Acer Aspire Switch 10 - USB Boot / Windows 8.1 installation from USB

Hi
I recently bought Switch 10. As it has only 32GB SSD splited in 24GB of windows partition and 8GB for Recovery I tried to merge those partition to get rid of Recovery and have only one SSD partition. Longbstory short, I failed and got a bluescreen, then a reboot and now I have this:
http://i.imgur.com/NmAkhgO.jpg

I have Windows 8.1 from official Microsoft website, I have orginal CDkey (not OEM from Acer). The version I downloaded is a 32/64bit installer (I think, but it may be only 32bit)
I was trying to set up BIOS by myself, but it always puts me to blue screen of windows (with error 0000225).
I provide screens of BIOS with default settings: http://imgur.com/a/jtyN2

I prepared pendrive from an .iso image with a program called Rufus, partitioning system GPT.

Then I changed BIOS settings to allow non secure boot and to boot first from USB HDD, and while booting I hit F12. But still I get that: http://imgur.com/yE48diG

- What I would like to do? Be able to start Windows 8.1 installator, clear all SSD partitions and make only one 32GB with windows.
- What I need? Help, becouse I cant start boot from USB and run Windows 8.1 installator.

Accepted answers

piotrrosinski

I've found the solution, everything working fine.

To do it, you need to keep in mind two things:

1. You cannot use offical Microsoft .iso to USB program - it does not create bootable pendrive for UEFI bios, the offical Windows downloader have an option to create bootable USB from downloaded .iso, but it also isnt capable of doing so.

You have to create bootable ISO using Rufus software (simpy type rufus into google or LINK), then all you have to do is to make sure you selected GPT partition scheme for your bootable usb and FAT32 filesystem.

2. The most improtant thing is that our Acer Aspire Switch 10 supports ONLY 32bit Windows, so simply all Windows instalators which contains 64bit version are wrong. Conclusion is simple, you need only 32bit instalator, the 32bit/64bit wont work (just like only 64bit instalation which is obvious)

Hope it helped.

All comments

imfarza

Please reply to this I have the exact same problem Please !!!

piotrrosinski

I've found the solution, everything working fine.

To do it, you need to keep in mind two things:

1. You cannot use offical Microsoft .iso to USB program - it does not create bootable pendrive for UEFI bios, the offical Windows downloader have an option to create bootable USB from downloaded .iso, but it also isnt capable of doing so.

You have to create bootable ISO using Rufus software (simpy type rufus into google or LINK), then all you have to do is to make sure you selected GPT partition scheme for your bootable usb and FAT32 filesystem.

2. The most improtant thing is that our Acer Aspire Switch 10 supports ONLY 32bit Windows, so simply all Windows instalators which contains 64bit version are wrong. Conclusion is simple, you need only 32bit instalator, the 32bit/64bit wont work (just like only 64bit instalation which is obvious)

Hope it helped.

imfarza

Still not recognizing the USB with a ISO on it installed with rufus

hgmartin9

You can’t remove or merge the partition because it is “WIMboot”. Most tablets running Windows 8.1 use this. Here is a short explanation:

http://www.howtogeek.com/196416/wimboot-explained-how-windows-can-now-fit-on-a-tiny-16-gb-drive/

imfarza

No mine has a 500GB added to it so I must be able too, But I want to install android on my Acer is that possible?

hgmartin9

The HDD in the keyboard is external. It is the same as connecting a USB external HDD.

imfarza

Ok thanks, But I can't make the USB show up in my BIOS or my F12 menu

hgmartin9

If it is not the OEM recovery it won’t. Try what piotrrosinski has posted if you are try to do a non OEM install. The OEM wimboot should use less space than a win8.1 install without recovery partition.

imfarza

Idk what OEM Is, I just wanna dualboot Android so badly..

Jstiles24

The secret to getting Windows 10 on this device is to boot with an OTG USB adapter. USB from the keyboard doesn't work. I pulled my hair out for quite a while before I tried an OTG micro USB adapter directly in the tablet and not standard USB in the keyboard port. Still need to use RUFUS to create a GPT patirion scheme for UEFI computer, formatted for FAT32 along with a 32-bit version of Windows 10.

jamespdxor

I have an Acer aspire switch 10 notebook, and was in the process of setting it up when I was called away to put out a fire. I set a temporary pw just before shutting it down. You guessed it. I forgot or miss typed the pw, and now have no access to the unit. There is no data on the unit yet.

I purchased up a “Kon Boot” license (somewhat similar to the Rufus bootable USB method) and setup a USB drive in EFI mode. That method works with Microsoft Windows 8 and 8.1 (32Bit/64Bit), and from what I understand of reading a prior comment, it will not work with the 32Bit installation of Win 8.1 installed on the unit. However, I have not been able to get past the bios issue to test and verify this.

I need to configure the EFI BIOS to disable the Secure Boot feature so that I can try to boot the unit from with the Kon Boot USB drive.

The suggestion to use an OTG micro USB adapter directly in the tablet rather than a standard USB in the keyboard USB port may be the ticket, but how am I to know at this point. How can I access the EFI BIOS without logging on?

Better yet, how can I remove the pw or boot it to change the pw? A reset to the OEM settings requires a pw.

jamespdxor

The system infoindicated that it is a 4 core processor with a 64Bit Win 8.1 install.

I needed to set a pw for the BIOS in order to disable the Secure Boot feature. When I boot the unit from with the Kon Boot USB drive, it still asks for the login and pw (Bummer).

Below, is what I finally did to fix the login issue.

