Well, no luck guys...

Tried everything yesterday:

- Flashed my BIOS several times (with different RST versions)
- Used 3 different USB sticks with 3 different Windows 8 ISO's
- Tested both SSD disks seperately and in RAID 0 (with an USB stick embedded with Win7); both drive are working perfectly
- Converted the complete array to GPT
- Tried loading RST drivers before installing Win8
- Tested memory with memtest86+ no problems whatsoever
- Dunno anymore what else.

Also, as I mentioned all things happen random. I took a few screenshots.

Though it's every time random, it's the same thing what is happening;

a) it stops at a random % during file copying sometimes accompanied with an error code.
b) it stops at a random % during getting files ready for installation sometimes accompanied with an error code.

Well since I now have almost tried everything the only thing left to suspect is the BIOS in combination with my 2x Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming cards.

In my MSI Bios you have an option called:

Zitat

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Windows 8 Feature [Disabled]
Enables the supports for Windows 8 or disables for other operating systems.
Before enabling this item, make sure all installed devices & utilities (hardware & software) should meet the Windows 8 requirements.
[Enabled] The system will switch to UEFI mode to meet the Windows 8 requirement.
[Disabled] Disables this function.

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If I enable this option; it will start to complain about my videcard(s). And I get the following message:

Zitat

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System BIOS detected a non-Windows 8 Logo graphic card.
There is no GOP (Graphics Output Protocol) support detected in this card.
'Windows 8 feature, settings in BIOS will be changed to 'Disabled'

Press F1 to run setup.
Press F2 to load default values and continue.

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Though the weird thing is, is that all GTX 970 should have GOP and/or UEFI support.
This is the only thing I can think of which is holding me back to install Windows 8 in UEFI mode.

Maybe I should try to install Windows 8 in legacy mode or something.
Anyways, I am all out of ideas at the moment. I also have a EVGA GTX 650 (Physx) card. Maybe I should see if EVGA has released an UEFI BIOS for it and try to install Windows 8 with that card. At least I will know what the problem is.

I checked with Gigabytes website, though there are newer BIOS releases for the videocards (very hard to decipher which version you really need).

One thing is sure though; I won't be buying a Gigabyte card anywhere in the near future. Worst support ever, contacted them several times about other things, they don't care, etc. etc. etc. What is also "fun" is when you download their BIOS tool for the videocards, you will need to have a Gigabyte motherboard to be able to flash the cards? LOL. Anyways, I can always flash them manually, but rather not.

//edit

I just ordered 2x EVGA GTX 970 FTW+ cards, instead of the Gigabyte cards (which I will return).
The EVGA cards come with UEFI BIOS by default. Tired of Gigabyte all together, because this wasn't my first problem with them either....!

I actually did clean them. How? Easy; after I noticed an installation of Windows 8.1 failed, I rebooted ran diskpart and used clean, after that I rebooted and deleted the create array. After that rebooted and flashed the new BIOS.
I tried secure erase, but it's problematic. Because it goes into frozen state and I need to open the backside of my PC to remove the SATA cable (and you have to pull the right one). Also doing this several times, it will wear down my SSD's.

Both SSD's are always connected to the first two SATA 3 ports (Port 1 and Port 2). I only moved them once (on 1st or 2nd day) to test if the SATA ports weren't a problem. I don't have an optical drive, so no need. The only other "storage" I use are the USB sticks with BIOS, Windows, etc. on it (multiple sticks in the meantime).

I understand what you are aiming for; you want to see if I can do a Windows 8.1 installation based on Legacy and with MBR (which is used for Legacy). I will try that on Sunday, I have a busy weekend ahead (especially with Valentine's day; gone most of the weekend).
But yes, I will redo the steps you mentioned or at least the ones which should be done and try to install Windows 8.1 in legacy mode.

I expect / hope the new videocards will arrive here around next week, which are actually equipped with an UEFI BIOS so I will be able to use the Windows 8 Feature (in others words CSM probably) and fix this once-and-for-all.

I will probably report back on this on Sunday (in regards to installing Windows in Legacy/MBR mode). I am pretty confident Windows 8.1 will succesfully install in Legacy mode.
Otherwise I will not have a clue left on what it could be, right? We went through all possibilities by then....

(maybe I will have time late this evening, depends on what my girl thinks... she's already quite upset I have been at my computer every evening so far... lol :P)

Anyways thanks Fernando for thinking along! :)

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #35

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Zitat von HHawk im Beitrag #34

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I tried secure erase, but it's problematic. Because it goes into frozen state and I need to open the backside of my PC to remove the SATA cable (and you have to pull the right one).

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There is a better and safer method: Unplug the power cable (not the data ones) from the SSDs for a few seconds and reconnect them.

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@HHawk

Having read this whole thread I just wanted to check if you have confirmed that both of your new Samsung 850 SSD's work ok?

Have you tried them individually in AHCI mode? (just to ensure one or both aren't faulty in some way).

I would test them in the X79 board individually and if they still act up then I would test them in another PC, failing that I would do an RMA.

Yeah SSD's are fine. I think it's that MSI BIOS "Windows 8"-feature option.

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #40

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Zitat von HHawk im Beitrag #39

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I think it's that MSI BIOS "Windows 8"-feature option.

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You should disable this BIOS option, because your system is obviously not able to run in "clean" UEFI mode (CSM disabled).

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Hey guys,

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's day / weekend.

Anyways, got back an hour or so and tried to install Windows 8.1 again... This time in Legacy mode, as explained above. Anyways; same crap again. Windows stops during the first part (copying files) or 2nd part at a random percentage (getting files ready). So the same as before.
Tried a few other things, same result. One really weird thing I noticed was when Windows installation got stuck at a certain percentage, my RAID array had 0 bytes free. No clue why or how that happened anyways, did a few Google searches and found some dude who was experiencing something silimar.

I read through his blog post and saw that he enabled the SATA hotplug option on all SATA ports. Sounds stupid, but anyways, I did that also, since I don't have any other ideas left. And guess what... Windows just installed without any issue or hiccup... :|

Now, I know I am not an expert and all, but does that make any, I repeat ANY, sense at all? Never heard of this before.

Since it installed, I am gonna retry again. Doubt it was just luck given the many times already I tried to install this crap (pardon my French).
I think it's total BS though. Why would I be able to install Windows 8.1 without issues by enabled that hotswap option on the sata ports?

Fernando, you have a clue why this is?
As I said; I will retry this again and see what happens. It should install again; if not, it was probably just luck and wouldn't have been stable anyways, I guess...

I made a typoe in my previous post; it's called SATA Hot Plug, but I guess it's the same as Hot Swap probably.
Anyways, removed the old array. Set BIOS back to defaults, reconfigured everything and setup an UEFI RAID 0 array.

Enabled SATA Hot Plug again on all ports and installed Windows 8.1 again.
Guess what...?

Again, no problems at all... Windows 8.1 installed without issues at all (also used a different stick with different Windows 8.1 on it; with all updates so far).

Really, really lame and stupid.

I was really close at throwing the towel in the ring. :|