Partition wipe on new Asus Win8 laptop

IronMew

New Member
Messages
10
Location
Italy
I've just received an Asus S301L laptop, with Win8 Pro preinstalled. The owner wants Win8 wiped and Win7 installed along with Scientific Linux.

I've disabled secure boot and enabled CSM in the BIOS, thus getting rid of the annoying UEFI boot process, and I'm now able to boot old-style from thumbdrives and whatnot.

My question is: given this partition configuration as shown by gparted, is it safe to wipe the whole damn thing and repartition from scratch, or will I run into bootup problems with the BIOS not seeing stuff where it wants to see it (like that suspicious FAT32 partition labeled "boot")?

I imagine this isn't a problem since I disabled everything UEFI, but better safe than sorry, so here I am asking.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1, Antergos, LMDE
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I've just received an Asus S301L laptop, with Win8 Pro preinstalled. The owner wants Win8 wiped and Win7 installed along with Scientific Linux.

I've disabled secure boot and enabled CSM in the BIOS, thus getting rid of the annoying UEFI boot process, and I'm now able to boot old-style from thumbdrives and whatnot.

My question is: given this partition configuration as shown by gparted, is it safe to wipe the whole damn thing and repartition from scratch, or will I run into bootup problems with the BIOS not seeing stuff where it wants to see it (like that suspicious FAT32 partition labeled "boot")?

I imagine this isn't a problem since I disabled everything UEFI, but better safe than sorry, so here I am asking.
If it was me, I would ask the owner if he was willing to purchase a new hard drive. You could then replace the original drive and install whatever software you wanted. He would then have the original drive in case some type of warranty situation came up.

If the above is not an option, I would at least make a System image of the drive which included all the partitions, including the Recovery Image partition. Since this partition is not normally included in a System Backup Image, you will need to take extra steps to make sure it is.

But Windows 7 and some Linux versions will install as UEFI. Maybe one thing you might check, is availability of drivers for Windows 7.. If you are going to install in Legacy mode you will need to remove all current partitions so the drive can be reconfigured.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I see no reason to bother with UEFI since legacy mode works fine without having to deal with drivers and additional software, not to mention unfamiliar bootloaders. The whole UEFI thing seems a lot to me like a solution looking for a problem.

You speak of the warranty. Surely it isn't voided simply by running a different OS?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1, Antergos, LMDE
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I see no reason to bother with UEFI since legacy mode works fine without having to deal with drivers and additional software, not to mention unfamiliar bootloaders. The whole UEFI thing seems a lot to me like a solution looking for a problem.

You speak of the warranty. Surely it isn't voided simply by running a different OS?
There is no difference between Legacy and UEFI as far as Drivers and Software. Once the system is booted, they are exactly the same. If you run Windows 8 Secure Boot mode, which requires UEFI, there may need to be special drivers, such as add-in video cards. But if you don't want to use UEFI ... that is up to you and your client. If Window 8 was ever reinstalled, keep in mind the License is embedded in the UEFI bios, and I do not know for sure if it would automatically activate if installed as Legacy.

Warranties are of course specified by each OEM. Just running another OS should not void the warranty, if you can restore the system enough to satisfy the warranty conditions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
You can wipe all the partitions and have no issues installing Windows 7. If you do reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 it will recreate those special hidden partitions automatically during setup anyway.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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