Fix We Couldn’t Create a New Partition or Locate an Existing One (7 Ways)

User Case: We Couldn’t Create a New Partition or Locate an Existing One in Windows 10

"I just removed an old hard drive from my laptop computer and replaced it with a new blank SSD (because I wanted a complete and clean installation of Windows 10). When I try to install using a USB drive with Windows 10, I always receive an error message from: we couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. It mentions the Setup log, but I can't find the log for this problem on either the USB drive or the new SSD, so I can't determine what the problem is at all. Also, I've installed Windows 10 using the same USB drive many times before and they've all had no problems, only this computer had an accident. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Any help and instructions would be greatly appreciated!"

Although Windows 10 has been gradually improved after years of updates, some users still encounter some unexpected errors when installing or updating Windows 10 via DVD or USB flash drive, such as the “We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one” error in the above case. There are many reasons for this error, including incompatible external devices, incorrect BIOS boot sequence, wrong partition format, etc.

Common Cases of We Couldn’t Create a New Partition or Locate an Existing One Error

You may also encounter this error when using an SSD or RAID. In addition, you may also encounter these similar error messages below.

• Failed to create a new partition on the selected unused space.[Error:0x8004240f]
• We couldn't create a new partition [Error:0x9cfc7550]
• Failed to format the selected partition. [Error: 0x80070057]

But the good thing is that the fixes for these error messages are very similar, you just need to master the fix for the Windows we couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one error.

7 Solutions to Fix We Couldn’t Create a New Partition or Locate an Existing One

Next, you will be presented with 7 options to fix this error, which you can try in turn.

• Using USB 2.0 storage devices
• Disconnect or reconnect all external devices
• Set the Windows partition to be installed as the primary partition
• Create a new partition using diskpart
• Change boot order from BIOS
• Converting partitions to GPT format
• Use a third-party tool to perform a universal restore (AOMEI Backupper Standard)

Method 1. Using USB 2.0 Storage Devices

It may seem unbelievable, but in fact, some users do report that when they can't install Windows from a USB 3.0 device, they just need to replace it with USB 2.0 to solve the "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" error, and this method is especially suitable for older computers.

All you need to do is download the Windows system installation file (e.g. Windows 10) on a storage device with a USB 2.0 interface, then plug this storage device into your computer and follow the prompts to install or upgrade.

Method 2. Disconnect or Reconnect All External Devices

Some external devices may also cause the "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" error. Therefore, you can try to disconnect or reconnect external devices such as external hard drives, headsets, SD cards, etc. If you are using a USB flash drive containing the operating system installation file to install Windows, try reconnecting the bootable USB drive and rebooting.

If you are experiencing the above error while installing Windows 10 on an SSD, then you will need to disable all hard drives except the SSD from the BIOS (different motherboards have different BIOS methods, so contact the motherboard manufacturer if you are unsure) and delete all partitions on the SSD. In addition, to ensure the integrity of your Windows installation, keep the devices needed for the installation to avoid any other problems.

Method 3: Set the Windows Partition to be Installed as the Primary Partition

You can fix the error by setting the Windows partition to be installed as the primary partition via the diskpart tool in the command prompt.

Step 1. Enter the Windows recovery environment (Windows PE) by forcibly shutting down and then rebooting the computer twice.

Step 2. Click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt in order. 

Step 3. At the command prompt window, type start diskpart and press Enter to execute this command.

Step 4. Then type list disk and you will see a list of all available hard disks and find the one you need. Here is an example of disk 3, just type select disk 3. When you use this command, you need to replace 3 with the serial number of the drive that represents you.

Step 5. Enter list partition again and you will see a list of all available partitions. Find the partition where you want to install Windows and type select partition 1, replace 1 with the same serial number of your partition.

Step 6. Type active again and press Enter to execute the command.

Step 7. Finally, you also need to type exit twice and press Enter to exit the diskpart utility and the command prompt character.

Method 4. Create a New Partition using Diskpart

When the Windows Update Wizard fails to create a new partition on your hard drive, it means that your installed Windows system may become an additional operating system. In this case, you can create a new partition yourself by using the diskpart tool in the command prompt. Take Windows 10 installation as an example, here are the detailed steps.

Note: Before you start this operation, please make sure that there is no SD card connected to your computer. In addition, this method will delete all files on the hard disk, so please proceed with caution and backup files in advance if necessary.

Step 1. Enter the Command Prompt from Windows recovery environment (Windows PE).

Step 2. At the Command Prompt window, type start diskpart and press Enter to execute this command.

