Installing Windows 10 on your PC or laptop is very easy and simple. All you need to do is to download Windows 10 ISO, create a bootable USB drive, insert it and follow the wizard on the screen. During the installation, Windows 10 will ask you to select a partition. Usually, you just select the desired partition or hard drive from the list and Windows does the rest of the work.
However, several users have reported a “Failed to create new partition” error when creating a new partition during Windows 10 installation. And this error is preventing them from installing Windows 10.
Table of Contents
What causes the “we couldn’t create a new partition” error message in Windows 10?
- One of the most common causes of partition errors is interference from other connected devices.
- Sometimes the “Failed to create new partition” error can be caused by an incorrectly created Windows bootable device.
- Usually, when you install Windows, a USB drive or CD-ROM is used as the first boot device. However, sometimes this causes Windows to confuse the USB drive or CD with the hard disk, resulting in the “Failed to create a new partition” error.
How to resolve the “Failed to create a new partition” problem in Windows 10?
Activate the partition
- Open the disk list.
- Find the drive and enter “Select Drive 0” or any other number you like. This new number will be the number of your hard drive.
- Open the partition list.
- Identify the partition you want to install in the list and click on it.
- Replace “number 1” with your partition number.
- Enter “active.”
- Type exit and enter to exit the command line.
Converting a partition to GPT format
- Run the command line and open Diskpart.
- Open the disk list to find your hard drive.
- Enter drive X and replace it with the hard drive number.
- At the command prompt, type clean and press Enter. (This command removes all files).
- Type “convert got” as the start command.
Using Diskpart
- Run the Windows installer using a bootable DVD OR USB drive.
- If you still see an error message, close the setup and click the restore icon.
- Select Advanced Tools and click Command Prompt.
- When the command prompt opens, type “Start Diskpart” and enter a list of diskettes to see all the hard drives in your system.
- Find the number assigned to your hard drive and replace it with any other number.
- Enter the following codes and press Enter after each code.
- assign drive 0 (press Enter)
- format disk 0 is=ntfs quick (press enter)
- disk 0 is active (press enter)
- clear disk 0 (press enter)
- disk 0 create partition plan (press enter)
- Press enter to close the command line.
- Restart your installation.
- This option deletes all data on the hard disk. So make sure that you have made a backup beforehand.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to repair the “Failed to create a new partition” problem?
- Use a USB 2.0 flash drive.
- Disconnect all other USB flash drives.
- Reconnect the USB flash drive.
- Use a third party tool.
- Set the hard drive as the first bootable device.
- Use Rufus or another tool to create a bootable USB flash drive.
- Convert the partition to GPT format.
Why can’t I create a partition in Windows 10?
Sometimes the "Failed to create a new partition" error can be caused by an incorrectly created Windows bootable device. This is usually a Windows Media Creation tool error.
How to activate the partition?
- Open the disk list.
- Find the drive and enter "Select Disk 0" or whatever number you choose. This new number will be the number of your hard drive.
- Open the partition list.
- Identify the partition you want to install in the list and click on it.
- Replace "number 1" with your partition number.
- Type "active."
- Type exit and enter to exit the command line.