Im trying to install Windows 7 on an HP machine The computer was using Windows Vista and had all sorts of problems so instead of upgrading i went with the format option The installation was going fine until the computer lost power at around 25% When i started it back up again it didnt detect that it had already started, so i started the installation over, thinking it wouldnt matter since it would just format again Before i started anything the disk was set-up like this: HP Recovery Partition (D: | 8GB total | 7.2GB used | .8GB free | NTFS) Local Disk Partition (C: | 227GB | 120GB used | 107GB free | NTFS) (The numbers are estimates since i dont remember exactly how much space there was, but it was close to that) After the power came back on and i restarted the computer it was: HP Recovery Partition (D: | 8GB total | 7.2GB used | .8GB free | NTFS) Local Disk Partition (C: | 227GB | 0GB used | 227GB free | NTFS) So i restarted the installation, but this time it failed to format giving an error I tried to format the Local Disk partition using the disk tools, which also failed So i deleted the Local Disk partition and made a new one of the same size, but it failed to format the new partition I ended up with this: HP Recovery Partition (D: | 8GB total | 7.2GB used | .8GB free | NTFS) Unallocated Partition ( C: | 227GB | 0GB used | 227GB free | RAW) So i tried using the cmd prompt tool to format it manually with the "format c: /fs:ntfs" cmd, which also failed Eventually i got mad at it and deleted the HP Recovery partition just so i would only have the 1 partition The HP reovery had recovery stuff for windows vista so i figured i wouldnt need it anyway and just got rid of it Which resulted in what i have now: System Partition (C: | 100MB | 86MB used | 14MB free | NTFS) Unallocated Partition ( D: | 235GB | 0GB used | 235GB free | RAW) Not sure what the System Partition is for Everything ive tried to do to format that unallocated partition into NTFS has failed (going to try fdisk tomorrow, but i dont think it will work) I also have a Boot partition ( X: ) which doesnt show up in the places i can install windows 7 to, and its write protected (it seems to have windows 7 set-up files on it) Im almost out of ideas on how to fix this, so if anyone knows what i should do, id really appreciate it
100mb Partition Can't help you other then to say when I installed Win 7 it set up a 100mb system reserved partition which does not have a drive letter assigned to it. I tried fdisk somewhere along the way and it was not recognized. I used to be pretty tech savvy, but I've been away about 10yrs! This is all new to me now. I went from a 130mhz pentium with Win 3.1 and 40mgs of ram to this $300 EMachine and it like I'm ready for John Force!
Try this Delete all partitions and Reboot. When asked where to install 7 simply choose the free space and - normally - Windows either simply says something like Thats all the info needed right now and continues - or it gives a message about creating a system partition and continues. Try it - what have you got to lose except for about 20 minutes. If that fails you'll need some diskpartition utility to repair any disk errors. PS The system partition is where 7 locates its boot code and the files necessary to install bitlocker if you want to later - the boot files need to be unencrypted in order to boot.
Ive tried this several times It starts the installation process, freezes at 0% after a few minutes and then says formatting has failed Thanks, ill give this a try I dont think the disk is damaged But ill give it a try depending on what happens when i use the killdisk tool
