Upgrading the GL703 M.2 drive to 512GB

[zhall89]

Hey guys,

I have a Strix GL703 laptop and I was wondering how I can upgrade the m.2 hard drive. I used Rufus for my USB installation but I can't boot with USB even when I turn off Quick Boot and Secure Boot. I know the USB drive works because I tested it on my old laptop and it was successful due to no UEFI. Do I have to enter the Security part of the BIOS and clear the keys in the secure boot in order to use my USB drive for installing Windows 10? Also, am I able to dual boot Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 with Secure boot? If i keep the 256 GB m.2 that came with the laptop, if I upgrade my Windows Home to Education edition by changing my product key, will this affect the Secure boot keys that are stored in the Firmware, if so what software do i need for creating security boot keys? UEFI is a whole new thing to me. When i bought the laptop, i realized it came with Home instead of Pro. I need Pro or Education for my school training.

Thanks guys, I've tried looking up some information and had no luck. I also scanned the QR code for help with the BIOS and the ASUS page was not found.

[JustinThyme]

In BIOS load optimized defaults. This should set CSM to enabled so you can boot from the USB.
First things first. Chunk Rufus out the window and download the media creation tool from MS. Ive wrestled with Rufus and sometimes it works, others it wont. Using media creation tool works 100% of the time.

Now regardless of either home to pro upgrade is an in place upgrade like $99. Buy it and log in with your MS account and it will upgrade without the PITA that comes with a new install on a laptop. One thing I will tell you that is an absolute certainty, before you do anything else find and make a copy off the machine of the eSupport folder usually found in the C:\ root. This has all your drivers including some things that cannot be downloaded.

You can do a dual boot but why?

Please keep in mind this is a portable, not a desktop. You get one SSD and one SATA III so you are limited and would have to partition the drive to get dual boot.

Make sure you get the correct SSD with support for PCIE Gen 3

[StarJack]

In BIOS load optimized defaults. This should set CSM to enabled so you can boot from the USB.
First things first. Chunk Rufus out the window and download the media creation tool from MS. Ive wrestled with Rufus and sometimes it works, others it wont. Using media creation tool works 100% of the time.

Now regardless of either home to pro upgrade is an in place upgrade like $99. Buy it and log in with your MS account and it will upgrade without the PITA that comes with a new install on a laptop. One thing I will tell you that is an absolute certainty, before you do anything else find and make a copy off the machine of the eSupport folder usually found in the C:\ root. This has all your drivers including some things that cannot be downloaded.

You can do a dual boot but why?

Please keep in mind this is a portable, not a desktop. You get one SSD and one SATA III so you are limited and would have to partition the drive to get dual boot.

Make sure you get the correct SSD with support for PCIE Gen 3

I have the GL702VMK and was hoping to eventually upgrade my 128GB SSD to a 256 or 512 by just cloning the 128GB with Macrium Reflect. I have the image of my 128GB sitting on my SATA HDD. Could I just swap the 128 for the larger SSD and boot from my USB stick with Macrium and select my image from the 128 GB SSD drive to write to the larger. Not to hijack a thread, I just figured it's the same topic.

StarJack

[JustinThyme]

You can clone all day long. Ive did precisely this on my G752VY simply because I didnt want the headache of a new install. Cloned existing M2 to sata SSD then installed new M2 drive and cloned it right back. I didnt use USB to boot though. Simply clone drive as is to SATA, replace M2, boot from SATA then clone to new M2.....done and faster than using USB.

[FastM]

Hey guys,

I have a Strix GL703 laptop and I was wondering how I can upgrade the m.2 hard drive. I used Rufus for my USB installation but I can't boot with USB even when I turn off Quick Boot and Secure Boot. I know the USB drive works because I tested it on my old laptop and it was successful due to no UEFI. Do I have to enter the Security part of the BIOS and clear the keys in the secure boot in order to use my USB drive for installing Windows 10? Also, am I able to dual boot Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 with Secure boot? If i keep the 256 GB m.2 that came with the laptop, if I upgrade my Windows Home to Education edition by changing my product key, will this affect the Secure boot keys that are stored in the Firmware, if so what software do i need for creating security boot keys? UEFI is a whole new thing to me. When i bought the laptop, i realized it came with Home instead of Pro. I need Pro or Education for my school training.

Thanks guys, I've tried looking up some information and had no luck. I also scanned the QR code for help with the BIOS and the ASUS page was not found.

The problem is definitely with your key and not a bios setting. CSM should of OFF and SecureBoot should be left ON for a windows10 installation.

When you created your bootable media with rufus (a fantastic tool) you probably didn’t change “Partition Scheme and target system type” to “GPT partition scheme for UEFI”

also make sure the file system being used to format is FAT32.

I use the windows creation tool to download the windows10 installation .iso but from that point I have found rufus much more powerfull in terms of what kind of bootable media i’m creating (UEFI vs Legacy).

I haven’t done a dual boot in a long time. I wouldn’t recommend it personally.. If you plan on upgrading to Win10 Pro just fire up Hyper-V and make yourself some VM’s with whatever other Server OS’s you want to mess around with. Server OS’s are basically designed to run in VM environments these days anyway..*

Also very important what Justin said, back up that eSupport folder! it will make your life a lot easier if you do a clean format.*

Since there seems to be alot of confusion about this subject I just wanted to elaborate. CSM or Compatibility Support Module is something that allows booting in legacy BIOS mode on UEFI systems.

CSM has nothing to do with being able to boot a USB stick, its purely a compatibility mode if you want to say install Windows 7 or some older Linux OS. The moment your dealing with Windows 8 and up, CSM needs to be OFF.

