New motherboard, hard drive and SSD, Windows 8.1 won't install and is boot looping

Question

First let me start by thanking those who take their time to help me on this one, it's not going to be easy to solve this. I've been trying to fix this for 4 months on a daily basis, and I'm at my wits end, beyond frustrated. I will try to explain the dynamics of the situation the best I can, but it's convoluted. Let me give the background, I have gone through 3 new motherboards, 3 new hard drives and a new optical drive. I also purchased a second Windows 8.1 in case it was a disk issue.

First, the Windows 8.1 disk installed with no problem on other computers that are up and running. Here is the issue. First motherboard and a new hard drive were purchased. I build the computer. It runs for 2 months, during a Windows update I get the infamous automatic repair restart boot loop on my M2 SSD, which I still cannot fix. I bought a new motherboard (I broke the CPU pins in an effort to fix this issue).

I received a new motherboard along with a purchase of a WD Black 500GB hard drive. I set up the new build, triple checked all things correct (my 75th build) started the system with CSM turned on along with legacy settings, installed Windows 8 disk.. black screen for 60 seconds, then restart, no spinning install circle.. This boot loop won't stop. I tried every form of setting possible for 3 days straight. Frustrated I threw a Windows XP disk in and instantly it installed. While it confirms my CPU, MB, HD all work, since upgrading from XP to Windows 8 isn't possible, I have to wipe the drives. So I reformatted the hard drive. I didn't know how to handle the SSD, having read that they can't be formatted.

So I sent everything back to Newegg. I got a new motherboard, but I still had the same problem. I know my knowledge of MBR and GPT and formatting is weak, so I spent 50 hours studying everything I could find. The truth is, I just don't fully understand this aspect of computers. I think, but I'm not sure that the hard drive issue not accepting the Windows 8 install may be MBR related. I used a Hirens Boot CD to restore the MBR. I assumed that it worked, but I still can't get Windows to install.

My Issues:

• I have an SSD that is stuck on automatic repair boot loop. It shows that screen for 3 seconds and restarts.
• I have a hard drive that won't accept Windows installation either. It sits on a blue square screen for 60 seconds and restarts.

I have tried the following:

1. Created a Windows Media Creation installation USB from the Windows website. (I'm supposed to set up a hard drive to allow installation, but it doesn't work.)
2. I have tried the developers ADK called Windows Pre-installation Environment (Windows PE) http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39982

It didn't work. I don't know what to do. I use my computer to make a living, and to be honest, I'm about to lose everything, all because I can't get Windows to install!

I have built high-end overclocked rigs for a decade, over 75 systems, and I've never had a problem until Windows 8.1. I am struggling to learn UEFI. I'm getting old, and it's hard for this old dog to learn complicated new tricks. I'm at my wits end. I spent over 100 endless hours reading everything I can trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. While I learned a great deal, I can't overcome this problem.

Finally I have a new SSD on its way that should be here by Wednesday, in hopes that I could connect it and be able to install, ending my problems, but reading the links on the side of your website, I get the impression that I need to know a bunch of codes and stuff to get that to work too. My head hurts from it all. I can no longer afford to pay a company to set this up for me. I've lost a thousand in the last few months from this, and me being stubborn wanting to fix it myself. I do have a Geek Squad account paid for, do you all think Geek Squad can handle fixing this type of issue? I have my doubts about them, but I do have a paid for account. I am reaching out to you all in hopes I can with the help of others, overcome this issue myself and you all.

I apologize for the digressions and convoluted explanation, In the end, all I can say is I've tried everything. Is anyone willing to take my challenge on and help me walk through this? I would be very grateful, and promise that in the future, I will help someone else, in their time of need when I can, in return for any help I receive from individuals here. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Run some diagnostics, such as : Try running a live distro, check for any issues. Have you tried any other operating systems? If the issue persists then you know it is something wrong with your hardware. The boot record may be corrupting itself for whatever reason. Whilst yes, it is inadvisable to wipe an SSD in the same traditional methods, due to their limited read/write cycle, it is perfectly fine to do so every once in a while. Conclusion: Try running a different operating system for a few weeks to see if any problems arise. Although in my opinion it sounds like an issue with your storage devices.

Answer 2

I did a quick read of your issues and I noticed you might have issues similar to those that I had recently. My desktop has 3 hard drives, 2 SSDs and a mechanical hard drive. SSD1 had a Linux installation, and what I tried to do is install Windows 10 Preview on the mechanical drive and Windows 7 on SSD2.

I installed everything in MBR (I used GParted to switch to MBR) using legacy boot. What I noticed is that in order for the Windows installation to work properly on my setup I HAD to set the hard drive where it's being installed as the MAIN BOOT DRIVE. For example, when I tried to install Windows 10 on the mechanical drive, while having SSD1 as the main boot drive, the installation didn't want to boot up, it just froze.

Another thing that happened during downloading Windows updates is that all my installations got messed up and I ended up with a boot loop. My guess is that installations/updates need to have the actual boot drive of the system set as the main boot drive. Once I do that, everything works properly.