Windows 10 on A110 with SSD

Hi,

I was trying to install Windows 10 (from USB) on my A110, but the installer cannot find a target drive to install to. There is a link to select a driver file, but I have no driver file and I can't find one on Acer's support site. If I install linux it finds the SSD ok and installs and runs ok, but windows will not see it. I have also tried with a Windows 7 USB stick and I have the same problem. When I go into the BIOS it shows no HDD found on the Information page, which I think is normal, but it's listed ok on the boot order page.
Can anyone suggest anything else to try?

Thanks.

 

If your Bios says there is no disk found there is a possible chance that you might have corrupted your Drive. Try to format your Drive on the A110 using another computer in a NTFS format. If that doesn't work try out a fresh ISO from a friend or a colleague. Without the Drives being detected Windows cannot install any Operating System on your System. Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the reply. The SSD is not corrupted, it has Ubuntu Mate installed and running fine - it was installed very recently.
The SSD is a Transcend ts16gcf400 and I think Windows doesn't have a driver for it, whereas linux does.

 

On an SSD drive, it has to emulate the way a magnetic drive is recognized on the controller. Linux will see it and use it correctly, but Windows might need to be told how. It might be best to use Gparted from your Linux boot to create the partition and space that Windows X would need so that you don't have to rely on Microsoft trying to do that and not being able to. If it's already there from your own tools on another system, live CD, or any other arrangement, Windows will be able to see and use it then to get around that.

You also may want to see if you can circumvent UEFI and SecureBoot to install if it will let you. if you can use the drive in Legacy mode and already have the partitions and locations it would jump to outlined for it, all it has to do then is follow what you give to it as free space to install.

Just don't let it mess with your grub or lilo boot manager, or you'll probably have to use a live usb or cd then anyway to reinstall that so that you can access your linux partition again and be able to choose. (It's usually best to install Windows first, and then put linux on with a boot manager so you can control how it manages it).

The SSD works differently, but emulates the way the magnetic drives work when talking to the controller. You should be ok, but will just have to do some of the leg work to make the partition and space available for it since it's a lot like the old SCSI drives in that way (System Can't See It! lol)