[AustinUlster]

Hi, & sorry if this is old news, I promise I searched for an age.

I bought a second hand STEC 8Gb SSD to replace the 4Gb one in my Mini 9, just to have a bit more space. Yes, it's not huge, but it's plenty for my needs.

Anyhow, loading XP Home from an external disc drive, I get to the user agreement, accept, then the screen shows 2 partitions and asks which one I want to put Windows in.

The first is about 40Mb, labelled FAT, and has some content - I can't see what. If I try to put Windows here I get a message saying too small, pick a bigger one.

The second is 7327Mb, labelled unknown, and apparently empty (7327Mb free). If I try to put it here I get "An error occurred while setup was updating partition info on 7327Mb disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on atapi (MBR). Setup cannot continue, to quit press F3" i.e. it chucks me out.

I can't delete either partition; the 7327Mb gives me dire warnings about being a system partition (though apparently empty), and if I continue both return a message about not being able to access the partition. I also tried to create new partitions within the existing ones but it won't allow that either.

Out of options...any ideas please?

I'm thinking about trying to make a backup image of my (working) system on the 4Gb SSD, and using it to boot the machine with the 8Gb SSD re-installed, via USB? But frankly I don't know what I'm doing, and surely there's an esier way? Simple answers please, I'm old.

Thanks! AU

[holmes4]

The SSD is bad. This is a common failure mode.

[AustinUlster]

Thanks for your advice Steve.
The back-up image plan indeed failed, and the SSD is now on its way back to the vendor.
Shiny new RunCore 16Gb on its way.
AU