[ccharette0]

Did anyone else get an error message saying "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu"?

Like any good computer guy, I ignored the message but then another message pops up and says "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information."

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

[Curious]

When you power on, go into the BIOS by pressing 2. See what BIOS version you're using. I believe you may need to be running at lease A03. You can download the current version, A04 from Dell's website.

somms has also put together a bootable bios installer that you can use if xp isn't still available on your mini.

[cmarcho]

Updating the bios is a good idea. I'm running A03 and didn't have any issues installing Windows 7 on my Dell 16GB SSD or the Runcore 64GB SSD.

Is the disk formatted Fat32 by any chance?

You may also want to try some of the suggestions in this kb... it's a Vista article but the same concept should apply:

933171 You cannot select or format a hard disk partition when you try to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;933171


Method 5 is a good one, it walks you through booting off the setup CD and using diskpart to get the drive configured.

To use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the hard disk, follow these steps: 1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then restart the computer.
2. Install Windows Vista. During the installation process, in the Where do you want to install Windows screen, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt.
3. Click Start , click Run , type diskpart , and then click OK .
4. At the command prompt, type list disk , and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed.
5. At the command prompt, type sel disk number , and then press ENTER. The hard disk is now selected.

Note number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean.
6. At the command prompt, type det disk , and then press ENTER. A list of partitions on the hard disk is displayed. Use this information to verify that the correct disk is selected.
7. Make sure that the disk does not contain required data, type clean all at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to clean the disk. All the data and all the partitions on the disk are permanently removed.
8. Type exit , and then press ENTER.
9. Run Windows Vista Setup to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista.

[jdizzle]

I had this problem when I tried to install and figured it was because I formatted the drive(I had also accidentally disabled it in bios). I also was getting some kind of 'bootmgr not found' type of error and thought it might be the linux grub menu that was holding me up(was dual booting xp/Ubuntu). I'm still not sure what the problem was, but after a clean xp install(just installed to set-up, never actually booted to xp), The win 7 install went fine although it took about twice as long as my atom 330 desktop using the same "made for dell" usb DVD.

[ccharette0]

thanks for the replies all. turned out that i had to plug in a "dummy" usb drive. once i did that, it was instantly discovered and i was able to install to the internal SSD. it really makes no sense to me at all why that happened. Running windows 7 now, very nice!!

[katz]

Originally Posted by ccharette0

thanks for the replies all. turned out that i had to plug in a "dummy" usb drive. once i did that, it was instantly discovered and i was able to install to the internal SSD. it really makes no sense to me at all why that happened. Running windows 7 now, very nice!!

what do you mean plug in a dummy USB Drive? I am trying to install Win7 from USB. Should I have another one plugged in aswell?

btw, im getting the same error "Setup was unable to create a new partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log for more information"

Im coming from having OSX installed, so i think its screwed the partition table. Help anyone? .

[Psygnosis]

I ran into this when I was trying to install Win7 on my double wide. My initial thought was that the drive wasn't seated right, I powered it down and pulled the drive and reinstalled it. On the second attempt Windows installed just fine, I have no idea if messing with the drive actually had anything to do with it though.

[monakh]

I have never installed Win7 via DVD--until now. I always install from my USB stick, whether it is 32bit or 64bit.

For those who are getting the message "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu" while installing Win7 from USB, this is because Windows is uncertain about which disk to install to. The USB stick confuses it. The only way around this is to install from DVD. I did that and it installed just fine. As far as I can tell, this has to do with the MiniPCIe interface on the Mini9/A90. The USB drive clearly interferes with how it is recognized during the Windows installation.

I hope this helps folks who arrive here via Google, as I did

Edit: Just wanted to note that I am running the RunCore SSDs so perhaps the host USB controller on these drives messes things up. Apparently people have installed Win7 just fine on the stock drives via USB.

[odedia]

Just wanted to confirm that attaching another USB drive solves the problem. I use a Lenovo S10-2 but the error seems the same.

Windows installer is so dumb, I can't believe it!

[theoperator]

I had this issue on my Mini9, disabling the Cardslot in the BIOS fixed it.