Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 install issue

A

Azhar

Fixing stupid since 1972
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Jan 9, 2001
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On a brand new ASRock A75 Extreme6 with an AMD A4-3300 Llano APU, 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair, 4x Seagate 2TB drives, and 3x Samsung 2TB drives, I am able to install Windows Home Server v1, WHS 2011, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7 without a hitch. Despite being an A4-3000, it's actually a pretty snappy processor, probably thanks to the Radeon HD6410 integrated GPU.

But when it comes to Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the installation freezes at the first blue Windows logo screen. I use a thumb drive to install Windows - the very same thumb drive I used to install two other Windows 8 machines. I tried every USB ports in that computer with the same results, but I don't think it's the USB port because I install all of the other Windows operating system using USB as well (I didn't install a DVD drive in that media server).

I tried waiting for awhile in case it's just slow. When Windows 7 first came out, my game rig also took ages to install until a BIOS update fixed it, but still, that "ages" was just 60-70 minutes. The blue Windows 8/2012 logo sits there all night long and the light on the USB flash drive isn't blinking anymore, which indicates it's not being read.

Anyone have any idea what I might need to do to get the installation working? Tonight I'm going to check on the BIOS version and see if there's any new updates for it.

edit: just to make sure the many hard drives isn't the problem, they're all unplugged except one of the Samsung 2TB drive.
 
I guess you could check the md5 hashes against files extracted locally? Check the CPU configuration - make sure it aligns with Win 8 requirements. That's my starter for 10, probably not much help, sorry!
 
Do you have USB 3.0 support on the motherboard? Try disabling that and see if it still hangs.
 
I'll give that a go, heatless. I used the USB 2.0 slots, but I'll disable USB 3.0 in the BIOS.

Haileris, I know the contents of the thumb drive works (Windows 8). I used it to install other computers without a glitch. It's unlikely the same thing would happen again when formatting the thumb drive and putting bootable Windows Server 2012 with the same result - working on other computers except the AMD A4 server.

Another thing, I stumbled across a bootable flash drive how-to that mentioned needing to use the format fs=fat32 parameter in diskpart when using the flash drive to boot from UEFI motherboards. The ASRock A75 Extreme6 is an UEFI board. Not sure why fat32 is needed because Windows 7, WHSv1, WHS 2011 and Server 2008 R2 installed just fine from flash drives using fs=ntfs parameters.

I guess I'll try the fs=fat32 parameter tonight.
 
thread necromancy, but i also have an A4-3400 with asrock extreme 4 ? or pro 4 or something... anyway I have the same problem, did you ever figure out a solution ?

edit: on a whim, i trade a bios update. asrock 2.3 fixes issue with windows 8, it seems to be working now.
 
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i have the same issue (different motherboard/processor). After hours of reading, i think my old system cant install win8 or server 2012.
 
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