MBR partition table? Windows 7 won't install on hard drive that previously had win7.

Anonymous
2016-02-13T12:25:28+00:00

(long story) Alright, so I have had this same exact harddrive for a while, and out of nowhere, I get a message: Microsoft Windows has stopped responding. I think, oh ****! I gotta restart it! And so I hard-restart it and now windows won't load. I get the bios, but not the OS. So I try to save my files and reinstall windows7 by using a linux usb to save my stuff, except that doesnt work. So I accept my fate, use GParted to format the partition to NTFS and then I restart and boot up from the windows install disc. And I go to install windows on the empty partition (also I guess I should mention there is another partition that's 100mb and says sytem reserved, I never touched that one) and I get this and I quote "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks." and thats it. And the weird thing is, I installed win7 on that SAME harddrive before with now problems. So did my Hard drive poop out on me? Is windows just being a butt? Help pls, I NEED my computer, I am in a programming for game design class and I need my PC in order to make my end of the year project. (Oh, I guess I should also mention I am currently using a Lubuntu usb stick to type this... if that is relevant at all...) Oh, and the windows version is 7 ultimate.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T22:00:14+00:00

    thank you for such a detailed response. Just one question: define zeroing out... but what I think you are saying is to delete the parition i made with gparted as well as the system partition amd then instal win7 like normal... do i have that right?

    Zero out means filling the sectors holding the GPT structures with zeros, aka wiping the sectors, you have to destroy the partition tables.  Deleting the partitions will remove them from the partition table but it will leave the partition tables intact, the disk will still be a GPT disk.

    John

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T21:47:58+00:00

    thank you for such a detailed response. Just one question: define zeroing out... but what I think you are saying is to delete the parition i made with gparted as well as the system partition amd then instal win7 like normal... do i have that right?

    The Window setup program will do it for you but if you want to prepare the disk with other tools you have to wipe the retained MBR and GPT partition table at the beginning of the disk and the duplicate GPT partition table at the end of the disk.  With the partition tables wiped out all the partitions on the disk will be deleted, to the Windows setup program the disk will be like a new never used disk and you will then be asked to create a new partition for the Windows installation.

    John

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T20:57:32+00:00

    ok so i found this link when i looked up the error code:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2476568

    Yes, that is the way to do it, the fastest and easiest way to do it, as instructed in the first reply to your question.  There is no need to use third party tools to install any Windows version, and you don't really need to know how any of it works, you just tell the Windows setup program to delete everything on the disk and then create a new partition for the new installation.

    John

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T20:38:41+00:00

    ok so i found this link when i looked up the error code:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2476568

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T20:36:03+00:00

    Ok, so I deleted all partitions and I was able to click the next button to start the install... then I got this: "Windows could not format a partition on disk 0. The error occured while preparing the partition selected for installation. Error code: 0x80070057" so... now what?

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