Question Win7 fresh install rejects partition

[Pimpom]

I've done a fresh installation of Windows 7U x64 multiple times but the last one was quite some time ago. I still have a thumb drive with an unattended Win7 installation that I made a few years ago and used more than once.

I got a new SSD for my old computer, made an 80GB active NTFS partition for the OS. But when I tried to install Windows, I got stuck at an early stage. The flash drive boots and goes past the 'Starting Windows' stage. When it reaches the part where I'm asked where I want to install Windows, it lists the available partitions but refuses to proceed after I select the active partition.

The error message is "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition." I've done a fresh installation on this system before (except for the new SSD). The installer disk is plugged into a USB 2.0 port. I must have missed something while preparing the system partition. I've rechecked it in a working system and it is active and formatted. Can anyone please tell me what the problem could be?

 

[Zephyl]

You should be able to use the installer itself to delete and create partitions. Using it to recreate the partition works a lot of the time.

 

[Pimpom]

I did that. Deleted and recreated the partition with the installer. It makes no difference.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I did that. Deleted and recreated the partition with the installer. It makes no difference.

Delete all partitions and don't create anything. Windows installation will create all the necessary partitions automatically.

If you want to create them manually, that needs to be done in a certain way.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/dn898510(v=vs.94)
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn898504(v=vs.60)