[GUIDES] Windows COMPLETE "How To": Clean/Upgrade Install, Drivers

[Gps3dx]

ALL IS WIP - I NEED TO MOVE ALOT OF STUFF AROUND !!!
How to install windows 8/8.1/10 on any UEFI & AHCI supported laptop
( E.I G751, G771, G551 GL552 etc) the PROPER way
I.E: on a GPT formatted disk, booted with UEFI

*** G752 owner ?? ***
*** Do you wish to use RAID and/or NVME ? ***
* Read also these specific installation guide Here and Here *

The "why should I bother" ?
you've got ROG Laptop, best in the market, fitted with UEFI, "the newest form of BIOS". ( READ MORE HERE )
No reason to work with OS that is installed on a MBR formatted drive that's running on a BIOS emulated machine (like some preinstalled windows), if you wish the fastest laptop, OS & applications !

OS on a GPT formatted disk, booted with UEFI, is BETTER THEN MBR & BIOS !
Why ?

• Way Faster OS boot (I.E POST), with NO blinking underscore !
  
• Better (auto) chances to recover info from bad/damaged sector/block !
  (Partition table is redundantly stored, checked using CRC)
  
• No 2TiB limit on HDD size
  
• and MORE: READ MORE HERE & HERE
  

The "which OS should I choose" ?
In my opinion win 10 is faster in desktop/office work ( gaming: depends ) but the down side is the privacy headache.
There are multiple scripts you MUST run, if you care about your own privacy! (see few post below,WIP!)
Win8.1 is a bit slower in desktop/office use, but does NOT have such privacy "spying" as win 10.
Any way you choose, you MUST install it on a GPT formatted drive, and MUST boot the OS installation disk/usb through a "special" boot method ( I.E UEFI boot ).
HERE's A Benchmark review

The "What's required" ?
There are multiple apps to format&create the required partitions, including the one during windows installation process.
The latter, creating more partitions then what most of consumers really needs !
Windows installer format a GPT based drive like that:

• "Windows" is the OS partition - a MUST HAVE partition of course
  
• MSR is "MS reserve partition" - a MUST HAVE partition that is there in-order to: READ HERE.
  for win8.1 MSR MIN size recommended by MS to be 128MB, in win10 is recommended to be 16MB. As common users does NOT utilize any of the features that require the MSR partition, it's advisable to use the MIN recommended size by MS.
  
• "System" partition is the where the "EFI" supported windows-boot-files sit, therefore - a MUST HAVE partition of course.
  
• "Windows RE tools" - is important IN MOST CASES if you use windows built-in drive encryption. READ MORE HERE.
  As I KNOW by experience that win7,8.1,10 CAN WORK WITHOUT "Windows RE tools" partition -> "Windows RE tools" partition is NOT necessary !!
  

The "How to Guide" ?
1st Part: How to create & boot a windows installation disk/usb,
THE RIGHT WAY?
I.E through UEFI boot !

• NOTE: IT'S IMPERATIVE that you boot the installation disk AS UEFI COMPATIBLE DEVICE !
  (otherwise you cannot install windows on a GPT formatted drive )
  There are MANY guides to show how to create the installation DISK/USB in the right manner:
  ONE OPTION, another OPTION, another OPTION, "official way" for win10 ONLY.
  
• It's also imperative that, although you've created the installation disk/usb in the right way, you MUST ALSO BOOT IT IN THE RIGHT WAY: (I.E UEFI boot !)
  
  
  
  • Make sure in the BIOS that "LAUCH CSM" is DISABLED !!
    
  • Make sure you BOOT THE INSTALLATION DISK/USB AS UEFI!
    Please look at the following photo. To boot the INSTALLATION DISK as "UEFI" meaning picking the 2nd option from the top (NOT the 3rd) !!
    
    
  • If you didn't see & picked "uefi: xxxxxxx" (xxx = name of your disk/usb) at the boot selection screen -> read and DO "1st part" again !
    
