Windows 7 Installation Fails Error code: 0x80070490

[techguy7]

I'm trying to install Windows 7 from within XP (dual boot or upgrade). I get about 5 seconds into the install and encounter the following:

"Windows Setup cannot find a location to store temporary installation files. to install Windows, make sure that a partition on your boot disk has at least 655 megabytes (MB) of free space."

Error code: 0x80070490

The .iso came from my Technet account. I tried it from a DVD and I tried it extracted onto my local disk. I get the error in both cases.

Current disk setup:
C:\ 74.5GB total 44.8GB free (locally attached)
F:\ 74.5GB total 71.9GB free (USB attached)
G:\ 298GB total 219GB free (locally attached)
H:\ 186GB total 99.7GB free (USB attached)

As you can see, I have plenty of free space on every disk. I still have a few options to try but was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this issue.

Thanks!

 

[mahenrytx]

I receive the exact same error message, alto I am trying to install from within Vista (and from what I've read, you have to have Vista SP1 installed to do the upgrade). I have this. I have a dual boot system, with the OS's on separate drives. When I boot to Vista, only the C: drive is visible (the drive with XP is hidden, so I don't think this is a problem). I first tried burning W7 to a disc and booting from that. The error I received there directed me to restart Windows normally and install from within it. I tried this and received error code 0x80070490. I then created a small partition on C: thinking, as the error stated, some space for installation files was needed. With this partition in place (labeled Z I tried again, only to receive the same error code.
I am wanting to simply upgrade Vista; I don't like it and would be happy to use W7, even as a beta. I not dot want to do a full installation, as I want to keep my files. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Any expertise in this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mysticmaster]

I am glad I am not the only one with this problem trying to upgrade from XP. I get exactly the same message you do.
What I found was, I could do a fresh install of windows7 and it works fine, so the DVD is ok, it is just when I try to upgrade that I get the problem.
What I have done is to boot from the DVD and completely delete the partitions and then click on new to create partitions.
However, I ran out of time to go any further as I want to put xp back on one partition and then try and do another upgrade and see if that works. Once I try that, I will let you know if it worked.

 

[Vadim Cool]

Fresh install is good!

I receive the exact same error message, alto I am trying to install from within Vista (and from what I've read, you have to have Vista SP1 installed to do the upgrade). I have this. I have a dual boot system, with the OS's on separate drives. When I boot to Vista, only the C: drive is visible (the drive with XP is hidden, so I don't think this is a problem). I first tried burning W7 to a disc and booting from that. The error I received there directed me to restart Windows normally and install from within it. I tried this and received error code 0x80070490. I then created a small partition on C: thinking, as the error stated, some space for installation files was needed. With this partition in place (labeled Z I tried again, only to receive the same error code.
I am wanting to simply upgrade Vista; I don't like it and would be happy to use W7, even as a beta. I not dot want to do a full installation, as I want to keep my files. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Any expertise in this would be greatly appreciated.

People, people, people.... I did the fresh and clean install of Win7 from Win XP even and it still made me a copy of my old Windows folders such as (Documents and Settings, Program Files, Windows) placing them on C drive in a folder Windows.old... And it kept my other folders that I created on my C drive Win XP and it didn't delete them! So I don't know why but it didn't delete them... And you can even go and see for yourself when clicking on fresh install it wil tell you that it will make a backup of your old Windows before it goes to install anything new!

Have a nice day!

 

[Silahtar]

Failed Installation

I have the same issue. I downloaded Windows 7 Professional 64-bit online and ran the executable (I am running inside of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit RC version) . It created the expandedSetup folder and opened the install window. The only options I have are 'Install' and 'What to know before installing Windows'. If I click 'Install' I get the following error message:

Windows Setup cannot find a location to store temporary installation files. to install Windows, make sure that a partition on your boot disk has at least 655 megabytes (MB) of free space.
Error code: 0x80070490

I have plenty of space on all my partitions. I do not have the installation discs, just the download files, and I can not burn an ISO to disc because there is no ISO. I am not sure how to proceed.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[Darilov]

Easy fix most of us overlooked!!!

Ok I was installing a brand new copy of Win 7 home premium edition and forgot to partition a couple of drives and ended up having to re-install the OS again. When I tried to do it I got that same error message that all of of you have been getting "Windows Setup cannot find a location to store temporary installation files. to install Windows, make sure that a partition on your boot disk has at least 655 megabytes (MB) of free space."

The simple reason for that is because Windows cannot initiate a reinstallation within itself. So basically you have to go back to the bios and make sure you're booting from the optical drive where the cd installation is. But here is the catch: Windows 7 will NOT TELL YOU to press any key to start from the CD. Thats what you have to do in order to actually boot from the CD otherwise Win 7 will start as normal and you'll be back to square one. So make sure as the computer is restarting to press any key so that it will take to the setup screen from the CD and not from the OS. Good luck guys!!! It worked for me

 

[JstWannaHlp]

I know this is an old post, but I know I'm not the only one that was trying to solve this issue. In my case I had P2V'd a Windows 2008 R2 Server into a Hyper-V environment. I then tried to upgrade to Server 2012 R2 and kept getting the "Error code: 0x80070490" which was not enough disk space to write temporary files. After several days of looking online and wracking my brain, I came across a tidbit of info that led me in the right direction. The windows setup program was using the hidden system partition as it's gauge for hard drive space available no matter what env. variable I set or setup switch I used. Since it's a VM, I increased the hidden system partition size to 2GB and the setup no longer throws the error. I hope this helps someone else.