If you are using RAID feature of AMD SB8XX chipsets you can encounter a lot of BSODs when using Windows 8 even during system installation. This is caused by a buggy amdsbs.sys driver which is integrated into Windows 8 distribution media.
To be able to successfully install Windows 8 in such situation you must set SATA controller mode of system hard disk to IDE for the time of system installation. After the system is installed first thing to do is to install the newest RAID driver from AMD site and disable the buggy amdsbs.sys driver in the registry (without disabling it you will still sporadically encounter BSODs even though the newer and bug free driver from AMD is installed). To completely disable the buggy driver you have to perform the following steps:
- Open Registry Editor
- Navigate to the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\amdsbs” key.
- In the right pane find “Start” parameter, double click it and set its value to 4.
- Close the Registry Editor and reboot the system.
After installing the newest RAID driver and disabling the buggy one, you can set back the SATA mode of your disks to RAID and the Windows will be working stable now.