How to Install 8.1?

[Darren]

Alright so through school I get 8.1 for free and at the beginning of the semester I tried installing it on my desktop and I flat couldn't get it to work. It would give me errors regardless of how I installed it. I started by wiping the SSD and installing it fresh using a USB stick. That failed after several attempts and then I reinstalled 7 because I knew that there was a way to install 8.1 while on 7. Did that and it threw the same error. This was several months ago so I don't remember what it was.

What's the best method for installing 8.1 as "cleanly" as possible to avoid any issues with preexisting OS or anything like that?

Also should I be in AHCI mode or IDE for my SSD?

 

[voyagerfan99]

You should be in AHCI mode whenever you use an SSD.

What error are you getting? Whatever ISO you downloaded must be corrupt because I've never had any issue installing 8.1.

 

[Darren]

I'll gave it a whirl this weekend and see what it does. That was kind of my guess too. But the "upgrade" process that you can do on Windows 7 to install Windows 8.1 was something different than the ISO I used, and it still threw the same error. I don't remember the actual error but it would let me start the install and then halfway through say it couldn't do it.

 

[beers]

I got my 8.1 copy off of Dreamspark too and it works without issues.

I'd probably compare the MD5/SHA1 checksum against the file you downloaded just to make sure it wasn't corrupt at some point.

 

[Darren]

That ISO is long gone so I'll start with a fresh one when I get the chance. What with finals over the next couple weeks I probably won't be messing with until I'm back at home. Also gotta figure out how I'm going to lug my Phantom 2-3 blocks to my car as well as a 24 inch monitor, all on my own.