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ChocoDeveloper
Asked: 2012-10-12 23:53:01 +0800 CST

How to format/partition new hdd for Windows?

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I have one hdd with Ubuntu 12.04, and now I added another one for windows (because I wanna play Day Z =p).

The problem is that the windows installer says it can't partition the hdd (unknown reason).

So I want to use Ubuntu's disk utility to format/partition the hdd, but I don't know exactly what to do (for example, which filesystem does windows 7 need?). Can you help me on this?

12.04

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I had two separate problems:

    • This particular disk (western digital caviar blue 1tb) uses a different block size, and the disk utility was adding the wrong offset at the beginning of the partition. So I installed gparted, created the partition with it (I used NTFS by the way), and it worked fine.
    • Windows won't install itself unless the target partition is in a disk that is set to boot up first, and it won't tell you why either.

    Now I only need to add Windows to grub so I can use both OS.

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  2. Hello Chocodeveloper,

    you need a partition in FAT - otherwise the Windows-Installer cannot recognize - where to put Windows into. When you dont want to rebuild completely from new and want to keep the Ubuntu - Installation, then you need a live-CD as tool like "knoppix" - and some knowledge about commands: fdisk, cfdisk, mkdosfs (you can find explanations with e.g. man fdisk - in the shell/terminal).

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  3. To use the Ubuntu installation disc:

    1. Insert the Ubuntu installation disc into the CD-ROM and boot the PC with it. During the boot-up process, select “Try Ubuntu without installation".
    2. From the dash, search for Disk Utility.

    3. Choose the HDD in you want to install windows at and then format choosing NTFS as File system.

      Disk Utility

    4. Now restart your PC and install Windows to the new partition (HDD).

      Also you can use GParted to do that.

      You can install GParted by

      sudo apt-get install gparted

      For more info about GParted, check its manual.

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  4. Sorry for my inconvenience. Have overseen - that Windows has the spleen always to install and always to boot as first OS on the first partition or harddisk.

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