Formatting of tablets,

jamal numan said:

Formatting of tablets,

I got a tablet of the brand “Dell Latitude 10 ST2” and wanted to format it but I couldn’t figure out how this tablet can be formatted as it has no DVD drive to boot.

Is the only solution is to have Bootable USB for windows 8?


Thank you

Best

Jamal

Click to expand...

alphanumeric said:

jamal numan said:

Formatting of tablets,

I got a tablet of the brand “Dell Latitude 10 ST2” and wanted to format it but I couldn’t figure out how this tablet can be formatted as it has no DVD drive to boot.

Is the only solution is to have Bootable USB for windows 8?


Thank you

Best

Jamal

Click to expand...

A USB DVD drive may also work.

Click to expand...

Coke Robot said:

Yes, just use a 4 gig USB drive, preferably USB 3.0 as it's SO MUCH faster than 2.0 when it comes to installing Windows.

The basic gist is that you format the USB drive to FAT32, do some diskpart commands, set the drive as active, and then copy over the contents of the Windows 8.1 install .iso over to the USB drive.

VERY CRUCIAL STEP HERE!

If you want to keep upgrade privileges from Windows 8 to 8.1, you need to use the vbs script from here...
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/27129-product-key-find-windows-8-a.html

You'll need that product key to successfully activate Windows 8.1 with the tablet's precooked key.

Also, if you want to do a clean install of Windows 8.1, you'll need an MSDN copy of Windows 8.1 Core.

I personally wipe out the recovery partition and keep the base UEFI partitions, the EFI and OS partitions, and leave the rest. It's mostly because it'll give you some added disk space and, well, if Windows craps itself, you already have a USB drive that you can use to repair it, of which is a clean copy of Windows and not Dell's image of such. But if you use the Windows installer from the USB drive, it'll make the default partitions.

Lastly, when you actually DO the install, don't google around to how to enter the BIOS of your tablet as I'm sure as the devil you'll find people saying to hit, "F2, F12, F10 or the Del key." Don't. Those don't work WHATSOEVER with UEFI BIOS. It's such a peeve of mine to read that because that only applies to MBR BIOS systems and not UEFI. The easiest way is to go into PC Settings, General, Advanced Startup, I think Troubleshoot, then Advanced, and then Boot to UEFI USB Drive. It'll reboot to the Windows installer on your USB drive.

I've done this more than a few times if you can tell.

Click to expand...

alphanumeric said:

Coke Robot said:

Yes, just use a 4 gig USB drive, preferably USB 3.0 as it's SO MUCH faster than 2.0 when it comes to installing Windows.

The basic gist is that you format the USB drive to FAT32, do some diskpart commands, set the drive as active, and then copy over the contents of the Windows 8.1 install .iso over to the USB drive.

VERY CRUCIAL STEP HERE!

If you want to keep upgrade privileges from Windows 8 to 8.1, you need to use the vbs script from here...
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/27129-product-key-find-windows-8-a.html

You'll need that product key to successfully activate Windows 8.1 with the tablet's precooked key.

Also, if you want to do a clean install of Windows 8.1, you'll need an MSDN copy of Windows 8.1 Core.

I personally wipe out the recovery partition and keep the base UEFI partitions, the EFI and OS partitions, and leave the rest. It's mostly because it'll give you some added disk space and, well, if Windows craps itself, you already have a USB drive that you can use to repair it, of which is a clean copy of Windows and not Dell's image of such. But if you use the Windows installer from the USB drive, it'll make the default partitions.

Lastly, when you actually DO the install, don't google around to how to enter the BIOS of your tablet as I'm sure as the devil you'll find people saying to hit, "F2, F12, F10 or the Del key." Don't. Those don't work WHATSOEVER with UEFI BIOS. It's such a peeve of mine to read that because that only applies to MBR BIOS systems and not UEFI. The easiest way is to go into PC Settings, General, Advanced Startup, I think Troubleshoot, then Advanced, and then Boot to UEFI USB Drive. It'll reboot to the Windows installer on your USB drive.

I've done this more than a few times if you can tell.

Click to expand...

Just a heads up, the vbs script may or may not work, rweverything is a better option. The script reads the key from the registry, if you've used add features to upgrade to Pro or add Media Benter it will retrieve that key, not the original OEM key. rweverything actually reads it out of the BIOS where its stored.

This will sound like nit picking but MSDM ISO's are multi edition Core and Pro. You won't find a MSDN Core ISO, it will just be Windows 8.0, the 64 bit English ISO is en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso. You can install Core or Pro with it depending on what product code you enter.

Lastly, if you turn Fast Startup off in Windows 8 you can use your function key to enter the BIOS on boot up, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6320-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-8-a.html. Fast Startup is a hybrid sleep mode. It appears that because the PC is not truly fully shut down you can't access the BIOS on boot up. I've turned the fast startup off and have no problems accessing my BIOS via keyboard on boot up. This really is a very aggravating scenario for those that don't know. If your PC won't actually boot into Windows so you can access that advanced startup options you get stuck in an endless loop of reboots. Just trying to boot from other media can be a pain as you can't access your BIOS to switch the boot order. Not a good thing at all.

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alphanumeric said:

If you haven't upgraded from the factory install the vbs script will work fine. There is no stand alone edition of just 8 Core on MSDN or TechNet, like I said its just 8 (Multiple Editions). I have a TechNet and MSDN subscription. The product code entered determines what's installed, core or pro. If your looking at ISO's on bit torrent sites you'll see some claim to be Core or Pro but that's based on what was bought retail. The box may say Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro but as far as I know its the same DVD set in each box. The keys for the TechNet ISO's are listed as Retail keys. The TechNet ISO will except those retail keys and also use the embedded OEM keys. There are no separate OEM and Retail versions listed on TechNet either.

Click to expand...

Coke Robot said:

alphanumeric said:

If you haven't upgraded from the factory install the vbs script will work fine. There is no stand alone edition of just 8 Core on MSDN or TechNet, like I said its just 8 (Multiple Editions). I have a TechNet and MSDN subscription. The product code entered determines what's installed, core or pro. If your looking at ISO's on bit torrent sites you'll see some claim to be Core or Pro but that's based on what was bought retail. The box may say Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro but as far as I know its the same DVD set in each box. The keys for the TechNet ISO's are listed as Retail keys. The TechNet ISO will except those retail keys and also use the embedded OEM keys. There are no separate OEM and Retail versions listed on TechNet either.

Click to expand...

Interesting, I do believe I downloaded the separate retail .iso. I've been using that to cook custom images for installs of 8.1 over 8 and 7. That one has been working perfectly fine.

Click to expand...

Coke Robot said:

alphanumeric said:

If you haven't upgraded from the factory install the vbs script will work fine. There is no stand alone edition of just 8 Core on MSDN or TechNet, like I said its just 8 (Multiple Editions). I have a TechNet and MSDN subscription. The product code entered determines what's installed, core or pro. If your looking at ISO's on bit torrent sites you'll see some claim to be Core or Pro but that's based on what was bought retail. The box may say Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro but as far as I know its the same DVD set in each box. The keys for the TechNet ISO's are listed as Retail keys. The TechNet ISO will except those retail keys and also use the embedded OEM keys. There are no separate OEM and Retail versions listed on TechNet either.

Click to expand...

Interesting, I do believe I downloaded the separate retail .iso. I've been using that to cook custom images for installs of 8.1 over 8 and 7. That one has been working perfectly fine.

Click to expand...