  
  

2nd Step: How to format a drive with GPT layout for windows 8/8.1/10 ?
IT IS A PRE-REQUISITE TO INSTALL WINDOWS !
PLEASE NOTE:

• THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURE WILL ERASE EVERYTHING (ALL PARTITIONS) ON THE SPECIFIC DRIVE YOU CHOOSE !
  

• LESS RECOMMENDED: instead of formatting and losing data, you can CONVERT your MBR disk to be a GPT disk: Guide HERE.
  

* The "easy"/quick method:

• READ Part 1 above, do ONLY that -> then continue to Step B just below.
  After that, you should see the "Windows setup" screen, which allows you to pick your language.
  
• Follow this EXCELLENT guide with screenshots till STEP 10.
  
• Continue to read "3rd part" to install windows.
  

* The advanced/manual method is through set of commands of "DISKPART" utility. (SOURCE: MS official page)
The BIG ADVANTAGE with this method, that "Windows RE Tool" partition won't be created, thus you profit from the free-space ( ~300 MB ) and one less partition to be shown when you look at the partition map/list.

• 1st, boot into windows recovery environment, and open CMD -> write "diskpart" -> enter -> wait for it to load.
  ( "How to" guide HERE )
  
• VERY IMPORTANT: inside "diskpart", write: "list disk" to see all your disks.
  Note the disk number of the disk you wish to format.
  Write "select disk #" where # = disk number you wish to format.
  
• ONLY THEN perform the following commands: (lines start with "rem" are notes... NOT commands!)
  

  
  clean
  rem == Note: ALERT AGAIN ! THIS COMMAND WILL WIPE YOUR DRIVE CLEAN !
  convert gpt
  rem == Note: convert your MBR based drive to GPT based drive
  create partition efi size=100
  rem == Note: "size=100" meaning the partition size will be 100MBytes
  format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
  assign letter="S"
  
  rem == Note: replace the following "#" with a number as follows: #=128 for win8.1 | #=16 for win10
  create partition msr size=#
  
  rem == Note: For the following command(in white):
  rem == Note: this way all the rest of the disk space will be "C"/windows OS partition.
  rem == Note: if you wish to have another partitions ( E.I for file storage/archive) add a "size=#"
  rem == Note: after the word "primary", where "#" is a number, the size in Mbytes of your
  rem == Note: Windows OS partition, I.E the rest of the free space will be the other partition you
  rem == Note: choose to have.
  rem == Note: To be more precise, that next line of command might be:
  rem == Note: create partition primary size=#
  create partition primary
  format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
  assign letter="W"
  exit
  rem == Note: to quite diskpart utility, input another exit will close the CMD window and you'll be return to the previous screen, which you must reboot afterward in order to accomplish the next step

  
  
  
  
  • NOTE: if you create additional partition after the "windows" partition, you can format it now, or after the OS installation, through the "disk management" utility -> it really doesn't matter to the OS installation procedure, but it's best to leave it to later, just to prevent you from massing the disk structure, if you don't know what you're doing.
    
  
  
  
• finally, continue to read "3rd part" below to install windows.
  

[Gps3dx]

Vingt wrote:
Hello,
I did a fresh install of windows 8.1 following this guide. My bios mode is UEFI now, the disk is GPT... now my questions is, shouldn't be the bios in that nice style with red and black? Like this?
Or did I understand wrong? My bios looks like the old one when I get into it, like this.
I'm confused ...

Clintlgm wrote:
No Asus doesn't allow many changes in the UEFI so they kept the BIOS GUI for our UEFI interface.

@Vingt, to answer yout Q, @Clintlgm is right - the "GUI" for UEFI you're speaking about it only exist on stationary computers, i.e motherboards, not-a-laptop.
Even though ROG laptops got "old-style" GUI, it is nonetheless UEFI based.

pay attention to your "CSM" option in the UEFI, as I detail in the OP of this thread: OFF = UEFI mode, ON = LEGACY BIOS.
if you got your disk formatted as GPT then you need to turn it OFF.

