3 Ways to Fix Windows Won't Install on SSD or HDD
Windows unable to install on SSD
Installing Windows 11/10/8/7 on a solid state drive (SSD) will surely make your computer faster. However, it would be frustrating if Windows won’t install on SSD. This article covers 3 situations and provides a corresponding solution so you can fix this effectively.
- Situation 1. SSD not recognized by BIOS
- Situation 2. SSD not recognized by Windows 11/10/8/7 Setup
- Situation 3. Windows cannot be installed to this disk
Situation 1. SSD not recognized by BIOS
Usually, an SSD will be automatically detected in BIOS when you attach it. However, if your SSD is not showing in BIOS, you should check the things below:
1. Check the SSD cable connection. You can simply switch another SATA cable. You can also connect it to an external USB adapter to see if it is a problem of damaged BIOS connection.
2. Check if SATA port is enabled. In some cases, the port is turned OFF in System Setup (BIOS). When you connect a new SSD drive to the system, you may need to manually turn it on before you can see the drive in BIOS.
3. Connect the drive to another working computer to see if the SSD is damaged.
Situation 2. SSD not recognized by Windows 11/10/8/7 Setup
If it is detected in BIOS, then you can refer to the following steps to make it right:
If it is detected in BIOS, then you can refer to the following steps to make it right:
1. Boot into BIOS, and set SATA to AHCI Mode. For installing Windows 8/10/11 cannot install on SSD, enable Secure Boot if it is available.
2. If your SSD still is not showing at Windows Setup, press SHIFT+F10 to open a Command Prompt window.
3. Type “diskpart”
4. Type “list disk” to display all the disks connected to your computer.
5. Type “select disk [disk number]” For example, type “select disk 0” if you have insert one drive in your system
6. Make sure the selected disk has no valuable data. Type “clean all” and press Enter to wipe out all data from the SSD.
7. When the process is complete, type “exit” to close this windows and go back to Windows Setup screen.
After that, you should see the SSD drive appear at Windows Setup. If you think this disk clean process may reduce its lifespan, you can perform a Secure Erase for SSD.
Situation 3. Windows cannot be installed to this disk
If Windows sees the SSD drive, but you can’t install Windows on SSD GPT with an error “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style”, you can fix this through changing BIOS settings or converting disk to MBR partition style.
If your computer supports UEFI boot, you can go to BIOS settings and enable UEFI mode. If you only see Legacy boot mode, you can convert the SSD to MBR disk referring to the following.
1. Press Shift+F10 to bring out a command prompt.
2. Type the following:
● diskpart
● list disk
● select disk [disk number]
● clean
● convert mbr
3. Wait for the process to complete. Till then, go back to Windows installation screen, and then you should be able to install Windows.
If the error message you received is “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks”, you can disable UEFI mode and enable Legacy mode, or you can convert SSD to GPT disk.
As mentioned, using diskpart.exe to convert disk to MBR/GPT will completely wipe out everything on the disk. If you do not want the SSD to be erased, there is third party software Qiling Disk Master Standard that allows you to convert disk to MBR/GPT without data loss/removing partitions.
You can download the free version on a working computer and connect your SSD to it as a second drive. To convert drive to GPT/MBR with Qiling Disk Master:
1. Open this software.
2. Right click on the SSD and select Convert to GPT. If your SSD is MBR, select Convert to GPT.
3. Confirm the task and waiting it to apply this change.
Tip: You need to upgrade to Professional version if you need to convert system disk between MBR and GPT.
This software also allows you to create a bootable media so you can use it on a computer that has no Windows system installed yet. If you want to clone hard drive to SSD instead of fresh install, this software can be of use too. In conclusion, you don’t need to panic when Windows will not install on SSD. You can just follow these steps to fix it based on your own situation.
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