[Lokinscear]

The other day my pc had a driver issue so I Reset my PC using my Windows 8 cd. Everything was running beautifully. Windows updates didnt cause any more conflicts with my drivers. I decided lets try out this new 8.1 since its free. HUGE MISTAKE!

Blue screened during installation and I get the Operating System Not Found error. I booted up my cd again (making sure it's SATA not UEFI) the drive was locked as usual so I opened CMD "Bootrec /Fixmbr" "Bootrec /fixboot ---> Element not found" "Bootrec /rebuildbcd" "total identified Windows installations = 0" huh? Okay...
"Bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup" "The store export operation has failed. The requested system device could not be found."

Great... That's awesome.
Then I went through all my drives a-z, (Except D: which is my BRDrive) only one CHKDSK could find was my external Passport.

So I have a $4400 collosal 95 lb water cooled dual Titan (via SLI) 64 gigs of ram AMD 8 core Vishera gaming rig that can't do anything because of stupid Microsoft updates...

And I can't find the envelope with the product key that I Ironically found yesterday in order to even try to reinstall windows from scratch...

Any suggestions?

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  Lokinsear

 

It is quite possible that it was a pure coincidence that this happened while you were upgrading to 8.1 and it could actually be a hardware component that is the cause.

 

For now I suggest that you disconnect any external storage devices from the computer, restart the computer and access the boot devices area in the BIOS, do you see the HDD/s listed, depending on the brand of HDD/s the entries can be identified as Seagate if they begin with ST or WD if they are Western Digital devices.

 

You could also try restoring the MBs default settings in the BIOS and then restarting the computer if no HDDs are initially detected.

 

Let us know what you find.

[phillpower2]

  Lokinsear

 

It is quite possible that it was a pure coincidence that this happened while you were upgrading to 8.1 and it could actually be a hardware component that is the cause.

 

For now I suggest that you disconnect any external storage devices from the computer, restart the computer and access the boot devices area in the BIOS, do you see the HDD/s listed, depending on the brand of HDD/s the entries can be identified as Seagate if they begin with ST or WD if they are Western Digital devices.

 

You could also try restoring the MBs default settings in the BIOS and then restarting the computer if no HDDs are initially detected.

 

Let us know what you find.

[Lokinscear]

Yeah my hard drives did pop up as normal. The hard drive with the OS did show up and I disconnected my external. My problems unfortunately have gone from bad to worse. Now if I try booting the windows cd I get "Recovery error code 0xc00000e9"

I reconnected the external, disconnected the external, changed the wires out, left only one hard drive connected at a time, plugged them all back in and nada. Resetting the CMOS only made my keyboard have to run via USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0 . I hear the drives spin up (the non ssd ones) and hear no clack clack clack or beeps or futuristic music tones.

I don't usually cry but I might make an exception today. My baby is dead weight at the moment.

[Lokinscear]

Bought a new SSD and it's not the hard drive. It still gives me a blue screen.

[Lokinscear]

I'm back at the Windows install screen. I switched from AHCI to IDE for my SATA and it boots up. Now my problem is that when I try to install Windows 8 it gets stuck at 1%. I have a legit Microsoft copy so hopefully I can call their support and get a download version that I can put on a USB to try install it. I think when I flashed my CMOS I killed support for my hard drives.

[phillpower2]

As you have a valid Windows 8 or 8.1 product key (it used to work for all keys, but now there seem to be some restrictions), you can produce an iso file using the Windows 8 Setup Tool. Download and execute the file Windows8-Setup.exe from Microsoft, enter your product key, and have the tool download the Windows 8 or 8.1 setup files. The tool will then be able to compile an iso file or bootable USB stick from the download. This procedure however has some restrictions, as it will determine the language and bit edition of the download from the system on which it is executed, and doesn't allow to change these parameters.

 

 I think when I flashed my CMOS I killed support for my hard drives. 

 

If you mean cleared the CMOS then you will not have affected the HDD support in any way, clearing the CMOS only restores the MBs default factory settings which more or less means that all features should function as they should, this will not be the case if the MB has been damaged in any way such as a bad BIOS flash, overclocking being pushed too far or incorrect installation of a hardware component such as a Ram stick, GPU, HDD or a third party heatsink and cooling fan.

 

Try booting with only the one stick of Ram fitted, some MBs will only boot if Ram is inserted in a particular slot, post your MB brand and model name or number details so we can check this.

[Lokinscear]

Well the good news is that the 1% thing is just really really slow. I have it at %22 now (started 3 hours ago). Hopefully after a day or two windows will finish installing. I was able to install Windows 7 in a flash and updated my motherboard drivers before doing so. It was windows all along not my hardware but I will be running some tests after this is done to be sure. Thank you guys for all your suggestions. Wish me luck!

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update Lokinsear 

 

That is ridiculously long for Windows 8.1 to take to install, I would seriously have started afresh and used the USB thumb drive approach in case there is an issue with either the DVD drive or the OS disk itself.

 

You are most welcome btw and yes good luck and keep us posted on your progress