Installing Windows 7 using BootCamp

Sounds like you are doing everything right, just let the installer format it for you. Bootcamp formats it as Fat32, which can only be used with XP.

 

You'll probably find that your Macbook Pro will be the fastest Windows machine you've ever had.

 

I think installing ntfs-3g will allow Disk Utility to create NTFS volumes. If that doesn't work, you may need a third party program like GParted. Even if ntfs-3g doesn't let you partition the drive, it will still let you read and write to the Windows partition from OS X.

 

If it's not too late, you can just create the partition using bootcamp and when you get to the point where you select the partition for install, it will tell you you can't install on it. It will give you the option to format the partition. Do that, then install. No extra software needed.

 

This is what I did. I had BootCamp make the FAT32 partition and then used the Windows7 setup to reformat that partition to NTFS, worked like a charm, took 2 minutes.