Unable to install Windows 10 on a Samsung 850 Pro SSD

[cheekster]

Hi.

Tried installing Windows 10 Pro 64-bit onto a new Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD last night and was prompted with two error messages.

"We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files."

That was with a number of other hard drives still installed. So I unplugged the SATA power cables to all drives bar the new boot drive and tried again. This time got a different message. Something along the lines of the drive has a MBR partition and only GPT is compatible.

Booted back into Windows 7 Home 64-bit and tried formatting it in disk management then tried the Windows 10 installation again but still no joy.

Is this Windows 10 being fussy or have I purchased a SSD that isn't compatible with my old Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H motherboard?

Ended up installing onto a very old HDD but my hope is to clone this onto the 850 Pro, if possible? If not, then I'll look into a current model SSD that is, 850 EVO perhaps?

Thanks.

[BobF64]

IIRC this is because you have a disk with partitions on it, set in MBR mode and your PC is booting via UEFI.

Under UEFI, the boot disk MUST be GPT style.

Fastest way, when installing Windows, is to press Shift-F10 to get a command prompt and use diskpart to convert or clean the SSD, then Windows should install on it.

[cheekster]

Fastest way, when installing Windows, is to press Shift-F10 to get a command prompt and use diskpart to convert or clean the SSD, then Windows should install on it.

Thanks for the quick reply. Well that's good news! At what point during a clean installation of Windows 10 do I hit Shift+F10 and exactly what do I need to enter in diskspart to convert/clean the SSD please? In case you hadn't noticed, I've never used diskpart before.

[cheekster]

Update: Successfully managed to install Windows 10 Pro onto the new Samsung 850 Pro. Many, many thanks @BobF64 for saving me from shelling out on another SSD.