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I am stuck with a weird problem here. I am trying to install Windows 10 on an "old" Windows 7 desktop machine for a friend. I purchased an SSD for him, but when I try to install Windows through USB it says:

We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files

I have tried:

  • Converting the drive to MBR and GPT
  • Diskpart -> clean -> create new primary partition -> mark as active
  • Remove all CD, SD, etc. drives from the motherboard (they don't appear in BIOS)
  • New SATA cable
  • Plug SSD into USB adapter and partition the drive on my desktop and mark it as active

However, none of these worked out for me. Very weird. Therefore I want to install Windows on the SSD through USB through my PC. I have a couple of SATA to USB adapters (with power and everything), so the drive basically appears as an USB drive in Windows. How would I go on about installing my Windows ISO on this drive through USB, without screwing up my partitions on my desktop PC?

What I have:

  • Windows ISO
  • USB adapter to hook up the SSD to my desktop

Let me know what the best approach would be, to solve this issue would be. Thanks!

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  • What’s the rationale behind this whole undertaking? Is the laptop not capable of booting from USB, so you could create a thumb drive containing Windows Setup?
    – Daniel B
    Apr 30, 2016 at 12:40
  • Why don't you just clone the existing install to the SSD, swap drives, deal with re-authenticating at MS, then do a regular upgrade.
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 30, 2016 at 12:41
  • @DanielB Read the post again. I get the error "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files" and I have tried basically everything to make the new SSD and old HDD work.
    – MortenMoulder
    Apr 30, 2016 at 12:41
  • @Tetsujin Because the old HDD has been erased. I need to start from scratch.
    – MortenMoulder
    Apr 30, 2016 at 12:42
  • Then the description 'old Win7 machine' is incorrect - right now it's just 'a machine' ;) If you can force an OS onto a USB drive [difficult as you need an Enterprise license to be able to install WinToGo] then it would very likely fail to boot when you put it back in the first machine, unless you have something like Acronis Universal Restore, which can 'de-specify' a boot drive. How did you generate your 'Windows ISO'? Media Creator?
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 30, 2016 at 12:48

3 Answers 3

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Worked by using another USB drive. In this case an SD card actually. I had to plug in an USB drive as well (with the same Windows ISO installed), because the installer apparently couldn't find some of the media on the SD card.

TL;DR: Use another USB drive and you won't waste 8+ hours on something stupid.

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  • I have experienced this problem before as well. Specifically with Kingston drives. After encountering the issue with 4 of their drives, I always use another brand and the issue has never reoccurred.
    – BramMooij
    Jun 8, 2020 at 11:31
  • You can accept your own answer: Can I answer my own question? Without an accepted answer, the system will keep bumping your question to the home page (unless the question gets downvoted).
    – Andrew Morton
    Oct 14, 2023 at 17:58
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I understand that you resolved your issue already, but I was able to install Windows 10 (Home and Pro) on a removable drive through a VM. I had initially tried installing Windows directly, but the installer was not able to find the drive.

Set the USB SSD as a physical disk in your VM software and the Windows installer should have no trouble installing to it.

It's been a while since I've done it, but here's a rundown of my setup (to the best of my memory).

Hardware:

  • Laptop (Lenovo L380 Yoga) running Fedora (31 I think)
  • SSD in this enclosure. I had a 128 GB msata drive inside it.
  • VirtualBox (using these instructions to configure VirtualBox to use the physical drive. The instructions basically creates a virtual disk file that links to your physical drive.

For reference, here is the command to create a create a virtual disk file that links to your removable drive:

  • Linux: VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "</path/to/file>.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/(DRIVE)
  • Windows: VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "C:\Users\<user_name>\VirtualBox VMs\<VM_folder_name>\<file_name>.vmdk" -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive#
  • Mac: VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "</path/to/file>.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/disk#

My host machine ran Linux, so I used the Linux command.

When booting windows.iso in virtualbox, I ran into no issues when installing to the drive. The vm cannot access the Windows key contained on my drive, so I was asked for verification. I had previously linked my Windows key to my Microsoft account, so I think I just used my Microsoft credentials to activate Windows (on first boot).

After installing, I was able to boot directly off the removable SSD without any issues (directly meaning bare-metal). Note that I only booted this drive on my host machine (the lenovo laptop).

Hope this helps anyone in the future.

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  • Not sure why this was downvoted, it’s a fine answer.
    – coresdev
    Mar 4, 2021 at 17:24
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If you have a Windows and Linux system on hand, it is easy. Use Rufus for Windows. Look it up and download it. then use Windows and Rufus to make a Win-to-Go disk on a thumb drive and then go to Linux and use DD to copy the thumb drive to the target USB to SATA drive. In Linux for example /DEV/SDX1 is source drive (The win to go USB you just made) and /DEV/SDX2 is target drive, the usb to sata drive. Linux command " DD BS=32768 if=/dev/sdx1 of=/dev/sdx2/ status=progress " IF = input file (The source drive or file ) and OF=output (target drive or file). Then boot off the USB to SATA drive you just wrote to and continue the install just like a Win-to-Go install. DD is also known as Disk Destroyer so I always use Gparted (a Linux disk partitioning tool I highly recommend) to confirm source and destination drives of the read and write. A wrong "of" which means "output file" or disk drive, can wipe an entire drive including a boot drive. BE VERY CAREFUL with DD! I have used new usb to sata drives to make some my of old computers like my Winstick and old tablets a lot faster. It is a major improvement. But you cannot install Windows on a USB for some odd reason. Windows sucks Linux Rules!! I gotta use Windows for games though.

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