Unable to install windows 8.1 on a preinstalled 8 laptop.

I posted in the wrong forum so I'll just post a link to the thread plus a copy/paste of the OP.
Can't install Windows 8.1 or 7 on laptop - Windows 7 Help Forums

Little backstory: Its a HP Envy laptop with a 1TB HDD running on windows 8.
But the laptop has been having a lot of start-up errors and finally some files corrupted and windows wouldn't function properly. So I decided to reformat it to 8.1, a complete wipe to get rid of all the pre-installed HP crap.

So here's what I've tried, in the same order.

> I tried to install windows 8.1 through windows 8. -It failed after it restarted-
> I tried to install windows 8.1 through USB ontop of the Windows Partition (There were 5 partitions). -It failed because of a GPT (If I remember correctly) Partition error-
> I decided to delete all the partition and install Windows 8.1 ontop the entire 1TB disk space. -It started installing but then failed with an error code 0x80070057-
> I tried diskpart through CMD to clean the disk drive then followed with a format to ntfs -It always just sticks on 0 percent%-
> I tried all the same steps with Windows 7 -The exact same errors happen-

Please please please help! I've got one last option, plug the HDD into my desktop and try to format it that way but this is a lot of work so I'd like to keep it as a last resort.

I would run some diagnostics on the hard drive. If you go to the hard drive manufacturers web site you should be able to find utilities that can be run from bootable media. It sounds to me like the hard drive has issues. The manufacturers utility should also be able to zero the drive. This will wipe it clean and get ride of any format info that may be blocking the install.

alphanumeric said:

I would run some diagnostics on the hard drive. If you go to the hard drive manufacturers web site you should be able to find utilities that can be run from bootable media. It sounds to me like the hard drive has issues. The manufacturers utility should also be able to zero the drive. This will wipe it clean and get ride of any format info that may be blocking the install.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! The drive is Toshiba and I've found it very hard to find what you're mentioning. Could I bother you for a direct link?

Have a look here, Software Utilities

Here is some more choices:

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
7 Free Hard Drive Testing Programs
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics