Error 0xC0000098, installing missing drivers and reinstalling Windows

Hi Cobba70,

First, I would verify the integrity of your hard drive using a bootable USB key with a hard drive diagnostic tool, such as SeaTools.

If everything looks good, you would be much better off performing a clean installation of Windows 10 than installing Win 8 and upgrading to 10.

Thanks for the reply.

Re. verifying the integrity of the hard drive, I went to diagnostics in the Boot Manager and ran the ePSA Pre-boot System Assessment in the Thorough Test Mode, it didn't find any problems with either of the hard drives.

I currently don't have the Driver & Utility disc that came with the computer but I should have it within a week, when I get it I'll see if that makes any difference with the Windows installation.

I'll give the Windows 10 clean installation some thought but currently I'm more interested in getting the computer working again.

Update.

I have been in touch with Dell Tech Support, they told me that I needed to install the:

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID Driver

I borrowed a PC and copied the extracted driver file to a usb stick, I installed it during the Windows setup and all of the partitions appeared in the window that says 'Where do you want to install Windows?'

The OS partition is where you want to install it.

Have you changed the system setup to BIOS (legacy) mode, or are you trying to install a 32-bit version of Windows 8?  If either, you will need to blank out the drive and re-partition it in MBR mode -- legacy mode requires that, as does a 32-bit Windows OS.

To install to a GPT disc, you must boot in UEFI mode and install a 64-bit version of Windows (usually from a flash drive or network install, as many systems won't boot a DVD in UEFI mode).

Wouldn't work.

I had 2 options to boot from.
In Legacy Boot I could choose: CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
In UEFI Boot I could choose: UEFI DVD1 PATH1 (HL-DL-ST DVDRW/BDROM CT40N)

Dell tech support told me to boot from: UEFI DVD1 PATH1 (HL-DL-ST DVDRW/BDROM CT40N)Went through the setup and selected Drive 1 Partition 5: OS

The installation went ahead and finished, it then restarted and went straight to the install process again, I thought that it didn't install properly the first time so I did the installation again, it finished, it restarted and went then straight to the install process once again.
I went through the setup process the 3rd time but did not proceed with it, I noticed this time that Windows could not be installed in Partition 5 anymore.

After this failure, I spoke with tech support again, this time I was told to do the Legacy Boot from the CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive.

Went through the setup again and was told to delete all of the partitions and select the largest partition to do the install, after doing this I clicked on the largest partition and a notification appeared saying that this was a GPT partition and it couldn't be installed on it.

Tech support is going to send a technician to see if the problem can be sorted, if it can't I was told that they will replace the hard drive.

Have you changed the system setup to BIOS (legacy) mode, or are you trying to install a 32-bit version of Windows 8?  If either, you will need to blank out the drive and re-partition it in MBR mode -- legacy mode requires that, as does a 32-bit Windows OS. To install to a GPT disc, you must boot in UEFI mode and install a 64-bit version of Windows (usually from a flash drive or network install, as many systems won't boot a DVD in UEFI mode).

Install wouldn't work in Legacy Boot or UEFI Boot

The install disc is the 64-bit version of Windows 8.

Dell's online/phone tech support has given up, they are sending a technician to see what the problem is.