Windows 7 RC won't format clean disk

[wrangler]

When I try and install Windows 7 RC 64-bit on my Velociraptor, I click on format after creating the partition in the advanced drive options area I get the following error.

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

The funny thing is, it does create the partition, or at least it looks like it does. The drive changes from unallocated space to primary partition. Then when I click on format, it gives me the warning that I might be destroying files blah blah blah.......I click OK and the little circle thing comes up like it is about to do something then it just goes away and I get that message.

Rig in sig

 

[California Roll]

Try to disconnect all drives except for the drive you are installing it on.

 

[Modelworks]

Depending on the last OS to use that drive you may need to erase the boot sector/fat table of the drive. Windows setup gets a bit weird with partitions sometimes.
An easy way to do it is just wipe the first 500 sectors with something like dban, overwrite once is enough.

The problem comes from windows format command. It never erases data, just marks it invalid and creates a new FAT. Sometimes it gets confused



http://www.dban.org/download

 

[wrangler]

I only have the one Velociraptor installed. The other one, which was my Vista drive died this morning and is it's way back to Western Digital. So, I figured now would be a perfect time to try Windows 7.

I do have a floppy and DVD drive installed. Might have a thumb drive sticking out the back. Should probably take that out.

 

[California Roll]

Floppy and DVD don't matter. Not sure about the thumb drive but taking it out couldn't hurt.

The times I've seen this problem it was fixed by disconnecting extra hard drives. I don't know why this is a problem but that usually fixed it.

 

[wrangler]

No go. I did use Western Digitals DLG Diagnostics to wipe the drive before I started. So, Windows 7 should see it as a brand new drive.

Tried switching to AHCI mode. No go.
Removed thumb drive. No help.

I even tried, with a little trial and error, creating a partition through the command prompt and then formatting that but I must have done it wrong because when I restarted the installation, Windows still gave me the same error message and acted like I didn't have a formatted drive sitting there.

Maybe switch SATA channels? Bios??
Bad image?? Maybe I should redownload and reburn??

I did google and quite a few people have reported this but I don't see any solutions so far. I hate it when that happens.

 

[wrangler]

Wow

You are not gonna believe this.


When I removed the dead Velociraptor, I switched my DVD and the working Velociraptor around to different channels so that I could have the HDD show up as the 1st item in the list. Silly, I know.

I just switched them back and now all is working. I should be able to plug them into any damned SATA channel I want right??? Do DVD's need to be the first thing on the list or something I'm not aware of??

 

[California Roll]

That's weird, but good to know. Never would have thought of that. Whenever I add new hard drives I always move my optical drives to the last channels. Just so they always show up last on the bios startup screen

 

[Bozo Galora]

SATA 0 is supposed to be boot drive
You can make SATA 1 boot drive, and SATA 0 second drive, but you (depending on bios) should move SATA 1 up in order and designate it boot drive
I have multiple SATA O/S booting drives, and I can make the one to boot by where I plug it in, or how I set the bios
Remember - there is no primary/secondary or "end of cable", or master slave jumper.
In the bios, if you set SATA to IDE mode, you will see your SATA reconfigure as VIRTUAL prim/secondary for each pair.
SATA 4-5 (or 6-7) are usually for opticals, you will see dif options in bios for them