Fix “Windows is unable to install to the selected location” in Windows 10

Yesterday I tried to install Windows 10 on my new bought SSD. I was trying to do a fresh installation with my USB stick when I faced these 2 errors:

“Windows is unable to install to the selected location”
“Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing partition. See the Setup log files for more information”

setup was unable to create a new system partition

It took me a while to find out, so I thought it would be nice to share it here 🙂

Fix Windows is unable to install to the selected location

The key in solving error 0x80300001 was to remove all (removable) storage drives, except for the drive where I wanted to create a new system partition to install Windows 10.

I undertook these steps to fix:

  1. Shutdown pc
  2. Disconnect all internal harddisks except the one where you want to install Windows 10.
  3. Remove any USB device, except the Windows 10 installation stick, your mouse, and keyboard
  4. Start pc
  5. Install Windows 10
  6. Shutdown pc
  7. Connect all USB-sticks and harddisks again

In my case: I thought I had disconnect all USB-sticks. But then I found one nasty mini-usb stick at the back of my computer

If the above didn’t fix it, you may try to do the following while at step 5:

  1. Delete any existing partition on your new SSD (make sure you have no data saved to this disk!)
  2. Remove the Windows 10 installation USB stick from your computer
  3. Click “Refresh”
  4. Insert the USB stick again
  5. Click “Refresh” again
  6. Click Next and finish the installation

Cheers!

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Jason

Thank you! I was so frustrated. Watching videos that didn’t fix anything in my situation and then I read this post and the very last point of reinsert the flash drive and “refresh” was the solution that was in front of my face the whole time.

Thanks for posting this a year ago!

Sir Edward Cheese

this method worked! yeah its 2022 and we just installed a fresh copy.. cant wait to setup my file share! this is going to be killer.

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