[Vingt]

Oh, now I understand.
Thanks guys! CSM option is already off.

[wpeters]

Hi,

I would like to upgrade my Windows 10 (Home) installation to the Win 10 Anniversary Edition and believe that there is a chance that I will run into boot issues during the process due to my hardware configuration. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this config and upgrading.

Notebook: G752VL
Samsung 950 Pro 512 SSD drive
BIOS AHCI Mode

Many thanks, W.

[wpeters]

(see above post for main question)
Here is the error which I anticipated. After receiving the error I was able to boot back into Windows easily so I presume it was rolled back to previous version. This Anniversary update was large (guessing about a Gb or more) and each time I receive this error and boot back into Windows I have to start the whole process again which due to my slow connection take some time. I know the downloaded files are on my computer somewhere, is there anyway to force the upgrade process to start from where it left off.

Thanks, W.

Here is a thread in which someone encounters a similar problem.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?88197-G752vy-W10-Anniversary-update-install-fails-on-inter...

This response by httuner is interesting but I'm not familiar with EasyUEFI so I'm not sure how to use it to fix the problem:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?88197-G752vy-W10-Anniversary-update-install-fails-on-inter...

[Clintlgm]

Well not completely sure with windows 10, but with 8 and 8.1, in order to rebuild the boot manager would take several attempts, What has to happen is for data to moved in order for the needed room for boot manager. Try running repair 4 or 5 times back to back. As per your screen Press Enter to try again. Otherwise the known software to solve the issue. That solve the issue in the other thread should come with some instruction. Also you can PM that member that successfully use it for some tips on using it.

[Stalker6Recon]

Since I just barely had this laptop for a week, and was still working on getting rid of the bloatware that was installed, I did not set up the back up just yet. I took a break from configurations to try out a game on this thing, which was already running extremely slow. (no surprise there, with only 4GB of kingston VR and a 5400rpm platter, no shock it was slow from day one). I was having problems with the pre-installed mcafee continuously flagging the Asus Game First IV as a virus. I was in the process of getting a new AV, so I allowed the mcafee to continue running. Anyway, I downloaded/installed my steam account, and installed Half-Life2, just to see how bad/slow this thing really was in the "out of box" configuration. Sure enough, the game caused the laptop to crash. No BSOD, just straight crash, lights out, black out, done.

I restarted and checked my temps, thinking that a rogue cat had blocked the fan from cooling properly, and the temps were fine. I wanted to check to see if my game had saved, so I started the game again. Less than 10 seconds in, crash again. Then things went from bad, to worse.

Soon after that, I began having strange errors. First, I lost the programs pinned to the taskbar. Then, I lost the taskbar itself. Then I lost the desktop, and was left with only a cursor on a black screen.

So I opened the task manager and began to start moving files from this laptop, to a storage drive. Fortunately, there was not a whole lot of items I needed to protect. Not know what exactly was causing the problems, and since Asus decided not to include any support/disc's inside the box, I was left to my own devices to try to fix this thing. I contacted Asus support, as the link to my laptop was dead (this problem was from day one) and I could not find support for my registered product online. They wanted me to take my brand new laptop to their service center, and even asked me for my credentials, so they could log into my account and my laptop hard drive, which also means they would access my microsoft account, since there were linked at the time. I of course said they were out of their mind if they thought that I would A. give them my passwords B. give them this brand new laptop for an undetermined amount of time, with my hard drive and all my banking/personal information stored on it, so they could do what ever they had to do, to try to fix it.

I know a few things here. First, that unless I backed up my profile on firefox, I would likely lose all that information and be screwed, when they "fixed" my laptop. Second, that they would then have access to all my information, banking, etc, and that there was no way in hell I was going to trust them with this sensitive information.

