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    Windows 10 installation problem on Alienware 17 2013

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by agent_mulder, Nov 15, 2015.

  1. agent_mulder

    agent_mulder Notebook Consultant

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    Hi am trying to install windows 10 but when I go to the partition screen. It's not letting me chose any partition but only mSATA drive. I don't want to install windows on MSATA drive as its only 50gb. I have samsung ssd 840 pro already installed. And I successfully installed Windows 7 on it but windows 10 isn't allowing me to install. It says windows cannot be installed on this partition. It is only allowing when I chose MSATA . How to solve this ?
     
    agent_mulder, Nov 15, 2015
    #1
  2. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    did you partition the ssd?
     
    thegh0sts, Nov 15, 2015
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  3. agent_mulder

    agent_mulder Notebook Consultant

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    Yes I have 5 partition and windows 7 was installed on C. So I wanted to install windows 10 on C by formatting that partition through boot. I was able to format it. But windows won't allow me to chose that ad installation disk.
     
    agent_mulder, Nov 15, 2015
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  4. nick81

    nick81 Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you using UEFI? If so then make sure you use a USB drive to install Win10 in UEFI (you can use Media Creation Tool by Microsoft to download the Windows ISO and then Rufus' tool to make the USB) There are many guides explaining exactly how to do that
     
    nick81, Nov 16, 2015
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  5. Theonlyraider

    Theonlyraider Newbie

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    Make sure you set your boot order to your USB first in your BIOS. Then when it is done installing change it back to your HDD
     
    Theonlyraider, Nov 16, 2015
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  6. mariussx

    mariussx Notebook Evangelist

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    Enable UEFI, disable legacy, secure boot can be enable or disabled, it will not matter. Power the PC on with a UEFI ready USB Windows 10 installation connected and keep hitting F12 for the boot menu to show you the options. Choose UEFI USB drive (you might see your USB drive listed 2 times in the boot menu, one option will have uefi next to the pen drive name, which is the one you want). When you boot into USB and come to the option to install Windows, delete all the partitions on your 840 Pro first. Your SSD/HDD/msata etc will be listed as drive 0, drive 1 and so on. You will need to find all partitions on 840 Pro and delete them (you will know by the size which ones to delete), don't touch the partitions on another drive. This should allow for the SSD to be formatted into GPT rather than MBR and you should be able to install Windows.

    You do need to upgrade the first time though, so that your free Windows 10 license gets activated. Next time, Windows 10 will be activated automatically once you connect to the internet even on clean install (which is always the best option with any OS). I hope this helps :)
     
    mariussx, Nov 16, 2015
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  7. agent_mulder

    agent_mulder Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks guys, it's working now.
     
    agent_mulder, Nov 16, 2015
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