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Boot Camp - Setup was unable to create a new system partition....from Windows install

Hi folks. So I ran the boot camp wizard and made a USB install key for windows from that. I boot to it and everything works until I get to the install. I format the Boot Camp partition as indicated in the walkthrough and then I get "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information." from the Windows installer. What do I do? Thanks.

Posted on Aug 13, 2011 7:27 AM

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Posted on Aug 20, 2011 5:49 PM

Same thing happened to me. After repeating the same step many times (and formatting the partition several times) and getting the "Setup was unable to create ..." message over and over again, I decided to abort the install and back out using the back arrow <- (upper left corner of the Windows dialog box). After I got to the first Windows 7 screen, I decided to try the install one more time, and went forward in all the windows. This time it worked!


Remember to select the right partition (in my case disk 0 partition 4). Also, remember since the originally Mac created BootCamp partition was formatted, it will no longer be called BootCamp.


Good luck

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Aug 20, 2011 5:49 PM in response to ridergroov

Same thing happened to me. After repeating the same step many times (and formatting the partition several times) and getting the "Setup was unable to create ..." message over and over again, I decided to abort the install and back out using the back arrow <- (upper left corner of the Windows dialog box). After I got to the first Windows 7 screen, I decided to try the install one more time, and went forward in all the windows. This time it worked!


Remember to select the right partition (in my case disk 0 partition 4). Also, remember since the originally Mac created BootCamp partition was formatted, it will no longer be called BootCamp.


Good luck

Jul 27, 2012 10:30 AM in response to Md Fadhli

Thanks Fadhli! Worked for me (Macbook Pro Retina, Lion 10.7.4, Windows 7 x64). Just a note that the whole process (including running the bootcamp assistant) must be done without any USB flash drives attached. An obscure reason, espeially since you probably have your USB drive still attached for downloading the Apple drivers.....Pity Apple hasnt listed this in their bootcamp guide.

Jul 29, 2012 9:09 AM in response to ridergroov

just to add to the mix. . . i just got a new macbook retina.


Originally used a USB flash drive. Hit the same barrier described here.


Spent a few hours with drive unplugging / replugging silliness. No progress. Went back into OSX to attempt using an external DVD drive. There is no option for that in Bootcamp assistant now - must use USB.


Grabbed a different USB stick and started again. This time I used the other USB port on the macbook (the one on the left). Everything worked fine this time!?


You still have to go into "advanced options" and hit "format" when you get to the partition screen.


Moral of the story: different stick, different port. Sounds random. If that doesn't work, try changing your socks and putting on a hat.


Good luck!

Oct 14, 2012 10:15 AM in response to ridergroov

Tried all of the approaches above, but none worked😐. Kept getting the error above. Tried searching the USB and DVD for drivers that might be missing...again no luck. Then backed up to the windows DVD install screen and there was an option for checking compatability (something like repair Windows Installation)...PRESTO!!!

Good luck!😉

Boot Camp - Setup was unable to create a new system partition....from Windows install

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