Windows 8 RTM won't install

[A.N.Other]

Hi all,

I've been trying to install Windows 8 Pro x64 on my PC from DVD, but
have failed miserably.

It boots from disc just fine and I then get the blue window image and
white "spinny thing" below. Unfortunately, it sits here for over an
hour before finally moving on to the language selection screen. After
that, it sits there with a fairly generic message akin to "Setup
running" and then just sits there. I left it overnight and it was
still like that in the morning.

I've done a bit of googling and have seen some comments alluding that
it could be an issue with the Marvell chipset in my mobo (a Gigabyte
GA-X58A-UD5 for reference).

I also tried installing from DVD from inside the existing Win 7 OS.
However, I didn't progress too far there either, as in this new
version it seems to have lost the option to decide where you want to
install. I just got asked if I wanted to wipe everything and start
from scratch or preserve the files in the User area.

Any suggestions with regards to booting from disc? Did I miss a trick
with installing under windows so I could pick a different target
drive?

[Dave-UK]

"A.N.Other" > wrote in message ...
> Hi all,
>
> I've been trying to install Windows 8 Pro x64 on my PC from DVD, but
> have failed miserably.
>
> It boots from disc just fine and I then get the blue window image and
> white "spinny thing" below. Unfortunately, it sits here for over an
> hour before finally moving on to the language selection screen. After
> that, it sits there with a fairly generic message akin to "Setup
> running" and then just sits there. I left it overnight and it was
> still like that in the morning.
>
> I've done a bit of googling and have seen some comments alluding that
> it could be an issue with the Marvell chipset in my mobo (a Gigabyte
> GA-X58A-UD5 for reference).
>
> I also tried installing from DVD from inside the existing Win 7 OS.
> However, I didn't progress too far there either, as in this new
> version it seems to have lost the option to decide where you want to
> install. I just got asked if I wanted to wipe everything and start
> from scratch or preserve the files in the User area.
>
> Any suggestions with regards to booting from disc? Did I miss a trick
> with installing under windows so I could pick a different target
> drive?

I'd try and burn another DVD from your iso image, maybe at a lower speed than before.

[Paul]

A.N.Other wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been trying to install Windows 8 Pro x64 on my PC from DVD, but
> have failed miserably.
>
> It boots from disc just fine and I then get the blue window image and
> white "spinny thing" below. Unfortunately, it sits here for over an
> hour before finally moving on to the language selection screen. After
> that, it sits there with a fairly generic message akin to "Setup
> running" and then just sits there. I left it overnight and it was
> still like that in the morning.
>
> I've done a bit of googling and have seen some comments alluding that
> it could be an issue with the Marvell chipset in my mobo (a Gigabyte
> GA-X58A-UD5 for reference).
>
> I also tried installing from DVD from inside the existing Win 7 OS.
> However, I didn't progress too far there either, as in this new
> version it seems to have lost the option to decide where you want to
> install. I just got asked if I wanted to wipe everything and start
> from scratch or preserve the files in the User area.
>
> Any suggestions with regards to booting from disc? Did I miss a trick
> with installing under windows so I could pick a different target
> drive?

If it was an issue with the Marvell (2x6Gbit/sec) chip, you
could go to the ICH10R (6x3Gbit/sec) and use a port there.
Windows 8 should have enough drivers, for just about any mode
you put the ICH10R in. Move the cable to ICH10R and re-try.

SATA2_1
SATA2_0

SATA2_3 Intel ICH10R
SATA2_2 6 ports of SATA2

SATA2_5
SATA2_4
----------
GSATA3_7 Marvell 9128
GSATA3_6 dual SATA3
----------
GSATA2_9 JMB362
GSATA2_8 dual SATA2

Alternately, some SATA drives have a jumper position, to jumper down
the cable transfer speed one notch. But moving the cable from
a SATA3 port to a SATA2 port, will do that automatically anyway,
so no need to worry about that option right now.

*******

With respect to installation process, these are "safety" concerns.

1) Unplug the SATA cables on the drives you don't want damaged.
2) Only leave the optical drive, and the single disk you plan to install to.
3) Use a hard drive with no other OS on it. For your first install,
you don't want to be fighting with other issues.

Once you succeed at setting it up, you can plug all the other stuff
back in. Adjust the BIOS boot choice, so your new Win8 disk is the
one to boot.

I've been using a 120GB IDE drive for the last week and a half,
for testing Windows 8. I didn't have a problem installing with that,
and as the IDE drive was the only one connected during the install,
no other disks could get trashed. (My other Windows drives, on SATA
cables, were disconnected.) Worked fine. I prepared partitions in
advance, with an NTFS partition with boot flag set, and all
files removed, as an "enticement". I didn't have a problem
installing. In fact, that was the second install, as at one point,
I got frustrated with something else I was working on at the time,
and just blew the stupid thing away and started over.

