As title says, this Acer Switch One Netbook is stuck. No matter what I try, I cannot get it to upgrade. Initially, I thought it was because there was not enough storage available (showing 4.86GB free and 24.2GB used) and I tried to remove $Windows.~BT but was unsuccessful. As there is no data on this device, I can wipe the storage and reinstall if necessary.
Any ideas?
I have a similar Acer 14" Notebook with a 32GB drive [actual space a bit over 28GB] and can't install Win10, insufficient space needing about 10GB more and the install routine won't accept a USB Thumb drive nor the SDHC memory card to gain that space although both items work good for data storage. It now lives quite happily with Linux Mint 20 and only about 11GB used, works good as literally a lap machine or portable for killing time while waiting for appointments such as car servicing.
Yes, Linux Mint would also be my preferred route but this belongs to a family member who, at the moment at least, wants Win 10. He may change his mind :)
The 32GB storage drive is really too small to support Windows 10. Microsoft have subsequently raised the minimum drive size OEMs are allowed to use for a W10 machine to 64GB.
Windows 10 PC with under 32GB storage? No 1903 update for you, says Microsoft | ZDNet
You may be able to complete an upgrade if you attach an external HDD or USB (preferably formatted as ntfs) to use as extra storage during the upgrade. You will need at least 10GB free space on the external drive, preferably a lot more.
Microsoft | Free up space for Windows 10 updates
If that fails to help, then a clean install should be possible. For a drive that small you should only consider installing 32-bit Windows 10, as was originally installed by Acer for this model.
Datasheet PN: NT.LCSAA.003
After installation you need to compress OS files with compact /compactos:always and also compress C:\Program Files with compact /c /a /i /s /exe:lzx C:\Program Files\*
With luck you will get 10GB+ of free space.
Owner told me this morning that his son had told him he'd upgrade it and went ahead and installed 64-bit Win 10. Then he tried to recover some space by removing $Windows.~BT and messed that up. So, as far as I can see, there are no on-board options to fix this thing or recover the original OS.
- - - Updated - - -
This is proving to be much more difficult than I thought. I loaded a 32-bit version of Win 10 onto a USB drive and tried to boot from that. However, no matter how I configure the USB Drive and the BIOS settings, I can not get to boot (the netbook when allowed to boot recognizes the drive) I am using the USB port on the keyboard dock section of the netbook.
Also, I notice that in the Win 10 Repair Environment, there is no option to Use a Device.
Any suggestions?
Hi there
another option -- if you have reasonable external SSD (SATA->USB adapter helps) but even a decent USB drive should be OK.
1) install RUFUS
2) start it
3) use Show USB drives
4) have iso image of the W10 system you need
5) use Rufus to create Windows to Go image on the USB drive
6) when done - boot USB drive
Then for W10 simply use the external USB drive -- OK not practical if moving the device around a lot but if reasonably static it should work.
Not sure what response would be on that hardware but if USB 3 ports and decent external HDD -- even an old laptop one should be OK
Cheers
jimbo
Interesting idea. However, at present, I can't get this device to even boot from USB so need to figure that out first.
Update: From posts on other forums, it appears that this device can only be booted from the micro-USB port on the tablet rather than the regular USB port on the keyboard/dock. I'll have to track down a micro-USB to USB adaptor to confirm.
Update: Using an OTG connector and a RUFUS-prepped USB Drive, device is responding. Just fiddling about with settings and will update again later.
Update: No real progress. This is a screenshot I get when trying to boot from the USB Drive. I'm trying to install a 32 bit version over a 64 bit version. Is this the conflict? I thought the boot version would take precedence.
Update: It appears the problem is related to 32 bit UEFI on a 64 bit system. The image has to be edited before it will boot on this system.
Final update: it turns out that this particular model has 4GB RAM and can run 64-bit Win 10. It also has 64 bit drivers available for it. So I blew away the Windows installation using Linux tools and reinstalled 64-bit Win 10 from scratch. It's updated itself to 20H2 Build 19042.1237 and is probably good for browsing and messaging.
Last edited by jimbobs; 26 Sep 2021 at 12:54.
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