Windows 8 Issue

[ShadesOfWhite]

Hey guys.
I've run into a slight problem... I got a pop up from my AV asking me to restart to complete an update, so I did. I didn't realise windows had an update pending also and now I'm completely unable to get into windows. I get stuck at a 'preparing to configure windows, do not turn off your computer' screen. I seem to remember something similar happening to me last year but i've avoided a repeat since now. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fix this.

I'm running Windows 8 and the AV is Avast!
My system is an i7 3770K on a z77 sabertooth. It's been running buttery smooth without missing a step for months yet updating seems to be a troublesome area.

I got fed up trying to find a way around the problem and thought I'd just reinstall windows however when I selected my ssd to install to I was met with, 'Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.' This is a foreign language to me.

Ideally I'd love to be able to do some kind of restore so I can keep all of my installed programs however I attempted this and it seems I had forgotten to set a system restore point.

Please help. Ill be grateful for any advice.

Dave

 

[Chris230291]

Hello. Though i cant help you as such, i may be able to help you understand what it's saying.

EFI is like a type of bios.
GPT and MBR are like how the drive is formatted.

Chris.

 

[MrKambo]

ok, i can help you out!

few questions

what drives are connected to the computer?
what type of media are you installing Windows from?
Do you have multiple partitions on your SSD?

 

[Omarion223]

Mmmmmm i think the main issue in windows 8 is drivers issue because you have to install all the drivers manually which are not installed by the windows automatically so i think this is the main issue in windows 8 which i have also seen...........

 

[UkGouki]

MBR = master boot record

its possible to recover your system hit f8 as you reboot then try an load safemode then try and get to system restore you may have to go back a few weeks... but it should then restore to before the update.

ive only ever had this issue once when my power went out during an update i had to restore then redownload the update once our power came back on...

 

[S_I_N]

if re-installing make sure only ssdd is hooked up then try this

once windows files have loaded.
your greeted by the initial install screen

hit shift f10
this will bring up command prompt
type the following one command at a time
diskpart
list disk
select disk (x) (where x is your ssd be careful not to choose usb sticks if loading windows from that as it will erase it)
clean or clean all (clean all takes longer but imho is better)
create partition primary align=1024
format fs=ntfs or format quick fs=ntfs
active

now proceed to install this should reset back to factory specs.

 

[dugdiamond]

huh?
total 99MegaBytes in Partition 2 ???

what are the sizes of partitions 0 and 1 ???

regions that small on disks are normally the MBR (master boot records) for the entire disk and are normally RASH'd (Read-only, Archived, System'd and Hidden). they should not be messed with.

me thinks you are trying to install the OS on the wrong partition!!!

EDIT: for all others - the MBR is useless for finding data on the disk.
the MBR is like an index of a book.
the MBR holds info such as;

• the locations of the OS_BOOTSTRAP,
• a location to the FAT (File Allocation Table),
• locations/length of bad sectors of a failing disk,
• locations'length of multiple partitions residing on the disk (or set of disks in a RAID or JBOD array).

just having an MBR alone is like having a book with no content apart from an index... and then trying to see if that index works on other older revisions of the same book(s)!

 

[Voltron]

I myself have just went through a similar situation with windows 8, I just built my system installed windows 8 and was trying to download some of the drivers for my brand new motherboard, Drivers would download and install but when the system went to restart it would crash out and try to do a system restore. I called Microsoft and Asus and they both told me I need the drivers, finally gave up on it and took it in. One of the techs told me for windows 8 no drivers are required and trying to update your hardware only results in writing drivers over drivers. I don't know with windows 8 it seems to do its own updates and drivers for the whole system, it doesn't have the default drivers of old.

 

[stevebarnes15]

Given the above post it might be an idea to uninstall any drivers that are causing issues and let windows update reinstall them by sounds of things.

 

[Voltron]

I tried uninstalling the drivers after the system finally restored and restarted my computer but it was still acting wonky so I just reinstalled windows 8 and downloaded all my updates. For instance I just bought a new graphics card and installed it, soon as I installed it windows 8 detected it and wanted to do an update and downloaded all the Nvidia drivers for me. Now it is a nice feature as it detects hardware and downloads the appropriate drivers for you but as far as utilities go, if you try to download the utilities for your motherboard or graphics card, they will not work properly. I cant speak for everyones setup just my own so far...

 

[stevebarnes15]

I installed Windows 8 on my spare lappy this morning to see what it was like, i have to say it's ok but i hit a wall with drivers like yourself.
Most i managed to fix with the compatability mode settings for xp or vista, however there are some stubborn ones which i have to install under legacy mode in the device manager.
I was dissapointed that MS didn't even have a LAN driver for my lappy which was the intel pro series, so had to revert to bluetoothing the driver across from my phone before i could even get to check there update database.
Still a lot of work to do on this os by looks of things, seems very slow at times?
Think i'm gonna stick to 7 for now.