Secure Boot is designed to prevent malware such as a rootkit to replace your boot loader. Newer PC's are built with Microsoft’s certificate stored in UEFI. This is why SecureBoot can get in the way of some Linux versions. Some release are paying Microsoft to use their certificate, other releases want nothing to do with Microsoft and you'll have to disable SecureBoot to get Linux installed.

To recap, If your working with Win8,10 or up, CSM is OFF. Secureboot is ON. There is not reason at all to change these settings.

[zhall89]

In BIOS load optimized defaults. This should set CSM to enabled so you can boot from the USB.
First things first. Chunk Rufus out the window and download the media creation tool from MS. Ive wrestled with Rufus and sometimes it works, others it wont. Using media creation tool works 100% of the time.

Now regardless of either home to pro upgrade is an in place upgrade like $99. Buy it and log in with your MS account and it will upgrade without the PITA that comes with a new install on a laptop. One thing I will tell you that is an absolute certainty, before you do anything else find and make a copy off the machine of the eSupport folder usually found in the C:\ root. This has all your drivers including some things that cannot be downloaded.

You can do a dual boot but why?

Please keep in mind this is a portable, not a desktop. You get one SSD and one SATA III so you are limited and would have to partition the drive to get dual boot.

Make sure you get the correct SSD with support for PCIE Gen 3

Thank you for the helpful information. It might be that Rufus wasn't working the whole time. Getting a Windows image creator from Microsoft makes more sense due to the security side. The reason I wanted to dual boot Windows Server is because I can use Hyper-V for setting up two virtual machines that are in a sandbox environment for security testing. I definitely copied my ESupport file and backed up my drivers to another drive using the DISM command. That way I don't have to search for the drivers. I can just add them to Device Manager.

[FastM]

zhall89, please re-read my post more carefully.

forget the creation tool, use it to download the windows.iso and use rufus to create. Its a more powerfull tool than allows you to see exactly how you are creating this bootable key.

Hyper-V comes with Windows 10 Pro. you dont need a dual boot on windows server just for Hyper-V.

[zhall89]

The problem is definitely with your key and not a bios setting. CSM should of OFF and SecureBoot should be left ON for a windows10 installation.

When you created your bootable media with rufus (a fantastic tool) you probably didn’t change “Partition Scheme and target system type” to “GPT partition scheme for UEFI”

also make sure the file system being used to format is FAT32.

I use the windows creation tool to download the windows10 installation .iso but from that point I have found rufus much more powerfull in terms of what kind of bootable media i’m creating (UEFI vs Legacy).

I haven’t done a dual boot in a long time. I wouldn’t recommend it personally.. If you plan on upgrading to Win10 Pro just fire up Hyper-V and make yourself some VM’s with whatever other Server OS’s you want to mess around with. Server OS’s are basically designed to run in VM environments these days anyway..*

Also very important what Justin said, back up that eSupport folder! it will make your life a lot easier if you do a clean format.*

Since there seems to be alot of confusion about this subject I just wanted to elaborate. CSM or Compatibility Support Module is something that allows booting in legacy BIOS mode on UEFI systems.

CSM has nothing to do with being able to boot a USB stick, its purely a compatibility mode if you want to say install Windows 7 or some older Linux OS. The moment your dealing with Windows 8 and up, CSM needs to be OFF.

Secure Boot is designed to prevent malware such as a rootkit to replace your boot loader. Newer PC's are built with Microsoft’s certificate stored in UEFI. This is why SecureBoot can get in the way of some Linux versions. Some release are paying Microsoft to use their certificate, other releases want nothing to do with Microsoft and you'll have to disable SecureBoot to get Linux installed.

To recap, If your working with Win8,10 or up, CSM is OFF. Secureboot is ON. There is not reason at all to change these settings.

I definitely forgot to add the GPT part of Rufus and it was NTFS instead of FAT32. So basically I don't have to clear the keys in the Secure Boot part of the BIOS when it comes to upgrading the hard drive? Maybe I should try the cloning method using the Free Macruim software as well.

[FastM]

I definitely forgot to add the GPT part of Rufus and it was NTFS instead of FAT32. So basically I don't have to clear the keys in the Secure Boot part of the BIOS when it comes to upgrading the hard drive? Maybe I should try the cloning method using the Free Macruim software as well.

Again, Microsoft certificates are pre-loaded in UEFI systems. you dont need to do anything special in the system UEFI settings concerning SecureBoot. Just leave it ON.

Try making your Win10 bootable key again with Rufus. GPT for UEFI systems, FAT32 file system using a windows.iso downloaded with the windows creation tool.

Dont give up and go the cloning route, having a fresh up-to date version of windows installed with the eSupport install wizard run afterwards to setup all your drivers is the best way to get your system running as good as possible.

Then upgrade to Pro if you want and use Hyper-V directly, no need for a dual boot.

[djderik]

Again, Microsoft certificates are pre-loaded in UEFI systems. you dont need to do anything special in the system UEFI settings concerning SecureBoot. Just leave it ON.

Try making your Win10 bootable key again with Rufus. GPT for UEFI systems, FAT32 file system using a windows.iso downloaded with the windows creation tool.

Dont give up and go the cloning route, having a fresh up-to date version of windows installed with the eSupport install wizard run afterwards to setup all your drivers is the best way to get your system running as good as possible.

Then upgrade to Pro if you want and use Hyper-V directly, no need for a dual boot.

NEED HELP...... this hasn't worked for me........ any other advise? Won't boot from the usb