Help with fresh Windows 8.1 install TF100TAF-B1-BF

[mrdyer84]

*After posting, I believe I posted this in the wrong section, if any mods wouldn't mind moving it to the help section I would appreciate it.

[ Mod note: --thread moved as per request ]

Just received a TF100TAF-B1-BF. Flashed my bios to the most recent version for my T100 variant (Bios v207). I have an .iso of Windows 8.1, ran Rufus (in several different configs), inserted the usb stick, restarted the T100, hit "Esc" to get into the (UEFI) bios, but there is only 1 boot option which is Windows Boot Manager. There is no option to boot with anything other then Windows Boot Manager. I've disabled Secure Boot Control, rebooted several times in a row hoping that it would detect the usb stick. I've tested several different usb sticks, each with the same result. I've searched through these forums, but it seems everyone else has a T100 variant that has a bios with multiple boot options. I've gone into the recovery screen and used both "Use a Device" and "Troubleshoot, followed by UEFI Firmware Setting, and Startup Settings". I've also tired almost every different setting combination with Rufus. At this point I have no idea what to do other then getting a refund and sending it back to Newegg. I NEED to be able to do a fresh Windows install, it can not be a recovery (work reasons). I work nights, so I won't be able to supply any additional information for the next few hours as I'll be sleeping.

Any suggestions?

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

It appears to me that you posted in a good place. We have a thread here that covers all things T100 that should provide some help.

Post back if it does or doesn't help.

[Gtanner00]

Funny. I have an Asus notebook (possibly with the same Bios version) and wasn't able to see USB created in Rufus either. I solved it by simply navigating to the drive in Windows and running the executable file. The install ran the same way as if I had run it in the Bios.

[mrdyer84]

Well, I tried running the setup.exe within Windows 8.1. It runs through a few steps only to tell me I'm already running Windows 8.1 with no option to re-install. I'm really at a loss. Any other suggestions?

[Caster]

Funny. I have an Asus notebook (possibly with the same Bios version) and wasn't able to see USB created in Rufus either. I solved it by simply navigating to the drive in Windows and running the executable file. The install ran the same way as if I had run it in the Bios.

Completely agree with Gtanner, I did the same thing just yesterday on a very old laptop 'LG R400', I extracted the whole ISO, simply ran it from Setup.exe, it took a while to get some recommended updates, and the previous windows was Windows 7 ultimate, but never activated and out of it's subscription too it still went through fine.

From your Windows 8.1 which is running, if this is an ISO which is properly bootable, you don't need rufus, just Right Click & Mount the whole ISO which you copied to your tablet, make sure it's in C, it will appear as a Virtual CD-Drive with mounted ISO and it will open successfully in an explorer window, simply run the 'Setup.exe'. Windows 8.1 can easily mount an ISO as a virtual cd-drive with bios booting capabilities and take you through the whole process. I haven't seen an installation setup, where it says it's already running Windows 8.1, if its a proper full ISO, it should give you options atleast regardless, because if you even boot it from a USB like you want to or however way, it will still detect and run the auto-run ini file which will point to the same 'Setup.exe' even on boot/startup as otherwise.

[mrdyer84]

Mounting the iso worked until the last step of the installation. It ended with an error, no error code that I could find and dumped me back into Windows with a bootimage on my hard drive. I appreciate everyone's help and suggestions but it looks like its going back to Newegg.

[sambartle]

I realise i'm resurrecting a dead thread here, but its the top result in google for this problem and the answers provided aren't really the correct answer in this case.

The problem here is that the T100TAF cannot boot from a non UEFI stick. (Some/Most of the The T100 series CAN it appears)

The recovery that both windows itself (8.1 w/bing) and ASUS BackTracker creates is NOT a UEFI stick and so isnt shown in the BIOS. With the latest BIOSes its not possible to get it to show because you can disable secure boot, but cant enable CSM..

The only solution is to create a proper UEFI boot USB and use that, which the TF100TAF CAN see.

[SkyStreaker]

I seem to be having that exact problem, though the BIOS 209 supports booting from inside the BIOS (you can look up an EFI-shell, but it's never found) or direct from detected managers, but it'll only pick up the bootsector from the main drive, if you will. Though it does detect UEFI, nothing happens. I've tried Win7x64/x32 & Win8.1Prox64/x32 ISO-images with Rufus (Used GPT and MBR and MBR/BIOS options) and nothing.... Disabled windows bootmanager and used UEFI Boot in the BIOS. Nothing.
Of course, I did disable the secure boot as well. Also decrypted the drive, so Bitlocker is gone (since upd. to Win10 destroyed the rescuepartition...)

Seems ASUS just needs to roll out a new BIOS to get us to use the CSM-option where I think the problem is. BIOS runs in admin mode, so no sense it's hidden.

Wish I never updated to Win10.

#update:

Managed to boot into the EFI-shell for the T100 magic stick using the direct boot option from the BIOS, is there a way to use the EFI-shell to run an install of Win8.1 Pro?

[unclelobsterman]

I'm having this same issue, too. Got a refurb T100TAF with 8.1 and upgraded to 10 via USB. Then updated the BIOS to 212, which is the latest. Thinking I could then do a virgin install of 10 now that MS has my machine in their books with activated 10 I stuck my UEFI-compatible USB drive with 10 into the USB port and attempted to boot to it. Nope. The BIOS only shows Windows Boot Manager and no way to add another boot option. Secure boot is disabled. I understand that the unit can't boot from a non-UEFI stick, but I've tried two that are definitely UEFI compatible (one created with Windows Media Creation Tool and the other with Rufus (and both sticks have been used successfully to install 10 on other machines, both old BIOS units and newer UEFI ones).

I'm stumped. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the thing to boot from USB. Thanks to anyone who can help.

[GPz1100]

I've found on some systems, the usb drive isn't recognized at cold boot for some reason. Do a warm boot (ctrl-alt-delete), then start pressing esc, f8 or del or whatever the key is on this model to get the boot device list. Or you can just boot into the boot and choose the boot device directly from the boot tab. If you're going through a hub, a power hub may be required.

With the various tools I use I'd need a dozen or more flash drives for each one. Instead, I use an external harddrive configured with easy2boot(.com) to house all the iso's and imgPTN files (used for uefi booting). It makes locating the right image quick. Updates are painless too.