Maybe if there are a few partitions already on the disk, you'll
get a "custom install" option, like the one on the bottom half
of the picture here ?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/29/2833947/windows-8-consumer-preview-installation-guide-partition#3069648

If you need a tool to prep a blank disk, you could use Diskpart,
or diskmgmt.msc. Diskpart, I think it has a command to make the
currently selected partition "active" (boot flag = 0x80). I
have several ways of doing that here, Diskpart, PTEDIT32, Linux fdisk command,
Linux GParted, and so on. As long as you have an extensive DVD collection
of various OS install discs, prepping isn't a problem. My stack of
discs now, is about a foot high (and the stack tips over too easy :-) )
I'm too cheap to buy an organizer for them.

Paul

[A.N.Other]

On Sat, 01 Sep 2012 08:55:01 -0400, Paul > wrote:

>A.N.Other wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've been trying to install Windows 8 Pro x64 on my PC from DVD, but
>> have failed miserably.
>>
>> It boots from disc just fine and I then get the blue window image and
>> white "spinny thing" below. Unfortunately, it sits here for over an
>> hour before finally moving on to the language selection screen. After
>> that, it sits there with a fairly generic message akin to "Setup
>> running" and then just sits there. I left it overnight and it was
>> still like that in the morning.
>>
>> I've done a bit of googling and have seen some comments alluding that
>> it could be an issue with the Marvell chipset in my mobo (a Gigabyte
>> GA-X58A-UD5 for reference).
>>
>> I also tried installing from DVD from inside the existing Win 7 OS.
>> However, I didn't progress too far there either, as in this new
>> version it seems to have lost the option to decide where you want to
>> install. I just got asked if I wanted to wipe everything and start
>> from scratch or preserve the files in the User area.
>>
>> Any suggestions with regards to booting from disc? Did I miss a trick
>> with installing under windows so I could pick a different target
>> drive?
>
>If it was an issue with the Marvell (2x6Gbit/sec) chip, you
>could go to the ICH10R (6x3Gbit/sec) and use a port there.
>Windows 8 should have enough drivers, for just about any mode
>you put the ICH10R in. Move the cable to ICH10R and re-try.
>
> SATA2_1
> SATA2_0
>
> SATA2_3 Intel ICH10R
> SATA2_2 6 ports of SATA2
>
> SATA2_5
> SATA2_4
> ----------
> GSATA3_7 Marvell 9128
> GSATA3_6 dual SATA3
> ----------
> GSATA2_9 JMB362
> GSATA2_8 dual SATA2
>
>Alternately, some SATA drives have a jumper position, to jumper down
>the cable transfer speed one notch. But moving the cable from
>a SATA3 port to a SATA2 port, will do that automatically anyway,
>so no need to worry about that option right now.
>
>*******
>
>With respect to installation process, these are "safety" concerns.
>
>1) Unplug the SATA cables on the drives you don't want damaged.
>2) Only leave the optical drive, and the single disk you plan to install to.
>3) Use a hard drive with no other OS on it. For your first install,
> you don't want to be fighting with other issues.
>
>Once you succeed at setting it up, you can plug all the other stuff
>back in. Adjust the BIOS boot choice, so your new Win8 disk is the
>one to boot.
>
>I've been using a 120GB IDE drive for the last week and a half,
>for testing Windows 8. I didn't have a problem installing with that,
>and as the IDE drive was the only one connected during the install,
>no other disks could get trashed. (My other Windows drives, on SATA
>cables, were disconnected.) Worked fine. I prepared partitions in
>advance, with an NTFS partition with boot flag set, and all
>files removed, as an "enticement". I didn't have a problem
>installing. In fact, that was the second install, as at one point,
>I got frustrated with something else I was working on at the time,
>and just blew the stupid thing away and started over.
>
>Maybe if there are a few partitions already on the disk, you'll
>get a "custom install" option, like the one on the bottom half
>of the picture here ?
>
>http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/29/2833947/windows-8-consumer-preview-installation-guide-partition#3069648
>
>If you need a tool to prep a blank disk, you could use Diskpart,
>or diskmgmt.msc. Diskpart, I think it has a command to make the
>currently selected partition "active" (boot flag = 0x80). I
>have several ways of doing that here, Diskpart, PTEDIT32, Linux fdisk command,
>Linux GParted, and so on. As long as you have an extensive DVD collection
>of various OS install discs, prepping isn't a problem. My stack of
>discs now, is about a foot high (and the stack tips over too easy :-) )
>I'm too cheap to buy an organizer for them.
>
> Paul

Ta. I was reluctant to start pulling cables, as I've got five RAID1
arrays humming away in there, plus an SSD & DVDs on top, but perhaps
that's the way to go. I just can't believe someone throught it would
be clever to stop you from selecting your install partition :-S