Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition - Can't install Windows 7

This sucks.

I found my solution after about another 5 wasted hours of my life.

I stumbled upon this "fix" on MS's technet blog

I saw a comment:

I had this error on RTM with the combination of Intel 310SSD and Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB stick.

Could it be? This particular USB stick being the issue? (I have 3 of these). I tried it on another. Same issue. Took another generic 4GB staples usb from like 5 years ago... worked fine.

Kingston. You suck. I don't know why, but you do.

Side note: Put Ubuntu on the USB. Booted/installed just fine on the Kingston.

This is the easiest solution that I found:

1. Remove all partitions on the drive (no need to launch diskpart, you can just use the partition selection screen)
2. Unplug the USB drive.
3. Click Next. You will get:
   Windows is unable to install to the selected location. Error: 0x80300001.
4. Replug the USB drive.
5. Click Refresh.
6. Click Next.

Voila!

Another way, download e.g. a Ubuntu Desktop install image put it on a USB-drive and boot it.

Then find "gparted" and try to use it for partitioning the drive.

That might give an initial partition table and partition, which may help in getting things going.

Open a terminal with CTRL+Alt+T (works in at least 13.10 and 14.04).

$ lsblk 

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=512 count=1

which will WIPE the first block (increase count for more) of the disk, which should be the partition table.
double checked the commands ;-)

Just also managed to spend hours fiddling with Windows 7 and a Kingston DT R3.0 G2 32GB USB3 stick. After picking up some cheap PNY stick everything worked like a charm. Remember having issues a while ago while trying to put together a MacOSX 10.9 USB installer using a Kingston stick.

For me it happened because I had simultaneously a portable drive plugged in at another USB port. After I unplugged it it was fine.