Installing Windows 7 nightmare

[Rhye]

Hi, I have a new Mac mini server, and I haven't been able to install Windows on it.* When the Windows setup starts and I format the Bootcamp partition I always get the message "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition"* I've tried several times, with two different Windows & install cds, two usb's with windows, in both of the computer's hard drives. I'm sure I'm not using a different partition, I've searched in forums, read tutorials. I don't know what else to do.
Please please help, I've wasted hours on this. Thanks

 

[maflynn]

What I do is this
1. Create a bootcamp partition in OSX
2. Boot off the win7 disk
3. Select install instead of upgrade (or something to that affect)
4. Go through the installation process until I get to the disk selection. I find the boot camp partition, and either delete/reformat as NTFS or just reformat the bootcamp partition as NTFS.
5. install windows.

bootcamp creates a FAT32 partition, however win7 can only be installed on a NTFS partition so you need to create one. Just becareful which partition you choose to reformat as NTFS. Many people mistakenly choose their OSX partition and reformat that baby, losing all their data.

 

[Rhye]

Thanks for your reply! I've done all those steps many times. I have deleted and reformatted the bootcamp partition correctly many times in the windows setup but after that I still always get the message "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition". I've tried with both of the mac mini server internal hard drives with no luck.
Any other tips?

 

[Quad5Ny]

This is a bug in the Windows setup program. You have to disconnect the second hard drive until Windows setup is finished extracting the files from the setup image. (After this first reboot, you can power off and reconnect the other drive).

I've tried reporting it to Microsoft but they don't seem to care seeing as the bug has been around at least since Windows Vista.

 

[Rhye]

Wow thank you, but how can I disconnect the mac mini's second hard drive if its internal?

 

[Quad5Ny]

You have to lift off the bottom cover, take out the fan and possibly the WiFi antenna. Then lift up the connector to the hard drive you want to disable, put everything back in and run Windows setup.

After setup restarts the first time (power down and) reconnect the other drive.

Be very careful with the fan connector, it's easy to break if you force it the wrong way. If you don't know what your doing, you should get a friend to help you.

Follow these instructions up to step #12 to get at the connectors: http://ifixit-guide-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/guide_6275_en.pdf

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There might be another way around the error but disconnecting the secondary drives is the only solution I've been able to find.

If you have free phone support for your copy of Windows, you could try using it (just don't tell them your on a Mac). Who knows they might actually fix the bug.

 

[jetable]

Quad5NY is a genius. I tried installing Win7 on a 2011 Air a bunch of times and kept getting, "Setup was unable to create a new system partition..." I clean installed my harddrive twice, rebuilt the Win7 .iso with Boot Camp several times, no luck whatsoever.

Then I read about Windows setup taking forever to extract the image, so I decided to try installing slooooooowwwwlly. It worked perfectly. The latest Apples are apparently too fast for Windows. Try taking like 60 seconds between every install screen and see if it gets you anywhere.

 

[Rhye]

Thank you all for your replies. I solved the problem, All I had to do was unplug an external hard drive I had connected

 

[Quad5Ny]

Thank you all for your replies. I solved the problem, All I had to do was unplug an external hard drive I had connected

*facepalm* You never said you had a external drive connected. I would have told you to disconnect that first. Windows setup can be very finicky on letting you install with more than one drive.

But I digress, my original recommendation is still correct based on the info I was given.


If you have this error (See Picture) then the solution is usually to disconnect any extra hard drives.