Power on the unit

Press the Windows button (right side of display)

This generally allowed me to reset to factory settings, and all is good now.

thasatelliteguy

This is NOT correct info. Who in their right minds thinks that Windows' own installation media creator cannot create the proper media to install their own software. That's just idiotic. HERE is the correct info:

First, you must be using 32bt installer. Switch 10 does not support 64bit. (At least mine does not) You can check the efi\boot folder for the file. bootx64.efi is incorrect. It should be bootia32.efi

GPT or MBR SHOULD NOT MATTER. I personally know MBR works fine. I don't bother with GPT since I am no where near 2TB, nor can it ever be added.

Drive must be FAT32

Add supervisor PW to UEFI to enable Secure Boot changes. Disable Secure Boot

Change your boot order to reflect USB HDD first.

After you hose your system and want to put it back, good luck with that. I can point you a direction on this but I haven't successfully done it yet myself, so I don't even say it is the 'right' direction. I wiped my partitions, and it's a BAD IDEA at this point in Win10 developement IMHO. Anyways, 8.1 with Bing is a different license than 8.1. You cannot DL 8.1 with Bing in any shape or form from MS. And your embedded key will not activate ANYTHING on the list in MS media creator. There is ONE guy who has UL the factory image as a ****. It's the UK version, but it works and you can change the lanuage pack afterwards (I think. it wasn't annoying enough for me to try it yet) I couldn't seem to get RUFUS to create a UEFI from the guy's image. My solution was to use MS Media Tool to DL and create a 32bit, 8.1 usb drive. Once I verified it would indeed boot the machine, I then deleted all VISIBLE files from it and replaced them with the files from the UK ISO. DO NOT FORMAT. The whole point is to have the hidden system files and MBR intact. Just delete and then copy paste. At this point you should be able to boot and install windows. Then go DL the Master Installer from acer and it'll install MOST of the drivers. I still cannot get my built in sound to work again. Anybody that does, help would be much appreciated.

saicologic

Hello,

I had same problem, and I'm solved Smiley Happy

so please visit:

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/127-make-dual-32-64bit-pe

Please do this, like on this web page.

after instalation you don't have any drivers

But you can download to UBS pendrive, and instal from USB.

Please visit

http://www.acer.ae/ac/en/AE/content/drivers and find your Acer model and download those drivers.

I had problem, with Master installer, the "Setup not working" but you can browse folder in this zip (about 200MB) file and you can install each driver singly (step by step). In my case this works in 100%.

Ofcourse, you have to update MS software in Win 8.1, because thouchseern in first boot not worked.

Cheers

Lukasz

krisrider24

hello thasatelliteguy

i would like to now if you could give me a link where coul downoad win 8.1 with bing.

yousaid hat a guy uplauded a uk version i ll need it for my aspie switch i saved my key before trying to install windows 8.1 pro and i d like to come back to oem windows 8.1 with bing

thanks

jgoff

I am currently having this problem where I have no OS because mine's broken on Windows 8.1, I am trying to put other operating systems on it so that I can dual boot with Windows 8.1 or 10 at least, or vista/7. What happened was: I cannot boot from my flash drive, there is no legacy boot vs uefi, and I cannot boot my current operating system from the SD card, nor can I boot it from the 32gb flash drive that I have (both things are 32gb).

Please respond, I really need a bios savvy person to help me, and who knows, maybe someone could use my hardware proficiency with 10 years of practice via tinkering, trial and error, and reading.

jgoff

Try pressing F2 right when your system starts up and keep tapping it until your bios comes up. Then, rearrange the order of the systems booting from as follows: USB/CD, HDD, Windows Bootloader (something like that name will do), & Network.

Since I am one of many kings of hardware in my area, if your computer is starting up, hardware isn't the issue; with that being said, you should go through these steps: plug the flash-drive in (stay in your bios), turn safe boot off (something synonymous will do), go change your bootloader options to accepting the format of the distro you are trying to flash, and voila, you have a working USB boot.

My problem is that my PC is broken and that I don't have an ISO to fix it, so I am trying to put linux on it because I like it better, and it barely breaks.

If Windows works for you, so be it, if Mac OS works on your computer, that's fine, but don't go to linux just because I am; I use linux because of my job requiring it as an IT running servers and running filesystems. Windows is more mainstream because of it's appeal to people of all ages due to its versitility. Mac, on the other hand is popular (same reason for linux) because it cannot get as many viruses, and linux has the least amount of viruses out there.

With that being said, if you're going to choose a distro or os, please choose one you know or are comfortable with.

IronFly

First of all, you don't need to change the boot order but just enable F12 boot list choice on BIOS, if it's already enabled, just press F12 and then choose your bootable device.

the USB bootable device must have UEFI/EFI GPT partition scheme and formatted FAT32 (Rufus is the best choice to create USB bootable media under windows), OS must be x86 and UEFI/BOOT folder must contain bootia32.efi to be able to boot

to boot a Linux USB flash drive, you need to disable secure boot too.

jgoff

I'm trying to dual boot Linux and Android because I don't have Windows anymore, does anybody know how to make the device accept my usb info?

thasatelliteguy

As far as I know, unless you are willing/capable of some more advanced in Linux, you are out of luck trying to run it on this particular machine. The problem is most distros on LInux (If I'm wrong here, I have no doubt some nerd with penguin bed sheets will correct me) there is no UEFI boot for the 32bit versions. I did read somewhere that something can be frankensteined together if you're really determined, but I wasn't. I just went and got another laptop. The way I understood it, Linux developers aren't putting any effort into 32bit distros since they are basically extinct. The switch 10 I have, while the processor is 64bit capable, they did not write it into the "bios" because you cannot upgrade the ram past the 4gb mark, so 64bit has no advantage. Since this machine also has no legacy boot option, you are forced to find OS options that are UEFI booting, 32bit systems.

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