Windows refuses to install on a hard drive

insanepuppet

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Jan 4, 2011
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I am trying to install windows on a hard drive, but at the partition management screen windows will not allow me to select a partition. It flags that the partition contains one or more dynamic disks that are not supported by windows. All the buttons are grey and it won't let me select them. I've deleted all partitions so it says "unallocated space" and still nothing. Kinda stuck, not sure what to do now. Thank you for your time in advance
 
Solution
In a different computer use Partition Magic, or diskpart if you are not afraid of a little command prompt work, to clean the drive, and then format it as a single logical partition. Then put it back in your box and see if Windows will play nice. There is a chance that your drive is damaged somehow and you will need to trade it in for a different drive (very rare though and I have only had it happen to me once out of the 20+ HDDs I have owned over the years).
In a different computer use Partition Magic, or diskpart if you are not afraid of a little command prompt work, to clean the drive, and then format it as a single logical partition. Then put it back in your box and see if Windows will play nice. There is a chance that your drive is damaged somehow and you will need to trade it in for a different drive (very rare though and I have only had it happen to me once out of the 20+ HDDs I have owned over the years).
 
Solution

insanepuppet

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Jan 4, 2011
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inzone- Yes windows 7 Home Premium x64 or a WD Caviar Black 1Tb

caedenv- I tried that with Acronis Disk Director, do you think Partition Magic will be different? I also tried using a Ubuntu disk to manage partitions, but it won't let me past the preparation screen.

alvine- thats my problem, windows will not allow me to format it. I can format it using acronis, but it doesnt help