So I had to make my own back-ups of my profiles and try to use windows installation software (which I had to download, no thanks to Asus) and run "repair" software from the microsoft toolkit, which is next to worthless. When that failed to fix the problems, I tried to run the "system restore", another useless program. Strangely, I only had one restore point, but I should of had dozens. Each time I ran REVO un-installer, I made sure that it created a "restore point". Only one showed up when I tried the restore program. It failed to restore, needless to say.

Finally, I had no choice but to reinstall windows, using a fresh copy I got from microsoft. First, I ran jellybean to get my key, just in case something went wrong. Having that key is a must, anyone that has a computer/laptop that had windows pre-installed, should run a "key finder" and email a copy of that key to themselves, just to be safe.

So now I have a laptop that is bare, and I figured that I could download the Asus proprietary software, from Asus, like "game first iv", but shocker, THEY DON'T PROVIDE these programs on their website.

If Asus is going to be cheap, and NOT include a few discs in their retail boxes, like "utilities/drivers/software" installation discs, then they sure as hell should include those items on their support page. Now I can't find any of these items, and like one of the uber-goobers said, I already tried a "google search" for the game first software, and have found nothing. I will probably have to dig around to see exactly which programs/utilities I need, then try finding them via torrent. This is embarrassing for Asus. I have owned many of their products, built rigs with their MB's and video cards, used both nvidia cards and AMD. This is the first time I have bought a "gaming" laptop from Asus, and I expected so much more, and got so MUCH LESS. I am waiting for them to reply with me about a possible resolution to these ongoing issues, and I don't expect to much from them. I am sure they will just tell me to bring it to the service center for repairs, and that is the best they will offer, which is shameful. I would much rather get my money back, and buy a new laptop, one that is built for gaming. The GL553VD, is little more than a pretty word processing machine. I have considered upgrades to the RAM and changing to an SSD, but I am not confident that this will actually change/fix the poor performance of this machine, it is junk in this configuration.

Anyway, does anyone have a link to download the software/utilities (i.e. game first iv, etc) so I can try to get it back to the way it was, out of the box?

[NeoBeum]

Windows 10 and 8.1 will run without the recovery partitions, but the PC will be upset if you crash/bsod and there is no recovery/repair image to look at.
Also, the standard partitioning for Windows 10 during the install won't create a partition big enough if you do want to include a WinRE/PE.

If anyone has problems where Windows can't find a recovery or repair tool, try increasing the repair partition to 1GB, if windows originally set it to 350/450mb
and also make sure that the install copied WinPE to the partition and that your recovery wizard is pointing to that image.

[eiger007]

sorry to disturb Can I install windows UEFI mode in asus gl552jx
i check in msinfo32 bios mode legacy with windows 10 installed

[Gps3dx]

Hello,

Please Check your laptop manual, under the bios section, for a "CSM" switch (enable|disable).
If it exist, you can switch between UEFI & MBR boot method, I.E CSM disable & enable accordingly.
I can advise you to spend 2 min reading THE STICKY THREAD "Guide: How to install windows 8/8.1/10 The proper way (UEFI based installation)" - before making changes to the bios, as you cannot boot a windows that was installed using the OLD depracated BIOS method with the UEFI boot method ( CSM Disabled ).

@cl-Albert - really ? new thread for that ?
don't you think it will be appropriate to put the post in the sticky thread "Guide: How to install windows 8/8.1/10 The proper way (UEFI based installation)" ?

Edit by cl-Albert: Thanks for the suggestion Gps3dx and it's been merged (feel free to delete this message later if you wish).

[ZIXEL]

This is my problem :

1 i have my HDD totally "clean"(no recovery , no efi partition , no msr , no re tools) , without any partition or OS linux/windows

2 i need "BOOT UEFI MODE" MY CD/USB to install a clean win 8.1 in UEFI MODE (NOT CSM MODE)

3 i cannot get boot the CD/USB boot in "UEFI MODE" (i can boot with CSM BOOT and intall but i dont want install Windows in CSM MODE )

so i tryed all things of this basic repetitive tutorial and no works nothing ,

my computer is a g551jw ,