PDA

View Full Version : [other] windows 7 won't install



rudi009
April 9th, 2010, 03:40 AM
i tried installing windows 7 on a partition on my laptop but i'm getting this message:
"setup was unable to create a new partition or locate an existing system partition "

i tried googling and found that it has something to do with the number of partitions:
my hard disk layout right now:
p1 ext4 21gb /home
p2 ntfs 64gb
p3 ext3 18gb ubuntu installation
p4 swap 2gb
p5 ntfs 17gb created to install 7
p6 ntfs 31gb to store other stuff
i can't afford to reduce the number of partitions so is there any way around it???:confused:

thanks in advance for help..

Pressondude
April 9th, 2010, 04:05 AM
I also had issues getting Win7 to install recently. After it had supposedly wiped my harddrive, GRUB was still there, though all of my partitions were gone...
I have since given up and gone back to XP

presence1960
April 9th, 2010, 04:35 AM
i tried installing windows 7 on a partition on my laptop but i'm getting this message:
"setup was unable to create a new partition or locate an existing system partition "

i tried googling and found that it has something to do with the number of partitions:
my hard disk layout right now:
p1 ext4 21gb /home
p2 ntfs 64gb
p3 ext3 18gb ubuntu installation
p4 swap 2gb
p5 ntfs 17gb created to install 7
p6 ntfs 31gb to store other stuff
i can't afford to reduce the number of partitions so is there any way around it???:confused:

thanks in advance for help..

You can only have 4 partitions- either 4 primary or 3 primary and 1 extended. Within the extended partition you can create as many logical partitions you want, the only limit being the size of the extended partition.

There is no way around that.

Pressondude
April 9th, 2010, 05:31 AM
Can you help me with my issue? It wouldnt install at all, even though I told it to wipe the disk. The disk worked for two other computers.

oldfred
April 9th, 2010, 05:40 AM
Windows wants to install in a primary partition. Linux, data and NTFS that are data only can be in logical partitions.
You could move your /home sda1 or your linux install sda3 and let windows install in those partitions. They do not look large enough so you will have to do a lot of moving of partitions also to give windows enough space.
Be sure to have all your data backed up.

Multibooters, Pictures here worth 1000+ words
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html

rudi009
April 9th, 2010, 07:02 AM
is there any way to shrink the extended partition to free up the free space under its domain to make that free space a primary partition?? right now i've my /home as primary and rest everything in one extended. i want to make that 17 gb one as primary too...

oldfred
April 9th, 2010, 04:56 PM
You need to print your entries as the order is important. All the extended have to be in the one primary. I cannot tell what your order is. You also can delete swap and put a new one inside the extended, but would have to manually edit fstab to see the new UUID of the new swap.


sudo fdisk -l