Windows 10: Re-install Win 8 from Recovery MicroSD

Hi Everyone!

I really tried to like Win 10, but the mail not syncing, the virtual keyboard resetting all the time, not having Cortana or offline map in my region, oh and of course all the various BSODs made me give up after a month. It has promise, it may become a great OS, but right NOW, I simply can not work with it.

So anyway, I am on a Asus Vivo Note 8 tablet, I deleted windows.old after the install because of the lack of space.
I have a factory-made Recovery drive in the shape of a Micro SD card, which I plugged in, hit Reset system, just to end up with a clean install of Windows...10...

I read that you can download Win 8 to an USB and install it from there, but I DO HAVE a Recovery Drive so I'd like to use that, it has custom made drivers and MS Office and whatnot on it too. The problem is that I can not start the process. It will not auto-start if I plug the SD card in, it won't start by double clicking on it, and if I open it in explorer, there's only a folder called Sources with absolutely nothing on it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Can I just randomly format the SSD and stick the SD card in and start the install or something?

Thanks in advance.

:)

 

if you upgrade to Win 10 from a OEM Win 8 Computer be aware

if you upgrade to Win 10 from a OEM Win 8 Computer be aware

if you have a OEM Windows 8 computer (Hewlett-Packard,Acer,Toshiba ect.) and installed Windows 8.1

it adds a extra 350mb recovery partition

now if you had to restore back to Windows 8 from the OEM recovery Partition the extra 350mb recovery

gets left on the hard drive

now from a fresh install back to Windows 8 from the OEM recovery partition you upgrade to Windows 8.1 it adds another 350mb recovery partition so now there is 2 350mb recovery partition and if you keep going back to Windows 8 from the OEM recovery partition
and upgrade to Windows 8.1 it adds another

Windows defrag see's these 350mb recovery partition as Local Disk (\\?\VOLUME and can not defrag them

i asked this question on July 8

upgrade to Win 10 but Too Many Recovery Partitions from Win 8.1

Jayant Gupta a Microsoft Support Engineer in this post say's

" i would like to provide you with the information that, if you have another HD then I would suggest you to re-install the OS and get ready to upgrade to Windows 10. Having too many reserved partitions might cause Windows 10 upgrade to fail "

upgrade to Win 10 but Too Many Recovery Partitions from Win 8.1

please be aware if you plan to upgrade to Windows 10



James

 

Oh no! Hard drive failure! Will I still be able to install Windows 10 when it's ready?

I am receiving error notifications from the BIOS system diagnosis program that my hard drive is failing. I need my computer right away and work from home so I need to replace the hard drive likely before it is ready for my machine. I did prior to the error
make my reservation. I will have to do a clean install of Win 8 from my recovery disks to the new drive when I install it. My question is: Will Win 10 activate with the new hard drive installed or do I need to some how re-reserve it when I finally get up
and running again? I see that Win 10 is always available for clean install but all those articles refer to the re-install after Win 10 has been installed once already. Can someone clarify this for me? Thanks!

By the way, will I have to install 8.1 first? My recovery disks are Win 8.

 

My laptop will not boot from an SD card. The BIOS will not boot from the built in Card Reader. I can take the SD Card and put it into a USB reader adapter and boot from it though. You could try that? My SD Card is my Windows Install Media. The Windows 10 Reset function, as you've discovered, will only reset Windows 10. To do the factory reset (back to Windows 8) you need to access the OEM utility. The Windows 10 upgrade likely wiped that out. Check your manual for a key you press on boot up to access it. It likely won't work now but can't hurt to at least try it. You might get lucky. If that doesn't work post back and I'll give you some other options to do a clean install. I have some errands to run so it may be a few hours before I'm online again.

 

how much space is used on the SD card ??
as stated most SD Cards are not considered bootable

 

Yes and no, my SD Card is bootable, my laptop just won't boot from it if it's in the built in card reader. The BIOS isn't coded to boot from the built in card reader. Put it in a USB adapter and I can boot from it. It sucks that I have to do that but that's the way it is.

The way I created my bootable SD card was with diskpart, option two here. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...e-windows.html The same procedure works with Windows 7, 8 or 10, depending on what ISO contents you copy to it. Works for UEFI and legacy installs.

 

I have the same problem as OP.
Vivotab Note 8 doesn't have recovery partition (because it has only 32 gb disk) and instead comes with an 8GB microsd card with the recovery on it. (original from ASUS.)
The microsd worked as a normal recovery partition in win8 when i tried it. But since update to windows10 it reinstalls the windows 10 instead. The data on the microsd are still the windows 8 recovery because it wasn't even in the device since few months back.
It seems it starts to install windows 8 but the graphics change in the middle of the recovery and it installs win10 instead. I really don't know where it gets the win10 data from. The only other big enough partition is the System partition but that should be rewritten in the process - especially when i selected to clean the drive fully. Is it possible it installs win8 and then automatically makes the upgrade?..but it still doesn't explain where the win10 data are.

 

ASUS likely linked the image on the Micros SD to the recovery in Windows 8.1. The upgrade to Windows 10 broke that link. Another option is to download Windows 8.1 install media from here, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media and do a clean install. If you download and install the correct version it will read and use the Embedded Product key automatically. I did it on my ASUS laptop, it came with Windows 8.0 Core. I can install 8.1 Core from that download and it will not ask for a key. Activates online just like it did originally with 8.0. Saves having to install 8.0 and upgrading to 8.1. You'll lose all the ASUS preinstalled stuff, and may have to install some drivers manually. Once you get Windows 8.1 up and running you may be able to restore the factory install from your Micro SD. If that's what you want. I was quit happy to ditch all the ASUS pre installed junk. I've moved on to Windows 10 now.

 

Problem SOLVED. Thank you for the replies. The solution is quite close to to what alphanumeric has suggested. Except on a tablet, you need a LOT OF HARDWARE to be able to do it.

Namely:
USB hub
pendrive
keyboard
microSD to usb adapter

You need to download the file linked above and make a bootable USB drive.
You CAN NOT run it from Windows, because it will give you some nonsense error message, so go to the UFI and boot from the usb.
You need the keyboard, because the touchscreen won't work. In about 15 minutes you get your Win 8.1, but without any of drivers, not even the drivers to be able to use the micro sd slot.
You can either hunt down all the drivers and Ms Office now, or use a micro sd to usb adapter and reset back to the factory settings with the provided recovery disk and then update to windows to 8.1. I'm note sure which is the faster, but resetting back and then letting Windows update do the heavy lifting sounds easier to me.
Hope this is helpful.

On a side note, after going back to Win 8.1, I miss the simplicity and some nice features of Win 10, but Win 8 works faster, has the right drivers, uses less memory and it is a lot more touch-friendly. On a new desktop computer, WITH a keyboard and a mouse and brand new drivers, I'd go with Win 10, but for ablets like the Viva Note, Mixx etc. I suggest sticking to Win for 8. Cheers

Btw., it is still a mystery why can you reset Windows 10 with the Win 8 recovery data.