Setup was unable to create a system partition...

Incredibly frustrated by a dozen or more attempts at a clean installation of Windows 7 RC1 x64 on a brand new system I just built! Win7 RC1 (x64) simply will NOT install in a RAID 0 configuration on my setup. Each time my installation process stalls with the same message:

"Setup was unable to create a system partition or locate an existing partition."


I cannot go any further and I am forced to end my installation and the computer reboots. I have the latest Intel ICH10R SATA RAID drivers on a thumbdrive (instead of crappy floppy 'F6' style) and I've tried loading the ICH10R drivers from thumbdrive AND mb maunfacturer's DVD. The partitioned drives are never recognized properly by the Win7 setup apparently. Although the patitions ARE VISIBLE and I can expand the ADVANCED OPTIONS and delete, format, etc., I receive the same error message above and can go no further. No luck with anything I've tried. I've spent hours and hours scouring the net for answers to this issue. Apparently this message is VERY COMMON but no one has a reliable answer at all.

I have checked, checked and RECHECKED my BIOS settings and have even gone to great lengths to insure that ALL non-essential hardware is disconnected during these install attempts. I have even moved my SATA DVD connection from the ICH10 to onboard Gigaraid SATA controller. The ONLY HDDs installed on the ICH10 are the two velociraptors which are configured by the RAID BIOS and are properly recognized by the system and Win7 installer.


My system:
GIGABYTE EX58-EXTREME mb
Intel i7 920 quad-core processor
12GB DDR3-tri-channel OCZ ram
(2) 300 GB WD Velociraptors in RAID 0 configuration
Samsung SATA DVD burner
Sapphire HD4870 1GB GDDR5 PCIe GPU
((no FDD at all, so using 8GB thumbdrive for F6 drivers))

All additional drives (WD 1TB eSATA drive and other Raptor drives) are NOT connected at this time to avoid causing conflicts!

I have recently read posts that indicate there are 2 log files created during each attempt at installing Windows 7. I found them in the following location: X:\windows\panther\ however, there seems to be no usable information contained in these files to aid in troubleshooting this problem.

Is this a known problem with a workaround, or is M$ even trying to resolve this issue, which is happening to countless individuals trying to perform a clean installation Win 7 RC1 (and Beta build 7000)?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!
Brendon

sidenote: Win7 RC1 x64 installed and worked great on my old Gigabyte 8i955x Royal system w/ Pentium D (EM64T), 2gb DDR2 and 4 Raptors in Raid 10 using ICH7R controller. That system had a tri-boot configuration that was far more complex than this new system I just built. Perhaps Win7 just doesn't play nicely with certain newest pieces of hardware? I have read about many users successfully installing and using W7 x64 on very similar systems with little to no problems. I'm baffled by this!

i have exsamctly the same problem

i was on dual boot beetween windows 7 and xp

i found the problem - on xp it said C:/ is unacessable acess is denied

so i boot in safe mode in win xp and clicked security etc


IF you are on dual boot check win xp the error C:\ is unacessable acess is denied

fix this error then retry to install windows 7

Sorry I can't help with your problem, but I believe the Panther directory relates to Group Policy

I had exactly the same problem.

Here's what I was initially doing:

Boot device 1 = CD-ROM
Boot device 2 = Blank Intel SSD
Boot device 3 = USB stick with ICH10R AHCI drivers

Setup starts fine, you can load the drivers, it lets you choose a partition but then says "unable to create system partition".

The solution for me was as follows:

1) Do not have USB stick plugged in when booting, so only:
Boot device 1 = CD-ROM
Boot device 2 = Blank Intel SSD

2) At the setup page which says you can load other drivers, insert the USB stick, then click the link and load the drivers

3) Unplug the USB stick

4) Continue with setup

Hope that helps

Hey undertow...thanks for passing on your hints! I believe I tried just about every combination of things possible, however, with the increasing irritation that grew after countless failed attempts at installing 7 in a RAID 0 config, I cannot recall if I tried it exactly the way you described or not! So, I've saved the few bookmarks and such that I've accumulated under my current 7 install and I'm off to format and try it all over again. Wish me luck...I'll see ya on the other side to let you know how I faired.

Thanks again for your response!

Originally Posted by undertow

I had exactly the same problem.

Here's what I was initially doing:

Boot device 1 = CD-ROM
Boot device 2 = Blank Intel SSD
Boot device 3 = USB stick with ICH10R AHCI drivers

Setup starts fine, you can load the drivers, it lets you choose a partition but then says "unable to create system partition".

The solution for me was as follows:

1) Do not have USB stick plugged in when booting, so only:
Boot device 1 = CD-ROM
Boot device 2 = Blank Intel SSD

2) At the setup page which says you can load other drivers, insert the USB stick, then click the link and load the drivers

3) Unplug the USB stick

4) Continue with setup

Hope that helps

Undertow--thank you a thousand times. You were right. The one thing that I was missing...and on which there is ZERO documentation...is the fact that the USB flash drive MUST BE REMOVED immediately after loading the RAID / AHCI drivers before clicking NEXT! I followed your tip and although I did have to click "RESCAN" after plugging in the USB flash drive before I could "BROWSE" for the drivers, it worked like a charm. Who would have thought that keeping the USB drive inserted throughout the installation process would result in the OS completely halting and refusing to recognize the HDD partition(s)??? That did NOT happen to me on Vista and it didn't happen on my other computer with 7 beta on it. Go figure. One step forward...two steps back!

I just had this problem too, only the problem was caused either by a SDHC card or a USB mouse. When I remove them from system, I was able to install. So I guess the rule of thumb is, UNPLUG Everything.

You're welcome

I've reported it on TechNet

I was having the same error message come up when trying to get a fresh copy of Windows 7 installed on a Dell Optiplex GX280 with a single 80 GB SATA drive. It kept throwing up the error about not being able to use or create the system partition.

Finally solved my problem by adding some Intel Chipset drivers to the USB key I was installing Win 7 from. Then during setup, I clicked on the Load Drivers button on the drive page and then pointed it to the Vista 32 bit drivers (which I had on my flash drive) that can be downloaded from Intel here:

http://is.gd/HsXi-

Oddly enough on the drivers to load page it didn't seem to have anything to do with with SATA interface. But after selecting both of the drivers that were presented to install (crtl + click highlighted them both); when I was returned to the drive/partition screen as soon as I selected the clean 80 GB drive on my system I was able to install.

Also for those who might need it I found it useful to checkout things with diskpart to make sure that I had everything setup correctly. You can launch a command any time during the setup by hitting SHIFT + F10.

good info to know.

Life saving information, was trying everything I could think of to get Win 7 working. I was just getting ready to reinstall XP I was so frustrated. As you pointed out pulled out two flash drives changed some bios settings so that hard drives were the priority and away I went. Cheers mate!