1 Topic by lukemersh5

  • lukemersh5
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2015-02-10
  • Posts: 2

Topic: formatting HDD for windows 7 install

Please help...
I am trying to fix a friends laptop to install a bad windows install.

I am trying to format the HDD with gparted-
I format the HDD in NTFS, but when I go to install windows it comes up with an error about the drive and Partition.

do i need to create a Partition once it has been formatted to NTFS?

2 Reply by lukemersh5

  • lukemersh5
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2015-02-10
  • Posts: 2

Re: formatting HDD for windows 7 install

When I go to install and select drive it says that it can not be installed on that drive because of disk driver, and says that it needs to be enabled in bios???
how and where do i find that in bios- I think this is the only thing from preventing me from installing windows please help.
Laptop: Toshiba

3 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
  • Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-11-30
  • Posts: 4,592

Re: formatting HDD for windows 7 install

First, backup any data needed from the disk!

When installing Windows, it is easiest to let Windows partition the disk.  If Windows is refusing to partition or format the disk, then you might be able to work around this by overwriting the partition table and the initial sectors of the disk with zeroes.


CAUTION:  This will wipe out the partition table and data on the disk.  Be sure to choose the correct drive path!

To overwrite the initial part of the disk, use the following comand in a GNU/Linux terminal window:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/path-to-disk-device count=63

Where /path-to-disk-device is something like /dev/sda

After zeroing the initial part of the disk, you can try re-installing Windows.