I often help users who want to make a clean install of Windows 10 on their Transformer. There are a lot of mixed messages and confusing information on the internet about installing Windows. A lot of it doesn't apply very well to Windows 10. Even if it does, it wasn't written in the context of our Asus Transformers. I hope you find this educational if you are considering wiping your device and reinstalling Windows 10.
There are many reasons you might want to do this. Perhaps you want to free up space on your Transformer by shrinking the recovery partition. You may be seeing problems with Windows that you just can’t find a solution too. Maybe you are selling your Transformer and want to securely wipe it for someone new to set up. Well, this guide is for you!
This guide was written with the Asus devices in mind and contains some links and instructions specific to those devices. Some of them will need special drivers or additional tools to allow the process to go smoothly. The instructions in this guide were tested on my own T100TA and are applicable to all T100 and T200 models.
This is not a dangerous procedure, but I have to preface this guide with the following:
I am not responsible if you misunderstand instructions I give here, if my instructions are wrong, if you forget to charge the battery and the tablet dies halfway through a flash or if your house goes up in flames…
YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Remember that having patience is a key part of getting this right. You do not want to rush into this and make a silly mistake just because you didn't read properly.
Alright. Now with that out of the way let’s begin!
I am assuming that if you are following this guide you are OK with wiping your memory and restoring all your applications and files. You can choose to back up your stuff to the cloud, or a disk drive and restore it later. If you prefer to keep your files you can choose Reset Your PC from the Settings Menu in Windows 10.
There are two important things you will need for this process
1. An empty USB drive with at least 4 GB capacity. You will be making the install media with this drive. With it you will be able to reinstall Windows 10 on any computer which had it previously. So It will definitely be handy to keep around in case any of your friends run into trouble.
2. Another Windows computer handy. You will need it to make the install media as well as to download drivers in case you cannot get a network connection with your Transformer when it first boots up.
Step 1: Create Installation Media
Download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool
Click the button that says “Download tool now” to start the download.
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Once the ~17 MB file has finished downloading, launch it as an executable. You should see the Windows 10 license agreement displayed. Once you agree, you should see the following setup screen.
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We want to create Installation media for another PC so that you can plug the USB into our Transformer and run the installation.
Next you will be asked to choose your language and the edition of Windows 10 you would like to install. Most Transformer models use a 32-bit architecture but a few of the most recent models (like the T100HA) are 64 bit. If you aren’t sure then check your system properties. You can also choose to put both at once on the same USB drive if you want to use it for multiple devices with different architectures.
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Most users should choose regular Windows 10 however you may want to try Windows 10 N if your device was purchased in Europe. Again, check your system properties if you aren’t sure.
Now get your USB drive ready. Plug it in, click next in the setup dialogue and choose USB install. You will then be asked to choose the drive you would like to install on. You may have to refresh the list of drives until it shows up. Click next and the download will begin. On my laptop with a fast internet connection the download process took about 10 minutes. Afterwards I had a recovery USB called ESD-USB with 2.63 GB used.
Step 2: Do the Installation
Now take out your transformer. Double check again to make sure you backed up all your files. Now plug in your device. You really don't want it dying in the middle of this.
Shut down your Transformer and power it on again by pressing the power button. As soon as you see the light turn on beside the webcam, press the escape button on the keyboard. You should see the boot up options screen.
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Note: I had a difficult time getting to this stage until I unplugged the charger. It seems that there is some sort of voodoo link between the two.
On the next screens you can choose your language and agree to the license terms.
The fourth screen allows you to keep your files settings an applications (the installer will attempt to repair windows for you) or make a custom installation. We want to do that latter.
In the partition selection screen, delete all of the displayed partitions. Ignore any warnings about deleting manufacture recovery partitions. Microsoft will create much smaller recovery partitions when it does the install.
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Now select the un-allocated partition and click next.
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Leave the installation alone for a while. Your computer may restart a few times. Eventually it will boot up to a network login screen. On my T100TA this took about 20 minutes.
Login to your WIFI network and Microsoft account and wait for the setup to finish.
Step 3: Install Drivers
At this point you have a brand new installation of Windows 10 on your computer but there are a lot of problems. You've probably noticed that the touchscreen doesn't work. Neither do the keyboard function buttons or touchpad gestures. We need to install drivers from Asus to make these components work.
Here are links to the support pages for a few devices.
T100TA
T100TAM
T100TAF
T100HA
T100 CHI
T200
Download the drivers for your device and unzip their folders. Each driver folder has a .exe executable file that needs to be run to install it. Older devices will have a download page for Windows 10 drivers as well as Windows 8.1 drivers. the Windows 10 section will only contain the ATK package and touchpad driver. you will find everything else in the Windows 8.1 Section.
Make sure you do a reboot after each driver install or they won't work properly.
Pay special attention to installing the ATK, Touchpad and Chipset drivers. Most other components will be fine running on the generic Microsoft drivers but you may install the Asus provided ones if you run into any problems.
Well that's it. Everything should be running without any problems and you can begin to restore all your files and applications. If you run into any questions post here and we will try to help you out.
Here are a couple of extra guides that may come in handy.
http://www.transformerforums.com/for...fer-error.html How to install Winflash again.
T100 model# and BIOS Guide - No discussions please How to update your BIOS