Windows – Clean Install of Windows 8 on Newly Installed SSD

installationpartitioningssdwindowswindows 8

I bought a new SSD for my Windows PC. Now I'm trying to install Windows 8 on it.

First attempt

  1. Started installation from within existing Windows 8 installation by launching setup.exe
  2. Installer says "Something happened. Sorry, we're having trouble determining whether your PC can run Windows 8. Please close Setup and try again."
  3. Tried the workarounds explained on the Internet (e.g. launching sources\setup.exe, making partition active, uninstalling antivirus software), but nothing I found worked.

Second attempt

  1. Booted from Windows 8 Pro 64 bit DVD
  2. Installer did not find any of my disks, and claimed that drivers were missing

Third attempt

  1. Dug up Windows 8 DVD that came with my computer, and booted from that
  2. It showed my disks, but…
  3. Even though the SSD was freshly formatted (as GPT), the installer said that "The partitions on the disk selected for installation are not in the recommended order. For additional information about installing to GPT disks, go to the Microsoft website (www.microsoft.com) and search for GPT. Do you want to proceed with the installation?"
  4. When I proceeded, the installer remained stuck at "Copying Windows files (0%)"

Fourth attempt

  1. Cleaned the SSD with diskpart (booted into existing Windows 8 installation)
  2. Booted from DVD that came with computer
  3. Selected completely empty, unformatted disk
  4. Installer said that "Windows could not format a partition on disk 0. The error occurred while preparing the partition selected for installation. Error code 0x80070057"
  5. When I tried to format the SSD from within the booted DVD, it remained stuck at 0%

Other things I've tried

  • Formatted the SSD while booted into Windows, copied data to and from the drive. It seems to work fine.
  • Updated all of the firmwares from Medion's website
  • Tried to find an update for the BIOS (American Megatrends Aptio 2.15.1236), but could find none on Medion's website
  • Booted the Install DVD in UEFI mode (no change)
  • Tried both GPT and MBR (Installer refuses to start installing when it's formatted as MBR)
  • Tried to update SSD's firmware, but Intel SSD Toolbox says the firmware is already current
  • Tried booting with dban. Under under "Disks and Partitions", it says "[?????] Unrecognized Device", and doesn't list any devices (similar to Microsoft's Windows 8 Pro install dvd).
  • Tried booting with SpinRite. Under "Select Drives and Partitions", it lists two entries:
    • Dos A: Undetermined Format
    • Drive 0 Add-On Controller
      • Empty
  • Tried booting into Ubuntu. The Ubuntu installer can see all of the disks, including the SSD.

At this point, I have no clue what else I could try. I'm not a Windows guy, and I don't even know what other direction I could try to go in. Maybe something like preparing a bootable USB flash drive from the Windows 8 Pro DVD, and somehow adding the missing drivers so it can see my disks?

Additional Information

The computer is a Medion Erazer X5330 D. The SSD is a SSD Intel Flash 520, 240GB, 2.5".

When the computer turns on in legacy mode, it says:
Intel Rapid Storage Technology – Option ROM – 12.5.0.1015
It lists one RAID volume, and the physical devices in my computer.

Best Answer

Few ideas: Motherboard BIOS Firmware up to date?

Storage configuration settings (AHCI/RAID/IDE)?

You mentioned its a new drive, but have you checked to see if there's a firmware update for it?

I've had to use tools like DBAN (Boot & Nuke) configured to just write zeros with no verify to get Winders happy to write to the disk.

http://www.dban.org/

Give it a try? See if your SSD shows up with DBAN.