randomspam
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TLDR: I'm unable to install an OS without setting drives to IDE and not AHCI and I cannot successfully change it to AHCI retrospectively. 
Hi,
I've been struggling for days with getting a stable installation of Win 7 Pro 64bit or Windows 8.1 Pro Version N 64bit working on an OCZ Arc 100 240gb.
Backstory
I bought a new SSD an OCZ Arc 100 240GB to replace an existing Plextor 120GB. I had had a Windows 7 Pro install running solidly with no problems for a couple of years (note though it was not a UEFI setup). With the new SSD I tried for days to clone and then create from scratch a new Windows 7 UEFI install but failed constantly and all of the information I found seemed to suggest it was all around a secure boot problem. I spoke to OCZ and they asked me to RMA the drive, I then got a replacement. I then decided to bite the bullet and invest in Windows 8.1 in the vain hope it would relieve the issue however it turned out to be just as bad and really it was an AHCI problem all along. In both the Win 7 and Win 8 installs I had been setting CSM to UEFI Only, Secure Boot to UEFI only, disabling fast boot but without any success it was only when SATA was set to IDE I could finally complete an install, this time on Windows 8.1 . However later setting it back to AHCI would then stop it booting, I read various guides on how to change it and switch it to AHCI but everytime I tried to start again it would not start up.
I concluded there must be some kind of storage driver issue however there doesn't appear to be any SATA/AHCI specific drivers for my mobo on the Asus site for 8.1 so are presumably inlcluded however I even tried similar mobo (R2.0 Evo and R2.0 LE) and chipsets and presenting the drivers during install but that came to nothing. Getting thoroughly sick of it all I settled for having IDE only and successfully did a clean install of 8.1 and went about installing all my stuff, happy days at last, a working PC. I would say though that it didn't seem the most stable OS install ever as occasionally it would freeze on the logon screen or freeze randomly during use,sometimes it would come alive again and sometimes not. That was yesterday but for the majority of the time it was good.
Current situation
Today, in the hope of finding an answer to the stability issues I was going through the usual series of driver updates and I updated the Asus bios from 2501 to 2601 this morning and that set my sata to AHCI. I spotted it and set it back however it now won't boot at all and gives me an 0xc0000034 error.
I've now been round the houses again, repairs and recovery disks, messing with EFI settings and boot managers like this Qlik Tips: Fix a Windows 8 boot issue but nothing seems to work, I am sadly resigned to likely having to start again however if I do that I will need to fix this AHCI/IDE boot issue once and for all as it's clearly been a problem in all my attempts. If I could get into the current OS first it would be a bonus as then I could copy out every download I'd just made to reinstall everything, would save me time when I presumably have to rebuild.
Tech Specs
Asus M5A97 R2.0 mobo
OCZ Arc 100 240gb
Corsair XMS3 8GB x 2
AMD FX8350
XFX HD7850
X-Fi SB0770
Seagate 250GB SATA
Hitachi 640GB SATA
I've genuinely put days and days into this now, I just want it to end and go back to using a PC like normal, can anyone help?
Thanks
Mat

Hi,
I've been struggling for days with getting a stable installation of Win 7 Pro 64bit or Windows 8.1 Pro Version N 64bit working on an OCZ Arc 100 240gb.
Backstory
I bought a new SSD an OCZ Arc 100 240GB to replace an existing Plextor 120GB. I had had a Windows 7 Pro install running solidly with no problems for a couple of years (note though it was not a UEFI setup). With the new SSD I tried for days to clone and then create from scratch a new Windows 7 UEFI install but failed constantly and all of the information I found seemed to suggest it was all around a secure boot problem. I spoke to OCZ and they asked me to RMA the drive, I then got a replacement. I then decided to bite the bullet and invest in Windows 8.1 in the vain hope it would relieve the issue however it turned out to be just as bad and really it was an AHCI problem all along. In both the Win 7 and Win 8 installs I had been setting CSM to UEFI Only, Secure Boot to UEFI only, disabling fast boot but without any success it was only when SATA was set to IDE I could finally complete an install, this time on Windows 8.1 . However later setting it back to AHCI would then stop it booting, I read various guides on how to change it and switch it to AHCI but everytime I tried to start again it would not start up.
I concluded there must be some kind of storage driver issue however there doesn't appear to be any SATA/AHCI specific drivers for my mobo on the Asus site for 8.1 so are presumably inlcluded however I even tried similar mobo (R2.0 Evo and R2.0 LE) and chipsets and presenting the drivers during install but that came to nothing. Getting thoroughly sick of it all I settled for having IDE only and successfully did a clean install of 8.1 and went about installing all my stuff, happy days at last, a working PC. I would say though that it didn't seem the most stable OS install ever as occasionally it would freeze on the logon screen or freeze randomly during use,sometimes it would come alive again and sometimes not. That was yesterday but for the majority of the time it was good.
Current situation
Today, in the hope of finding an answer to the stability issues I was going through the usual series of driver updates and I updated the Asus bios from 2501 to 2601 this morning and that set my sata to AHCI. I spotted it and set it back however it now won't boot at all and gives me an 0xc0000034 error.
I've now been round the houses again, repairs and recovery disks, messing with EFI settings and boot managers like this Qlik Tips: Fix a Windows 8 boot issue but nothing seems to work, I am sadly resigned to likely having to start again however if I do that I will need to fix this AHCI/IDE boot issue once and for all as it's clearly been a problem in all my attempts. If I could get into the current OS first it would be a bonus as then I could copy out every download I'd just made to reinstall everything, would save me time when I presumably have to rebuild.
Tech Specs
Asus M5A97 R2.0 mobo
OCZ Arc 100 240gb
Corsair XMS3 8GB x 2
AMD FX8350
XFX HD7850
X-Fi SB0770
Seagate 250GB SATA
Hitachi 640GB SATA
I've genuinely put days and days into this now, I just want it to end and go back to using a PC like normal, can anyone help?
Thanks
Mat
Last edited: