Windows 8.1 preparing automatic repair, need help!

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mets3214

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Dec 1, 2013
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I was transferring many media files (500 GB) into my HDD today and also played a little Metro: Last Light at the same time, turns out it wasn't such a bright idea since the game is also installed to that HDD and after about 15 minutes, windows crashed. I had to restart my computer and got "preparing automatic repair" which stays on screen for about 30 minutes before going into the menus. I tried refreshing, or repairing it but it still says the same thing. I also tried reset and inserted a USB flashdrive as a boot device and it still doesn't work. I just finished this build a few days ago and didn't do a backup of the system so I can't do a restore either. At this point, I don't care about my data on the computer because I didn't really have anything important on there yet, I just want to wipe my SSD and then reinstall Windows from scratch. How can I do that?

My rig:
ASUS Z87-A
i5 4670K
EVGA GTX 760
8GB RAM
250 GB Samsung Evo
2 TB Western Digital HDD
 
Solution
lp231
Boot from Windows 8 disc, click Install Now, type in product key. Select customize and then advance options.
Select drive you want to format and click format.
Select the drive you want the OS to be installed and click Next.
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lp231

lp231

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Mar 24, 2006
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Boot from Windows 8 disc, click Install Now, type in product key. Select customize and then advance options.
Select drive you want to format and click format.
Select the drive you want the OS to be installed and click Next.
 
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mets3214

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My SSD shows two partitions, Partition 1; System Reserved and Partition 2 is the rest of the memory. Should I format both of them?
 
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mets3214

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It says I can't install Windows on my SSD:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

Also, is it normal for everything to be working super slow? When I click something like next, format, etc.. takes like 10 minutes at least for anything
 
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lp231

lp231

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First physically disconnect the HDD so there is no confusion between the two drive.

Two options:
1. Go to bios and reset it back to defaults and try booting again with the Windows disc
Or
2. Leave the bios settings you have as it is, and turn on the computer, tap F8 a few times, this will bring up the boot list.
Notice that DVD will be listed twice, one of them will say UEFI.
Boot from DVD with UEFI
Windows disc will start like it normally does, when it goes to the HDD section, delete all partitions on the SSD including system reserved.
Create new partition (OS will create other partitions, this is normal).
Select partition with largest size and format, then select the partition you just format and click next to install.
 
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mets3214

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I booted from a USB flash drive with UEFI, I have deleted all partitions and now I have Drive 0 (SSD) unallocated space and Drive 1 (HDD) unallocated space. Should I just go ahead and install windows to the SSD now or should I unplug the HDD first. Will taking out the battery of the MB and putting it back in help with anything?
 
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lp231

lp231

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Is there important data on your HDD?
If yes, then you have just wiped out everything. If not, then it doesn't matter.

Just select your SSD and create a partition, the format that partition and click next to install.

 
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mets3214

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Nope, formatted both drives. The windows installation process is extremely slow though, just pressing next after entering the product key took about 10 minutes.
 
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mets3214

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Would resetting the CMOS to fix the speed problem? I don't remember it being this slow at all the first time I installed windows, it was fairly quick. After accepting the terms, it took about 10-15 minutes before I was able to click anything on the next step in setup. The mouse cursor becomes a loading icon
 
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mets3214

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I reset the CMOS but didn't take out the hdd, I'm installing Windows now. It said to remove the USB flashdrive and it restarted the computer, it is currently on the Windows logo loading. Been like this for around 15 minutes.

 
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mets3214

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Windows installed, everything was working fine. I couldn't check disk management though, it just said updating virtual disk service or something. So windows automatically installed some updates and I went ahead and restarted the computer, now it's stuck on the windows logo with the loading circle under it.. Been like this for almost 10 minutes already, this is really getting frustrating.
 
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lp231

lp231

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The only 7200rpm 2TB drive from WD is the WD Black, they don't have the Blue at 2TB so there's not that much choices. The other is the Green (you already have) and Red.
Seagate has 2TB at 7200 rpm, but I doubt it's the HDD that's causing the delay.
 
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mets3214

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Disk management wouldn't load when the HDD was in, disconnected it and it automatically worked
 
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mets3214

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I think so, I just did some windows updates and the PC finally didn't restart for 30 minutes! It was a total of about 3-4 minutes for 350 MB of updates. Everything is working fine without the HDD in, I took the HDD out of an external WD MyBook. It is around 2 years old and I just checked the WD website and the warranty ended in October so I guess I'll have to buy a new drive. The WD Black sounds good but reviewers on Amazon and Newegg complain about it's noise and its more expensive. It is faster though which would help since I would be running steam and all of my games off it.
 
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mets3214

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Karl9karl

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Dec 17, 2013
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Creating a system disk will not last long, but it is advisable, in order to avoid a similar incident. Much trouble we protect and certainly our data, documents, videos, etc. A good description, according to which anyone can easily create your own recovery discs can be found here ...

 
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