Step 3. Type list disk again, you can see the list of all available hard disks and find the one you need. Here take disk 1 for example, just type select disk 1. When you use this command, you need to replace 1 with the serial number of the hard disk that represents you.

Step 4. Then enter the following commands in turn and press Enter to execute the commands respectively.

• clean (this command will clean the selected hard disk)
• create partition primary (to make the disk primary)
• active (boot partition)
• format fs=ntfs quick (to format the disk as an NTFS file system)
• assign (this command will allocate disks)

Step 5. Finally, you also need to type exit twice and press Enter to exit the diskpart tool and the command prompt character.

Method 5. Change the Boot Order from BIOS

When your Windows computer recognizes the wrong boot device, it may also cause the error " Windows setup we couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one". To do this, you need to change the boot order from BIOS and set the USB flash drive as the first boot device.

Step 1. If you can't find your motherboard manual, you can also ask your motherboard manufacturer for help.

Step 2. Use the arrow keys to toggle the USB flash drive to the top of the boot device menu.

Step 3. Reboot your computer and let Windows boot from the USB drive and try to install Windows again.

Method 6. Converting Partition to GPT Format

Partition formats can affect the installation process of Windows 10 and Windows 11, where MBR (Master Boot Record) format is only available for hard drives up to 2TB, while GPT (GUID partition table) has no capacity limit. Therefore, when you encounter the error, you can try to convert MBR format to GPT format using the diskpart tool.

Note: Before you use diskpart tool to convert MBR format to GPT format, you need to clean the whole disk, we suggest you backup the important disk data and install the following steps to do it.

Step 1. Enter the Windows recovery environment and select the command prompt.

Step 2. In the Command Prompt Window, type diskpart and press Enter to execute this command.

Step 3. Then enter the following commands in sequence and press Enter to execute the commands separately.

• list disk
• select disk 1 (remember to replace 1 with the disk number of your MBR disk)
• clean
• convert gpt

Step 4. Type exit twice more and press Enter to exit the diskpart tool and the command prompt character.

Method 7. Using Third-party Tool to Perform Universal Restore

AOMEI Backupper can restore system image directly from one computer to another, which not only can migrate the complete system faster, but also can effectively avoid partition problems when upgrading or installing Windows 10. When you encounter the error "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one", you can backup your system on another computer that is running normally, and then use AOMEI Backupper Professional to avoid this error and ensure that the partition is created properly.

AOMEI Backupper is a professional system backup and restore software for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 and many other versions, with a clear and easy-to-use interface, you can restore system image from one computer to another in just a few steps.

Next, the details of how to do this will be given to all of you. But before you start, you need to do some preparation work.

• Run AOMEI Backupper Professional on another computer that you want to upgrade to this system and is running properly, first backup system and then create a bootable media.
• You need to download the trial version of AOMEI Backupper Professional software on your local computer and another computer.

Step 1. Boot the local computer using bootable media. You may need to change the boot priority in BIOS.

Step 2. Run AOMEI Backupper Professional, switch to the Restore tab on the left side and tap Select Task to find the system backup you have created.

Step 3. Under the backup list, select the system backup image you want to restore according to the point in time, and then click Next.

Step 4. Select the Restore this system backup option and click Next. If you want to restore the system image to a new hard drive, check the Restore system to another location checkbox in the lower-left corner.

Step 5. In the Operation Summary window, confirm the operation you are going to perform and check the Universal Restore checkbox below, click the Start Restore button and wait for the system restore to complete.

Notes:✎...

If you are performing a universal restore on a new computer, it is recommended that you first delete all partitions on the target hard drive.

The Universal Restore feature will not install drivers for you for devices such as graphics cards, sound cards, network interface controllers, etc. Since these drivers do not affect the normal startup of the Windows 10 system, you can install them yourself after a successful restore.

After restoring your system to another computer using the Universal Restore feature, you will need to enter the boot code again to restart your Windows system or office software.

In addition, AOMEI Backupper Professional offers other features that you may be interested in. You can use the System Clone function to migrate the needed system to another hard disk completely.                     

During the system backup process, you can perform automatic scheduled backup according to your own needs such as Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Event trigger and USB plug in. And you can select an incremental or differential backup method to save the files changed since the last backup.

Summary

When you encounter the error "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one", you can try the above 7 methods to fix it based on understanding the cause of this error. Among them, AOMEI Backupper Professional's Universal Restore method allows you to restore system backup to the computer with different hardware which couldn’t help you to fix this error directly, but it can prevent similar errors to ensure your Windows system can be installed or updated normally.

In addition, the software can also provide you with Disk Backup, Partition Backup, File Backup, and more useful functions to provide full protection for your computer. Download this software to explore more.