Unable to clean install Windows Pro on Asus Zenbook 13 Laptop

Thira · 2025-03-17T21:36:13-0400

I am using a Windows installation USB drive.
During Windows 11 setup, When I arrive at Select location to install Windows 11the two drives that are shown are my usb drive and not my SSD drive that I want to install onto. The message at the bottom of the screen says "Windows 11 can't be installed on this drive. "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only be installed on GPT disks.
Setup does not support configuration through a USB or IEEE 1394 port.
The computers 1 TB SSD drive that has the old installation of Windows is not available to install onto.
The SSD drive is working according to Disk Management.
I also tried to use diskpart to delete the volumes of the ssd drive prior to formatting the ssd drive. Unsuccessful.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

zbook · 2025-03-18T00:07:38-0400

Please post images or share links displaying the unallocated drive or drive partitions with error messages / codes.

idgat · 2025-03-18T00:19:54-0400

Thira said:
the two drives that are shown are my usb drive

Firstly, all drives other than the target system drive should be disconnected from the device

Thira said:
Windows 11 can't be installed on this drive. "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only be installed on GPT disks.

But which "this drive" is it referring to? If it's one of the USB drives, disconnecting may solve this

hsehestedt · 2025-03-18T00:41:14-0400

Question 1: How is your SSD configured in the BIOS? Is it set to AHCI mode or RAID?

If it is set to anything other than AHCI and there is no data on that drive that you need to keep, switch it to AHCI, then try installing again.

If you must leave it in RAID mode, then you will likely need to load the Intel RST drivers on the screen where you are asked to select the drive onto which Windows should be installed. This is the most common reason for not being able to see your internal drive(s).

Put another way: Windows cannot see your SSD because it does not have a suitable driver that will allow it to see the storage in your system.

Fabler2 · 2025-03-18T00:57:10-0400

As @hsehestedt says you need the IRST driver. If it's the ASUS Zenbook 13 UX331 for example the driver page is here,

ASUS Zenbook 13 UX331｜Laptops For Home｜ASUS United Kingdom

Discover super thin and ultra-light ASUS Zenbook performance laptops, including the premium Zenbook Pro Duo, Zenbook Flip and 13, 14, 15 and 17 inch models.

www.asus.com

This is the driver needed but you'll have to find find your own model,

Fabler2 · 2025-03-18T01:05:59-0400

This video might help if you are going to use the driver,

zbook · 2025-03-18T01:15:07-0400

Thira said:
The message at the bottom of the screen says "Windows 11 can't be installed on this drive. "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only be installed on GPT disks.

This video was created for Windows8 but illustrates how to fix the reported message using clean and convert GPT.

hsehestedt · 2025-03-18T01:28:38-0400

TIP: If you need to install a driver during setup, you can do so on the screen where it asks you what drive Windows should be installed on. As an alternative, create a folder in the root of your installation media called $WinPeDrivers$ and place the drivers in that folder. NOTE: Driver needs to be extracted so that the .INF file(s) are accessible. Subfolders are okay. If you put the driver(s) in that folder, then no other action is needed. Those drivers will be loaded automatically.

glasskuter · 2025-03-18T03:47:31-0400

Dealing with RAID drivers is all in the tutorial, step 10 . It is much more preferable to change disk mode from RAID to AHCI in bios. Then install windows. Your disk will automatically be recognized. And yes disconnect all drives except system drive before install as was suggested.

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...

www.elevenforum.com

aubergine · 2025-03-18T07:27:40-0400

Thira said:
The selected disk has an MBR partition table.

The error message means that you have booted the USB in UEFI mode, but the partition style of the disk is MBR i.e. you cannot install Windows because the boot mode does not match the partition style.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 23H2: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

Windows 11 24H2 (image below): "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only be installed to GPT disks."

The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only b...webp

How to fix?

Delete all partitions (select "Delete Partition" option) until there is only one "Unallocated Space" on the disk.

When all partitions are deleted and only one unallocated space remains, the error message no longer appears.

Select "Next" (image below).

Setup detects that the computer was booted into UEFI mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT drive format, and begins the installation.

Note:

There is no need to run the "clean" and "convert gpt" commands in Diskpart. Windows Setup automatically creates the correct partition style (GPT or MBR) depending on which mode the USB is booted into (UEFI or BIOS).

The "convert gpt" command is needed after the clean command when creating partitions manually, otherwise the "create partition efi size=100" command will give an error message "MSR and EFI partitions are only supported on GPT disks. Convert the selected disk to GPT and try again."

