If you are doing a fresh windows install onto an SSD on a motherbaord which supports uefi, should I format to gpt and install through uefi or just stick with mbr and install the 'old' way. Reason I ask is that I've setup up a pc for my brother and recently it's had nothing but problems with it failing to boot. I managed to do a windows system repair but a week later it failed to even get that far. I have installed windows and some programs to a new SSD formatted as gpt with uefi but a week later and it won't boot again. Other thing i haven't tried is a bios update as its the sort of thing i'd rather not do on someone else computer. The motherboard is an ASUS maximus p67.
Sounds like a faulty sata cable. Also check the ssd firmware is latest. Update the MB bios. Make sure you have all the correct drivers installed. I use gpt uefi (faster boot times and a bunch of other optimisations)
If you use UEFI, set your drive to GPT... Windows 8 will force you anyway... might as well do it now so it's ready for the next version of Windows. However, it must be noted, that if your motherboard does not have FULL UEFI support, Windows 8 later one (possibly Windows 7 too, I don't know), will take much longer to boot.
And...... faulty sata cable. Thanks aramil I think I'd have exhausted about every other option before trying that, I guess I've never had an internal cable fail on me before.
