Update on the issues that I'm having:

The problem kept persisting even after reloading Win8 and reloading all of the drivers and everything. I then noticed a couple of times when rebooting that the screen would pop back up and I could access the desktop/move the mouse around before it would actually reboot.  I noticed that the problem would occur at more or less exactly the same time every time.  Then it happened again and I realized that I could get back to the desktop and the miner would start working again if I smashed on the keyboard a couple of times with my fist. I'm thinking that the rig is going into hibernate or some other sort of power saver mode.  I guess that upgrading to 8.1 reset those settings, and the reason that my old "test" drive was working,  and main drive was working before my 8.1 update is because I had set those power saver settings to not be an issue.
I have to check those settings now but I'm pretty certain that that's the problem.

Thanks for everyone who chimed in with tips and ideas, and to WP for allowing me to post up in his thread with my issues. I feel pretty stupid right now,  but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully.