HowTo? Install Windows 10 on ASUS x205ta?

I'd like to install Windows 10 on my ASUS x205ta. Is that possible?

What I'd really like to do is a "bare metal re-install" so more of the full 32 GB drive is available.

 

As a beta OS I would not recommend it as your primary OS.

otherwise download it, install it and fiddle around with the drivers and find out what does and does not work.

 

Try it on VMWare if you don't have any spare drive nor want to risk it.

 

I'm running it on my X205TA to reply to this post. First make a recovery drive in Control panel>recovery. You will need a 8GB thumb drive (or bigger). You will need this if you want to revert to Windows 8.1. Download the Windows 10 preview and when you have the ISO file downloaded right click and pick "mount" then copy all files to a second formatted thumb drive, here again you will need a 8GB thumb drive (or bigger). I suggest you go to ASUS website and download all of the Windows 8.1 32 bit drivers to a new folder ( I named mine X205TA_X32) on this thumb drive before you start the install as you WILL need them. Leave the thumb drive in place, restart and enter the bios. Under boot you should see the thumb drive as UEFI USB drive. Select that drive for 1st boot device and save changes in bios. I strongly suggest you connect a USB keyboard and mouse as the built in keyboard and touchpad will not work until you install the drivers. You should be able to attach both using a hub. When the laptop restarts the install will begin. When it asks where to install Windows it will display the partitions on your laptop and then you will be able to delete the recovery partition and all other partitions to leave the whole drive for your new Windows 10 install. Once the install has finished install the drivers you downloaded from the ASUS site. Be sure you install the chipset drivers first as then you will be able to use the keyboard and touch pad on your laptop. Then ATK driver second then WIFI. I have everything working including Bluetooth and open office. I show 16.7 GB free of 28.6 GB. I hope this helps!

 

Thanks! Sounds promising. I'll give it some more thought, and maybe give it a try.

BTW, I've been disappointed by how slow the 32GB microSD card is ... DiskMarkX64 shows very slow numbers. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting to improve it?

 

What class Micro SD are you using? I'm using a SanDisk Extreme 64GB and the speed seems ok. I've been downloading to it and doing most software installs from it.
I paid $149 for mine and I'm just fine with the level of performance. My XPS 12 ultrabook is faster but it was of course 7 times more expensive.
Progress: Epson wifi printer working again with Windows 8.1 X32 drivers from Epson Website.
Belarc advisor shows operating system to be Windows 8.1 VERY interesting or maybe Belarc will not detect the Windows 10 Tech Preview?

 

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Thanks for your detailed instruction.
Everything worked well ... but I cannot make my wireless work. Device manager says that driver is installed properly but I cannot turn it on.
Can you help.
Many thanks

 

I'm not sure how to answer this fully.
When I look at my device manager I show Broadcom 802.11abgn Wireless SDIO Adapter.
I'm going to assume you have no yellow alerts showing in device manager.
Have you tried Fn key + F2 key? This toggles airplane mode.
I'm on build 10049 currently.
Let me know if this solves it for you.

 

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My device manager shows the same adapter as yours. I does not show any alert. When I look at properties is says that it is working properly. I cycled Fn key + F2 key but it does not help.
I am on build 10041 ...

 

So when you open your network you can not see any access points, correct?
I might try going to device manager and uninstalling the adapter then re-boot and see what you have after it re-install the drivers.

 

Looks like the driver is not working, have you tried the old Win8 driver instead?

 

I tried all possible combinations but I cannot make it work

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I cannot find any driver for any other OS than Windows 8.1

 

Have you been able to resolve this problem?

 

I was waiting that perhaps new W10TP build will resolve the issue but it did not happen. I returned the laptop as my trackpad stopped work as well.

 

The upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 seems to have gone well.

I'm pleased that the huge "Recovery Partition" on the small'ish 32GB C: drive was dramatically shrunk (from 8 GB before, IIRC). Almost all is available on the main partition now.

 

Seems like the recovery partition has been purged by Windows 10 if it has indeed shrunk.
Usually, a recovery WIM file can be sized from 8GB to 1xGB and it is a heavily compressed file.

 

Prior to the Win-10 upgrade, I think there was about 8GB in a Recovery Partition. My impression is that included plenty of Bloatware to put the device back to "as delivered" state. It didn't leave all that much of the 32 GB drive.

After the Win-10 upgrade, the C: drive has three partitions:

• 100 MB (EFI System Partition)
• 28.46 GB boot partition
• 449 MB (Recovery Partition ... probably with drivers, key Windows files, etc)

I'm overall pleased with the upgrade, but I haven't used it that much.

Note: I've also got a 64 GB micro-SD card installed, but it is quite slow to read and especially write. Ok for music and photos.

 

The stock OS is there in case you want to restore it for troubleshooting use, or if you plan to sell your system to get a new one.
Also, since the original recovery partition is purged and minimized from the upgrade process so your only possible way to do a recovery is to perform a self reset/refresh function.

 

I'd just like to give big thanks to 1ezdealz - I've been struggling with an upgrade to the current version of Windows 10 for hours. I started with an X205TAW which had the base version of 10 installed. Tried to upgrade to current version - not enough space. Decided to go for a clean install using the create media option (on a 2nd computer). This worked OK but ended up with no keyboard, touchpad or SD drive. Tried everything I could find till I came across this thread - and it worked perfectly!

Well done.

Incidentally this is the download page: https://www.asus.com/support/Download/45/1/0/1/tLVjLGQSRF5PGYqG/40/