Upgrade Acer W500 to Windows 8

I have just spent the last 5 hours trying to resolve a failed windows 8 Installation on an Acer W500 with a 32Gb SSD I went down the avenue of a clean install using a bootable USB and selecting to keep nothing, all went well until it decided that there was not enough disc space 2Gb short and this is where the whole process stopped . Have I misinterpreted what the down load can actually achieve, is it not capable of a clean installation formatting the drive and creating a partion as windows 7 what can do ?.

I now cannot even boot up my original Windows 7 cannot navigate the suggested options the only thing I can get into is the Bios, Can I format my SSD and reboot with the USB downloaded Windows 8 .Or will I have to use my windows 7 recovery discs and start all over again? Any body know How I can get into dos format the SSD and boot from the USB ?

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Blayn-Acer

Sorry you are having problems with the upgrade. You should be able to use the upgrade download to do a clean install of Win 8. Since your tablet currently won't boot, I recommend using your recovery disks to restore your tablet back to Windows 7, then attempt the upgrade again. It is highly recommended that you use the Win 8 upgrade assistant tool at http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/upgrade-assistant-tool.

Regards,

Acer-Blayn

crossuab

My sister also has the ACER w500. She recently received a disc copy of windows 8 for Xmas and wants to upgrade from Windows 7. She moved the windowns files to a USB in order to install onto tablet but was told she didn't have enough space because 16 gb were needed for the install. Will the upgrade assistant tool get her over this hurdle?

westonr

I had to remove program's to make enough space to install widows 8 as an upgrade it should have booted up from the disc and go into the install mode I had just 16 Gb of space when I did the upgrade and it worked well, but after the installation I tried to remove the Windows old file but this is where it went all wrong it caused the Windows 8 to crash and freeze I have just got the tablet back to it,s factory setting to try again, I still have a few program's to remove before I start the Windows 8 installation again I did my upgrade from windows 7, going into my computer opening the bootable USB program and selecting install and it went OK with less than 16Gb is this the way your sister has tried to do the upgrade ?.

I have just found a site that http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-8/remove-windows-old-folder-in-windows-8/gives gives you step by step guide to removal of old windows files.

I believe as long as you have enough space I would have thought 16 Gb being enough if you install from windows 7 then it should work it will leave you a small amount of space but following the link you should be able to remove the old files and free up 15 Gb or so. I have not completed the second update yet will keep you advised as to how it went I am not that well up on the technical side, but when I had 8 installed on the W500 it was a very different tablet it work well and fast hope this is a bit of help to you.

westonr

Just by the way of an update I am in the process of re-installing Windows 8 and I removed a lot of programs that were taking up space before doing the up grade the windows 8 installation gave me a message that I did not have enough space for the upgrade and gave me a list of files that could be removed I selected the files and performed the removal and then restarted the installation, all undertaken within the widows 8 installation process. So quite an intelligent inter phase "Fool Proof I hope" keep you posted.

westonr

Have updated to windows 8 used the Clean up and have now got 20Gb of free space, seems to be working well now updating and personalizing the Metro Screen.

westonr

I have finished the installation and installed my software I am really pleased with the improved performance of the tablet after all the updates and software I have loaded, have 15Gb of free space I also use a TuneUp utility to keep the system up to spec which runs in the background. The windows store does not have the range as yet that the Android store has but it is very early days, but the biggest bonus is it's Windows and the range of software available.

It has been a very interesting and sometimes very difficult process I would not class myself as knowing that much about computers but I have gained some knowledge from this experience.

Walder

Good to know it worked out well in the end for u.

professorf

I got this working and kept all my programs / data. What you have to do is:

1) Backup your 32Gb SSD

2) Install a 64Gb SSD (this IS NOT EASY and you'll probably scratch up your case like I did, beware)
3) Restore onto the 64GB SSD

That's it. I have 15Gb left over after installing all of Office 2010, Adobe CS4 32-bit, Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Kinect SDK, Visual Robot Studio, Maya 2012.