Windows – Can’t create partition or locate existing one when installing windows 8.1

If you are installing from a USB device and you are getting this error, then try this. Go to repair/cmd and copy all the files from USB to the drive where you wish to install to. If D: is USB, E: is your Windows partition, then type in these commands.

D:
xcopy /E /H *.* E:\

Then set your Windows partition as active with diskpart:

diskpart
list disk
select disk X

Where X is your HDD or SSD where you want to install Windows.

list partition
select partition X
active
exit

Now unplug the USB, close cmd window and reboot the PC. Now the installer will start from your HDD and you can install to the same location. You can delete the installation files when you're done (compare with USB contents).

• This applies only to UEFI and GPT installations! *

OK it took me a while to figure out what to do, but I have managed to fix that.

First of all create backup of everything you have on your PC that is valueable. In my case I created only the system image using Macrium Reflect Free.

Secondly I have installed EaseUS Partition Master Free and shrinked the system partition (C:). Then I have copied the 128MB MSFT partition closer to the C partition and removed the original one. For some reason the EaseUS Partition Master did not want to copy the EFI partition so I used MiniTool Partition Manager (also free) to copy it just like the 128MB partition. Last I had to expand the Recovery Partition.

After restart I turned out that recovery partition is broken for some reason and Windows does not recognize it. So I booted with GParted live CD to check if it is OK and it was - so no luck here. But I have noticed that the 128MB one does not have proper flag set, so I set it to MSFTRES with GParted.

OK. The only thing left to fix was the recovery partition. I decided to format it and deploy the Windows Recovery Environment again. So I removed the partition just to be sure that I get clean "normal" partition and created it again using EaseUS. Then I have followed this tutorial: http://www.sepago.de/e/nicholas/2012/07/25/windows-recovery-environment-re-explained . I just had to set proper flags on the volume with DISKPART: gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001.

After reboot and some quick testing I saw that everything works fine, but for some reason the recovery partition is mounted on every boot even though it is hidden. Disk Management showed that the partition should not have any letter assigned, but it was visible in "This PC". I removed the letter using Diskpart and then immediately fixed the MountedDevices registry key using this little tool: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/usb-drive-or-flash-problems-how-to-cleanup-and-remove-old-usb-storage-drivers.145884/ .

Now everything is up and running. Windows sees the recovery environment and backup works as charm.