Asus UX32VD and the nuked Windows Boot Manager...

[PeterBocan]

Hey guys, my sister had ASUS UX32VD ultrabook for quite a while, I have upgraded from HDD 500GB to SSD 240 GB (OCZ Trion 150 Series 240GB) in late 2016, installed Windows 10 onto it. Everything worked fine, but just recently the Windows 10 crashed and she gave it to some chap/pot head who installed Windows 10 on the internal integrated SanDisk SSD 24GB (It was previously working as a Cache Storage for Windows, some of you may know "ExpressCache" or Intel Rapid Storage Technology) and thus nuked all the recovery files, Windows Boot Manager and the EFI setup that was there from ASUS.

 

The issue is that notebook's BIOS somehow forces the installation of the Windows onto this small SSD, and refuses to launch anything other than Windows (tried Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). One of the solution would be getting rid of the integrated SanDisk SSD, but I am not skilled enough to do that, so that is not an option. Also BIOS options are pretty sparse, both SSDs are recognised by the BIOS (SATA0 points to OCZ drive, SATA1 points to SanDisk). BIOS wants me to boot only from the integrated SSD.

 

I am able to install Windows 10 onto the integrated SSD but the free space gets smaller with each restart as Windows 10 starts pulling nonsense within a few seconds after install. I am also in the possession of the original 500 GB HDD which is untouched, unformatted, but I dont think this will help me much.

 

Any ideas? Tips? Should I submerge it into battery acid? 

 

RANT: I have attached the photos for better visualisation how sparse the BIOS is - there is literally nothing to do. I already wasted 10 hours of my life to deal with the problems her friendo caused. 

 

[Ace McPlane]

On 4/2/2018 at 8:01 AM, PeterBocan said:

Hey guys, my sister had ASUS UX32VD ultrabook for quite a while, I have upgraded from HDD 500GB to SSD 240 GB (OCZ Trion 150 Series 240GB) in late 2016, installed Windows 10 onto it. Everything worked fine, but just recently the Windows 10 crashed and she gave it to some chap/pot head who installed Windows 10 on the internal integrated SanDisk SSD 24GB (It was previously working as a Cache Storage for Windows, some of you may know "ExpressCache" or Intel Rapid Storage Technology) and thus nuked all the recovery files, Windows Boot Manager and the EFI setup that was there from ASUS.

 

The issue is that notebook's BIOS somehow forces the installation of the Windows onto this small SSD, and refuses to launch anything other than Windows (tried Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). One of the solution would be getting rid of the integrated SanDisk SSD, but I am not skilled enough to do that, so that is not an option. Also BIOS options are pretty sparse, both SSDs are recognised by the BIOS (SATA0 points to OCZ drive, SATA1 points to SanDisk). BIOS wants me to boot only from the integrated SSD.

 

I am able to install Windows 10 onto the integrated SSD but the free space gets smaller with each restart as Windows 10 starts pulling nonsense within a few seconds after install. I am also in the possession of the original 500 GB HDD which is untouched, unformatted, but I dont think this will help me much.

 

Any ideas? Tips? Should I submerge it into battery acid? 

 

RANT: I have attached the photos for better visualisation how sparse the BIOS is - there is literally nothing to do. I already wasted 10 hours of my life to deal with the problems her friendo caused. 

 

It doesn't look like the bios is even detecting that 240gb SSD if it's not showing at all as a boot option.

 

If you boot to a windows USB installer do all of the drives show up in the format section of the installer?

If the SanDisk one shows up there, format it from there to get rid of the windows install, then delete all of the partitions on the drive you actually want to use, highlight the unallocated space associated with that drive, and click next. 

 

If the drive isn't even showing up there, then it's nothing her friend did. You just need to get in there, take out the drive, and install it back in in order to check the connections.

 

Since the recovery disk got deleted, you now have to install your drivers and stuff the manual way like us desktop users do. They should all be listed on the support page for the laptop.

 

[PeterBocan]

35 minutes ago, stateofpsychosis said:

It doesn't look like the bios is even detecting that 240gb SSD if it's not showing at all as a boot option.

It never shows an option to select a bootable drive (with exception of external devices). It would be logical, if the BIOS was tweaked with the "ExpressCache" in mind, but BIOS does recognise both drives (photo provided additionally) in SATA ports. It's on SATA0 but BIOS is always pointing at SATA1.

36 minutes ago, stateofpsychosis said:

If you boot to a windows USB installer do all of the drives show up in the format section of the installer?

Yes, and they show up even after the installation, when you install onto bootable 24 GB SSD. Even Windows 10 is saying that both drives are healthy.

 

 

[Ace McPlane]

8 minutes ago, PeterBocan said:

It never shows an option to select a bootable drive (with exception of external devices). It would be logical, if the BIOS was tweaked with the "ExpressCache" in mind, but BIOS does recognise both drives (photo provided additionally) in SATA ports. It's on SATA0 but BIOS is always pointing at SATA1.

Yes, and they show up even after the installation, when you install onto bootable 24 GB SSD. Even Windows 10 is saying that both drives are healthy.

 

 

Then wipe the SanDisk one from the Windows USB installer, wipe the SSD and then reinstall windows to it.

Should work.

[PeterBocan]

I think, I already did that, but I will redo that, because I don't remember anymore.