 2009
9
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0
I just booted from an XP install CD and got bluescreeen error after it finished loading setup files. I've also booted into DOS and tried formatting the drive to no avail. I ran FDISK and when trying to set a new primary DOS partition it just hangs. This doesn't look good...

Is there some type of setting I need to change on the drive? Did my multiple "un-provisions" mess something up?

Grr...
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,387
465
126
On a desktop when this happens we have a neat CMOS reset button. No luck for laptop owners.
 

Hazarrd

Junior Member
May 26, 2009
9
0
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Resolved! As suggested from another forum, I booted from a Vista install CD, did a partial install (it was from a recovery CD so I couldn't get it to the point where I could login), and then booted from the Windows 7 CD and clean installed on the larger partition created by Vista. I'm not sure why it has to be done this way, but hopefully this helps someone else out. Now if only I could figure out how to get rid of the dualboot menu screen on startup (there is some weird non-OS option in it). Also, is it a big deal that I did not format the hard drive before doing a clean install? Are there any files that I can/should manually remove from my system from the Vista install?
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
This also happened to me. I couldn't install with vista/7, but I could install xp. Did that, created another partition, and then installed 7.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
Originally posted by: aeternitas
Whats the point partitioning an SSD?

when you reformat drive C to upgrade windows or reinstall it, you do not have to first "back up" your documents and games etc to another drive. (assuming you kept them on partition D to begin with)