Windows 8 Boot Problems

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First let me say that I committed the major mistake of installing Windows 8 and an OCZ SSD at the same time so the problem could be with either. I did reinstall Win 8 after the first attempt to upgrade to 8.1 but that did not help.
Ever since I have had boot up problems – specifically my PC will not boot up on the first try, warm or cold boot. It will eventually boot up but it can require several cold boots or just one warm boot, no consistency.
Current configuration: Dell XPS, 3GB, 250GB HDD (drive 0), 120GB OCZ SSD (drive 2).
I cannot use the SSD as the boot drive – error message on boot up
I have run the Dell hardware diagnostic program – no errors in any component, Scandisk and the OCZ disk diagnostic that reports no errors.
The second attempt to upgrade to 8.1 died when the reboot failed.
I have Boot Log on but I can not view the Boot Log when I boot from a USB drive after a boot failure.
Any suggesting on how to diagnose / fix this boot problem?

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If you made an image of your computer before starting anything, you could restore the image to your original drive, remove the SSD, then boot.

Now install Windows 8. Reboot. Do all the updates.

Now upgrade to Windows 8.1. Reboot. Do all the updates.

Now, the final step: Install the SSD. Move Windows, etc., to the SSD using the SSD software.

I think if you save the SSD install till last, you will be better off.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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First, do not attempt a large upgrade (Win 8.1) on a system that is not pristine to start with. You are just asking for problems.

If you just removed your old HD, reinstall it. The OS should still be there. Clean it up and create an Image. The follow the excellent advice above, Install Win 8 using a clean (Custom) install possibly with a format included with the install. This will install a pristine copy of Win 8. Do ALL the upgrades, including any upgrades with your Metro apps. Now the Win 8.1 upgrade should work. Once the Win 8.1 OS is working correctly make a full system image of it. Install the SSD, then restore the Image of your Win 8.1 OS.

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Let me clarify the issue I have:
The original HDD is still installed (Drive 0) with Win 7.
I installed the OCZ SSD as a second drive and clean installed Win 8.
Once booted Win 8 runs fine.
The problems come during bootup – after POST and before the dual boot menu. I do not usually get an error message, the system just stops working at some point, usually before the Windows logo and the circle of dots appears. Occasionally I get an error message after POST that the SSD is not working but a warm boot will clear that up.
I was hoping that the boot log would show where the boot fails but I have not been able to view the boot log after a boot failure – tried to boot using a USB Recovery drive but could not locate the boot log.

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