Reinstall Windows on ASUS EeeBook X205TA

[Dinggus]

I'm interested in reinstalling Windows 8.1 on my ASUS EeeBook X205TA. Is it possible? I can't find any information on it.

[jamieakers]

I'm interested in reinstalling Windows 8.1 on my ASUS EeeBook X205TA. Is it possible? I can't find any information on it.

I believe by default it uses Wimboot, I recently did a similar job (or chore as it turned out) on a Toshiba Encore Mini.  I followed the instructions here: http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Encore-Tablets/Windows-8-1-WimBoot/td-p/574620.  Took me the best part of 5 hours to get the job done, however I can vouch for the instructions.

 

Edit: If you've got 32GB storage in that I would wholly advocate wiping the Wimboot recovery partition and doing a regular Windows install.  You'll also be able to upgrade to 10 a whole lot easier as 10 doesn't support Wimboot it would appear

[Dinggus]

I believe by default it uses Wimboot, I recently did a similar job (or chore as it turned out) on a Toshiba Encore Mini.  I followed the instructions here: http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Encore-Tablets/Windows-8-1-WimBoot/td-p/574620.  Took me the best part of 5 hours to get the job done, however I can vouch for the instructions.

 

Edit: If you've got 32GB storage in that I would wholly advocate wiping the Wimboot recovery partition and doing a regular Windows install.  You'll also be able to upgrade to 10 a whole lot easier as 10 doesn't support Wimboot it would appear

 

Looks like a hassle. Could I just download Windows, and install it via USB? Then go from there?

 

I basically just want to wipe the whole computer and start fresh again.

[jamieakers]

Looks like a hassle. Could I just download Windows, and install it via USB? Then go from there?

 

I basically just want to wipe the whole computer and start fresh again.

 

If you've got the 32GB model yes.  I'd recommend having a USB keyboard and mouse on standby just in case the touch screen drivers aren't standard (voice of experience here)

[Dinggus]

If you've got the 32GB model yes.  I'd recommend having a USB keyboard and mouse on standby just in case the touch screen drivers aren't standard (voice of experience here)

 

This isn't a touch screen, basically like a netbook.

[ShadeOfBlue]

The instructions from ASUS are here. But there's nothing special about them. It's the same for any Win8 machine that has a recovery or.WIMBoot partition.

 

The link provided by jamieakers is for creating a WIMBoot install from scratch. This is unnecessary unless you cannot perform a Windows Reset or Refresh for some reason. Even then, you always have the option of doing a non-WIMBoot install by using the Windows setup media as normal.

[CompProf]

I will share my experience with this little nice system since it will be useful for some.

I wanted to install Win 10 but there was not enough space left in the 32GB disk with the 8GB recovery partition etc. So I made a USB copy of the recovery partition and used EaseUS PM to remove that recovery partition. Something went wrong and when I tried to restart the system, I ended up with message "Your PC needs to be repaired; the kernel is missing"  blah blah. First I tried to repair from the SSD (and it would not do anything) and then used the USB drive after changing the boot up order in the UEFI bios but any of the options of WIn 8.1 (replace the files, advanced start up etc.) would help not me. Add to the agony was I did not turn off the bit locker when I got the system and now I need to input the big string for each option (luckily I had that saved in my MS account!), I decided everything is lost completely and I will just go and install Win 10 as a fresh install and formatted the disk.

Unfortunately Win 10 would not let me proceed much until I input the product key which I did not have (I came across this free program, OEMKey.exe, which retrieves the key if your OEM system is operational which is not the case for me). I saw another thread in Win 10 TP where another guy had the same problem and concluded that he has bricked the system and would put it in trash rather than spending $100 for a new license. I was upset as I liked this little system.

Then I read somewhere that you need to hit F9 as soon as you the system starts for the Asus X205TA to boot from the USB recovery disk and reinstall WIn 8 (or 8.1). I am glad I saw that since it did exactly that. The good thing is that it just installed the 8.1 but not that 8GB recovery partition crap. So I had almost the whole 32GB for use, the main reason I got into this mess. As soon I installed Win 8.1, I made sure to turn off that lousy bitlocker encryption (pain in the a__). I got atleast my system back. 

Then I used a powered USB hub, mouse and Win 10 on a USB stick to upgrade to WIn 10. Naturally this time it did not ask for the product key. So it is not very clear to me where the product key is in an ASUS computer. It is not very visible in the BIOS (someone can answer if they know) but the recovery partition knew it. 

In summary, make a USB copy of the recovery partition, get rid of the bitlocker encryption and remember to use the F9 key if you need to reinstall the OS.

 

[blubaba5]

I didn't make a copy of the recovery partition ;_; I tried to recover the deleted partition but it didn't worked. Somebody wanna help me and send their recovery partition? 

[Mockingbird]

These days, people don't reinstall Windows anymore: they just do "Reset your PC".

[xendrome]

It's running Windows 8.1 with Bing, the OS runs from the Recovery Partition .WIM file compressed. If you can't boot to the OS and wipe out the Recovery Partition, you have to find a Windows 8.1 with bing ISO