Issues with Windows installation

I’m trying to get Windows 10 installed on an 180 GB SSD. Currently, the drive is split into two partitions: one running Linux via an EXT4 file system and another one that's just sitting there empty. At first, I kept getting hit with this error: View on imgur

Eventually, I figured out I could jump into the boot menu and select the USB to boot in Legacy mode instead of BIOS, which actually let the installation proceed—but now I’m staring at this: View on imgur

Now, Google is suggesting that I should just format the entire drive (!??) and rebuild all the partitions from scratch. That is absolutely not happening for me, so I’m looking for a better way forward. I already tried deleting the partition and recreating it using Disk Management while running Ubuntu, but no luck there.

If it helps anyone, when I was booted in BIOS mode, I tried using the built-in installation manager to wipe that partition. However, every time I attempted to recreate it using the unallocated space, the whole thing would just crash and tell me it couldn't create the partition. Strangely enough, I can delete and create partitions just fine when I'm in Legacy mode. I even tried shrinking the partition size during creation to leave some unallocated space for the new ones, but that resulted in zero progress.

Look, if Google says it's true, then it’s probably the truth—but I've noticed whenever you start a new thread, you always seem to be looking for a loophole or some alternative way to do things. It's kind of your thing, isn't it? Honestly, just back up your files, wipe the drive, and call it a day.

I’m not quite sure what you're getting at here! It looks like your message might have been cut off. If you were trying to ask a question or share something, just go ahead and type it out—I'm all ears! It really should have been done differently. I’m ready to get to work! Just let me know what you need me to tackle first.

Here’s the situation: a few months back, my drive went completely south on me. It was a total disaster—I couldn't boot into Windows or Ubuntu. I'll admit, I was being a massive pain in the neck to everyone on the forums back then, practically badgering people until I finally managed to get the drive stabilized, wipe everything clean, and rebuild the partitions from scratch. I ended up installing Ubuntu first since that's my primary OS now. Honestly, I wasted about two full weeks just getting everything configured, installed, and customized to the point where I actually had a fully functional system again. So, if you're wondering why I'm dead set against formatting this drive, that's why. Unless there is a way to simply clone the entire partition and restore it exactly as it is—basically a seamless copy-paste without breaking anything or requiring more endless tweaking—I'm not doing it. I’ve officially run out of patience and willpower. I just want to get Windows installed and finally sit down to play some games.

I’m venting here because, frankly, nothing seems to work the way it’s supposed to lately, and I am officially fed up with having to play babysitter to every little glitch. It’s exhausting constantly patching things up or fixing messes that shouldn't exist in the first place. This is especially infuriating when we're talking about paid software. That is the whole point of paying a premium—you expect it to just work. You're paying for the support and the reliability. But between hardware costs skyrocketing and software prices hitting the ceiling, stability has become an afterthought. Look, I’m not asking for a trip to Mars here. I just want to install Windows and actually use it exactly as it was designed. I never had these headaches with Ubuntu. You give it an NTFS partition, and it’s happy as a clam. Meanwhile, Windows is a constant, unrelenting headache—if you'll excuse my language. At its absolute best, it just overwrites my Ubuntu bootloader every single time. It’s ridiculous to be told to just "format the drive" when that same drive might be holding ten other essential things. Fine, take your NTFS partition and do whatever you want with it, but leave everything else alone. Isn't the entire purpose of partitioning to ensure each OS exists independently without stepping on everyone else's toes?

I’m convinced there’s a fix for this. I just need to pin down exactly what’s causing the headache so I can sit down and build him the specific partition layout he actually needs.

I haven't seen any posts from b007 yet. Is there something specific you wanted me to look at? As requested:
This would be... It should have happened. Work.

So, the core issue boils down to whether the disk is set to MBR. From what I can gather, though, you should still be able to get Windows 10 installed on an MBR drive if you run it in legacy mode. Actually, if we're talking about that specific error from the first screenshot, I think I’ve already managed to work around it.

When I pull up the boot menu, it gives me the option to boot from my USB drive in either UEFI or Legacy mode. If I opt for UEFI, it predictably starts complaining that it can't install onto an MBR partition. However, when I switch over to Legacy mode, that error disappears, only to be replaced by this annoying message: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files." Now, does anyone actually know where these log files are buried? 🤔 The partition is still showing up empty after that attempt, and I can't find any of them on the USB either.