ASUS K501 Laptop - booting off a thumb drive and making the M.2 SSD C:

I have a brand new Asus K501U laptop. It comes with a measly 16GB m.2 SSD (D:). I am glad for that because it means not paying an expensive premium for more.

Windows 10 was on 2.5" 1TB hard drive (D:), and it was almost unusable (after having been using a SSD for Windows for more than a year) with the non-stop disk thrashing. It was a 30-second wait for the Start menu to show after pressing the Windows key.

I bought myself a Samsung 850EVO 500GB SATA M.2 for less than US$200. It installed easily (I took the risk of leaving the battery online because I couldn't figure out how to remove that battery connector) and it was totally compatible. Asus kept reminding me that installing my own M.2 SSD voided the warranty. However, there were no stickers or seals so I could put back the original 16GB one if I ever need to seek servicing.

My goal was to use the M.2 SSD for Windows (C:) and then to move the 2.5" 1TB SSD  with my data over from my old PC.

The darn thing was that I could not (there were no options to) boot Windows 10 off a thumb drive to install the OS onto the M.2 SSD and making it the C: drive. I wasted a lot of time finding out how because only one of the following EIGHT permutations in the BIOS settings work:
  1. Secure Boot: Enabled or Disabled
  2. SATA mode: ACHI or RAID
  3. Launch CSM: Enabled or Disabled
One with think that the latest Windows 10 would be UEFI and secure and all that. The right answer is:
  1. Secure Boot: Disabled
  2. SATA mode: ACHI
  3. Launch CSM: Enabled
After managing to boot off the USB, I still could not install Windows 10 onto the SSD. The error was:

We couldn't install Windows in the location you chose. Please check your media drive. Here's more information about what happened: 0x80300024

I had to disconnect the 2.5" hard drive first. Maybe it's because the hard drive had claimed the C: label.





Comments

HARCIX said…
Did you manage to install windows onto the ssd in the end?
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 11:05:00 AM PDT
S/360 said…
Yes, I could install Windows on the SSD after following the above steps.

I then installed the 1TB SSD from my old PC in place of the the 1TB hard disk, and I could continue working like old.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 8:51:00 PM PDT
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attack Lab - Level 5 explained

Image
Ning Wang has published a very good write-up (2022 update: web page is gone now) on his solutions to the Attack Lab from the CS:APP book. However, I thought his solution to Level 5 could do with a bit more elaboration for those who are struggling with this topic. First, it is necessary to understand what ROP requires. An essential component of ROP is good luck, lots of it. Without getting lucky, you may take more than 10 100  years to find a workable attack, if at all. This, the authors of CS:APP did not mention. I also could not comprehend the purpose this exercise is even given out as homework in CMU to be completed in a week (while there are tons of homework from other courses too), without an intensive course in Intel Assembler as a prerequisite. Level 5 requires the same general logic as Level 3, which can be summarized as (pseudo code): mov <cookiestring address>, %rdi //why? because touch3 is expecting it there call touch3 To achieve the above for Level 5, the
Read more

Setting to English for the Xiaomi Wifi Router

Image
The Xiaomi Mi Wifi Router now is in English. If it boots up to a foreign language for you, this guide will help you to change it to English. It is best to connect to it via wired Ethernet for the first time. Otherwise, the default unsecured wifi SSID should be Xiaomi_C3C1 . Your IP should be in the subnet 192.168.31.x, and the router is at http://miwifi.com which the router will resolve to 192.168.31.1. The first screen you see will be the setting up of the wifi SSID and wifi password. The big blue button at the bottom is the Next button. The next screen sets up the router administrator password (second field). The first field is Home/Work/Custom. Click the big blue button to complete. At the main configuration page, look for the third item (Settings) on the top menu, and the orange option (System Status): The last option on the page is the language selection: Open the drop down to select English: The change will take place the moment you click English. Enj
Read more

Assembly version, File version, Product version

Image
If you are a .NET developer, Assembly and File version would be familiar to you. They can be set in the Designer UI (project Properties page, Application tab, Assembly I nformation button...) which basically updates appropriate attributes in AssemblyInfo.cs. Now, there is a less well known number - the Product version . It is not well documented and most developers ignore it altogether with no side-effects most of the time. However, it is an important number and it seems that, of the three, Product version is the most widely used. The three version numbers simply take the values you give them or: a. If Assembly version is not explictly specified, it takes the value of 0.0.0.0. b. If File version is not explicitly specified, it takes the value of Assembly version. c. If Product version is not explicitly specified, it takes the value of File version. In Windows Explorer of Windows XP and Server 2003, you can see from the properties of a file all three version numbers. In W
Read more