Partitioning HDD Issues

jegMoS

Prominent
Jun 1, 2017
3
0
510
Alright, hi there guys!

So, I'm in need of a little bit of help building my own PC. I'm not the best when it comes to computers and I decided to build my own after my old PC pretty much outlived it's usefulness, and began to show it's age.

I went out and bought some things to get myself going, and I botched quite a bit in the hook up(messed the whole cpu up cause I'm clumsy and not very bright) So now I'm sitting on an MSI 970a mobo with my crap old AMD dual core in it for the moment, 8Gb ddr3 ram, a video card from 2010, a non partitioned 1tb hdd and a 700w power supply.

How the heck do I partition a HDD? I don't have another HDD except for this blank one, I've googled and YouTubed possible ways to do this with no avail. I'm using a legal version of Windows 7. I'm pretty sure this is my biggest issue atm, I think if I could at least get the PC booting to windows I could figure out all the rest. I get to BIOS, BIOS reads that there is a HDD in the SATA port, however upon attempting to install Windows 7 on it(with a disk btw), the hdd doesn't appear in the choose location part of installation. When it does it says "Drive X" and doesn't allow me to do anything with it. I have a WD 1tb Blue HDD. I'm at a loss there, my external HDD that I've had for awhile will show up, but I'm not able to install an OS to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated because I'm seriously losing my mind and feeling like I've really just wasted money trying to do this myself instead of just buying a prepared PC.

Please forgive my sloppy grammar and probably spelling, 27 hours and going now :)
Thanks,
J
 

JaredDM

Honorable
Windows will partition it all on its own when you do the install. Just point it to the correct disk and let it do the rest.

If there was a previous OS on the drive, or it was formatted and used previously, you may just have to delete the partitions that are already there.

Are you trying to install to your old HDD? If so it's probably seeing the existing Windows install there and preventing you from screwing that up.
 
Do you have the HDD connected to the first SATA port on the motherboard? Probably labeled SATA 0. Power cable connected to the HDD? Do you still have your old PC? If so assuming the old PC has SATA ports and not IDE only, you could connect the new HDD and initialize it and give it a drive letter using the old PC. As said, no need to partition it.
 

jegMoS

Prominent
Jun 1, 2017
3
0
510
Everything is new except CPU and the case, the hard drive is brand spankin' new as of today. I do have my old PC, but it's completely dissembled. I'm just trying to get Win 7 on the brand new HDD, and I'm failing miserably.
 

jegMoS

Prominent
Jun 1, 2017
3
0
510


"To install Windows 7 using the Custom option and formatting the hard disk

To format your hard disk during Windows 7 installation, you'll need to start, or boot, your computer using the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.

Turn on your computer so that Windows starts normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, and then shut down your computer.

Restart your computer.

Press any key when prompted, and then follow the instructions that appear.

On the Install Windows page, enter your language and other preferences, and then click Next.

If the Install Windows page doesn't appear, and you're not asked to press any key, you might need to change some system settings. To learn how to do this, see Start your computer from a Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.

On the Please read the license terms page, if you accept the license terms, click I accept the license terms, and then click Next.

On the Which type of installation do you want? page, click Custom.

On the Where do you want to install Windows? page, click Drive options (advanced).

Click the partition that you want to change, click the formatting option you want to perform, and then follow the instructions."


I can get all the way here, no HDD or partition shows up though, but like I said it displays in BIOS so I'm not quite sure what I seem to be doing wrong...