Thira · 2025-03-18T11:00:03-0400

During a clean install of Windows 11 from a flash drive this is as far as I can get during installation: "Windows 11 can't be installed on this drive. "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, the operating system can only be installed on GPT disks. "

First of all , My laptop has only one disk drive NVMe which is 1 TB. In Disk Management it is listed as NTFS and healthy. This drive shows three partitions, all healthy. Disk 0, Partition 1 is EFI system Partition, Disk 0 partition 4 is Recovery Partition, and Disk 0 partition 5 Recovery Partition. Lastly OS(C) Is NTFS (Bitblocker encrypted). I am unable to delete the Partitions or format the OS(C) so that I can do a clean install of Windows 11. I have tried to do thin unsuccessfully in Disk Management, Diskpart nor Diskpart from the install USB

Disk Management also shows ESD-USB with both Active, Primary Partition and Unallocated .

No RAID array is on the laptop.

Unfortunately , during the clean install of Windows 11, the only drive showing as available for installation is the USB drive. The NVMe drive does not show up as a location for a new install of Windows 11.

So I am thinking that to successfully clean install Windows 11 from the USB Drive, I first need to delete the three partitions and format the NVMe drive, for which I have been unsuccessful.

Thanks again.

idgat · 2025-03-18T13:29:02-0400

Thira said:
Lastly OS(C) Is NTFS (Bitblocker encrypted)

Decrypt it/turn off Bitlocker. This could be the error problem. Wouldn't be the first Windows has popped up an error message which has nothing whatsoever to do with the problem

zbook · 2025-03-18T13:58:35-0400

Please find a camera or smartphone camera > take pictures > post images or share links

In this clean install tutorial see #10

Please post images or share links displaying the unallocated drive or drive partitions with error messages / codes.

What happens when you click on each partition and then click delete?

aubergine · 2025-03-18T14:52:46-0400

Thira said:
I am unable to delete the Partitions or format the OS(C) so that I can do a clean install of Windows 11. I have tried to do thin unsuccessfully in Disk Management, Diskpart nor Diskpart from the install USB.

What error message are you getting?

- On the "Select location to install Windows 11" screen.
- Open command prompt with Shift+F10 and run the following commands.

diskpart
list disk
select disk # (select the disk where Windows is installed)
clean

- Close command prompt, select "Refresh" and then select "Next."

Thira · 2025-03-18T19:04:20-0400

Photos where I run into dead end.
I cannot clean install Windows 11. I cannot format my NVMe drive or delete partitions.

antspants · 2025-03-18T19:18:57-0400

aubergine said:
What error message are you getting?

- On the "Select location to install Windows 11" screen.
- Open command prompt with Shift+F10 and run the following commands.

diskpart
list disk
select disk # (select the disk where Windows is installed)
clean

- Close command prompt, select "Refresh" and then select "Next."

This is what I would try also;

Disconnect any secondary drives first

During install, when this first window appears:

Hit the Shift + F10 keys
- A command window will open
- Press enter after typing in each command below and let it complete the command, you’ll know when each command is done as it will repeat the command to you or give a result for the command.
Type; diskpart [enter]
Type; list disk [enter]
Type; select disk X [enter]
- X being the drive position/number of your install drive. Be careful that you are cleaning the right drive/disk, hence disconnecting any secondary drives. Don’t accidentally diskpart your USB Pen drive. It will have the disk size next to each disk entry.
Type; clean [enter]
Type; convert gpt [enter]
Type; exit [enter]
Close the command window
Continue with the install

zbook · 2025-03-18T19:20:59-0400

The images displayed a USB drive.

How many drives are attached?

What are the manufacturers / models?

What are their sizes?

Please boot to a Windows MCT (iso)

Type:

diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par

Post images or share links.

antspants · 2025-03-18T19:25:21-0400

zbook said:
The images displayed a USB drive.

How many drives are attached?

What are the manufacturers / models?

What are their sizes?

They’ve already mentioned that just above.

Thira said:
First of all , My laptop has only one disk drive NVMe which is 1 TB. In Disk Management it is listed as NTFS and healthy. This drive shows three partitions, all healthy. Disk 0, Partition 1 is EFI system Partition, Disk 0 partition 4 is Recovery Partition, and Disk 0 partition 5 Recovery Partition. Lastly OS(C) Is NTFS (Bitblocker encrypted). I am unable to delete the Partitions or format the OS(C) so that I can do a clean install of Windows 11. I have tried to do thin unsuccessfully in Disk Management, Diskpart nor Diskpart from the install USB

Thira said:
Unfortunately , during the clean install of Windows 11, the only drive showing as available for installation is the USB drive. The NVMe drive does not show up as a location for a new install of Windows 11.

zbook · 2025-03-18T19:30:19-0400

Windows cannot be installed on the USB flash drive.

Boot to the BIOS > post images or share links of the menu options and settings for:

RAID, AHCI, IDE, UEFI, Legacy, CSM, VMD, etc.

Thira · 2025-03-18T19:33:52-0400

Images of my dead ends

Unable to clean install Windows Pro on Asus Zenbook 13 Laptop

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