Can't select drive to install Windows 10 on Acer Chromebook

TheUnleashedCopy

Hello everyone ! 

I am kind of new to this of forum. My sister has a Acer Chromebook, but she wants Windows 10 to work with. I have created a Windows 10 USB stick using the creationtool of Microsoft. I can succesfully boot the USB stick, but for some other reason i can not select a drive to install Windows 10 on it. I used the command propt to clean the drive, convert it to mbr and gpt and even create partition, but without result. ( i even used the clean all command and searched the internet for answers) It is starting to get frustrating because I have the problem since last week, i hope someone can help me on this.

Thanks ! 

Jens 

billsey

I believe the BIOS is configured for ChromeOS and doesn't support booting to Windows. Your sister is also likely to be less than please if you did get Windows to install since the drive capacity is really geared for the lighter OS. She'd be running out of room almost immediately.

TheUnleashedCopy

How large is a standard installation of Windows 10 ? And is it possible to change the BIOS to boot Windows 10 ?

billsey

It's not possible to change the BIOS, Acer hasn't developed a Windows compatible version, since they don't sell a Windows version of the device. IIRC you can install but not run Windows on a 16GB drive, to run it you need 32GB and you will have to jump through a lot of hoops to move all user data to a SD card.

TheUnleashedCopy

What kinda hoops are we talking about than ? 

billsey

By default Windows really wants the user data (both accessible and hidden) to be in C:\Users. You can move portions of it to other drives, but some still stays on C:. Note that hidden data like internet browser temporary files are left on C: even if you move Documents, Pictures, Music, etc.. It's likely possible to move the hidden stuff too, via registry tweaks, but that type of hacking also usually breaks updates. With too small of a C: all those hidden files allow the drive to get too full, which slows everything down as Windows tries to figure out what can be deleted to make room in the background.

TheUnleashedCopy

And what about the Windows To Go installation ? Will there be as many hoops is a standard Windows installation ? 

billsey

Since Windows To Go runs off the flash drive and locks you out of the local drive it should work if you can get the BIOS to allow it to boot. WTG only works with the Enterprise version of Windows though, and typically a company that's big enough to be running Enterprise won't be trying to convert a Chromebook. If you try to run a pirated WTG I believe Microsoft will shut you down as soon as you go online.

TheUnleashedCopy

So i use the standard Windows installation and try to install it to the micro sd card, will that work ? 

billsey

Nope, it doesn't boot from the SD. You have to use a USB flash drive for WTG. Again the BIOS may not support that though.

TheUnleashedCopy

So i have successfully boot Windows To Go on a usb drive. It is possible to move all the files to the another drive ? 

billsey

Nope, as far as I know.