[velarie2112]

My grandmother bought a brand new Asus all-in-one desktop Zen AIO 24. She did a standard install with a MS account linked and then misplaced the password. She couldn't get into her email or her computer.

 

Since nothing comes with recovery disks anymore, I tried to use a Win10 bootable iso on usb that I created to install on VM on a linux distro. I was able to boot into the USB and it would bring up the first dialog to choose location, keyboard. After you click through to install though, it gives an error that the drivers for the flash drive need to be installed. I thought this was a fluke, maybe because I used a cheap flash drive. Next I created bootable USB from the same ISO on a Toshiba flash drive after reformatting the drive specifically and only for Windows systems. No dice. Same error. Drivers need to be installed.

 

I know that my ISO is good because I got from MS and I used it to install a VM on linux that works fine.

 

Next I went into BIOS disabled fast boot, secure boot and made sure that the ports weren't locked. Same error.

 

I recovered her password for her email address. Then for her MS account. Logged into the machine and stuck one of the USB's I created in a port. Both gave errors that the drive has to be formatted before it can be used. Did a little research, went into the device manager and uninstalled both flash drives. Removed them and stuck them back in. Same error: drive must be formatted before use.

 

Inserted a blank flash drive. Not recognized. Go to device manager, uninstall, remove the drive, reinsert -- finally it recognized the empty flash drive. Stuck a flash drive with ISO burned on it -- drive must be formatted before use.

 

This is my actual question: Has Asus done something to the OS / hardware to prevent the ISO for another OS being recognized? The worst part is, I was trying to repair Windows which was the original OS.

 

I found a few other people with pretty much the same issue on other forums but none of the threads have been resolved. 

 

This was a brand new machine, right out the box, never been used. No CD drive. Only USB ports. And the new BIOS sucks.

 

I will never buy another Asus machine ever again.

Edited by velarie2112, 05 March 2020 - 12:50 PM.

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Hello velarie2112,

 

You have pretty much covered everything in your OP so I only really have the one question, did you try the flashdrives in all of the USB ports, seen it many a time were a computer would not boot from a USB ISO unless the USB device was inserted into a USB 2.0 port which if not aware are the black ones.

[phillpower2]

Hello velarie2112,

 

You have pretty much covered everything in your OP so I only really have the one question, did you try the flashdrives in all of the USB ports, seen it many a time were a computer would not boot from a USB ISO unless the USB device was inserted into a USB 2.0 port which if not aware are the black ones.

[iammykyl]

Gday.

"Since nothing comes with recovery disks anymore,"

Yes, often there are no disks, but there should be a hidden recovery partition.

If you cannot get the usb flash drive recognized using this solution, > https://www.easeus.c...ows-10-8-7.html

Try to recovery the system, > https://www.asus.com...rt/FAQ/1012002/

[velarie2112]

The system is already recovered. I reset to factory from inside the OS as soon as I recovered her Microsoft account. She now has a local account instead of it being linked to MS. (And I'm the admin on her machine to prevent this from happening again.)

 

Yes, I did in fact try all of the ports, both with an ISO and with the blank flash drive. I was just querying you guys to see if this is some kind of 'known issue'.

 

Thank you for the quick response. I'll save the links for future reference!

[phillpower2]

I would be more inclined to suspect that it is a Windows issue and nothing to do with ASUS, once the hardware has passed the power on self test the BIOS hands control over to Windows or in instances such as this a storage device that has boot media on it, if the BIOS detects neither of the aforementioned POST fails and you get an onscreen message such as No OS found or Reboot and Select proper Boot device etc, you got neither message so the BIOS was obviously happy and it was in fact Windows that was grumbling, one similar such an issue I have seen is Windows failing to install because the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers were missing.