How to restore Windows 10 Compute Stick?

[idata]

The OS on my ICS with Windows 10 Home (BOXSTCK1A32WFCL, purchased 29 Dec. 2015) appears to be corrupt, so I would like to restore it to the delivered condition.

The ICS was delivered with Windows 10 Home already installed, but the F8 recovery option only offers to restore it to Windows 8.1.

This page (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/intel-compute-stick/000016164.html Windows® 10 Update Instructions for Intel® Compute Stick) suggests that I can upgrade to Windows 10 after restoring Windows 8.1, but I have the following misgivings:

1. The free upgrade period has expired. How can I install Windows 10 without paying for it?
2. I have a slow WLAN connection to the Compute Stick; even if the licensing problem is resolved, the upgrade will likely be long and painful.
3. Many posts in this forum report problems upgrading.

How can I restore the originally installed version of Windows 10 to my Compute Stick?

[n_scott_pearson]

Was your ICS recently "upgraded" with the Windows 10 Anniversary update? If so, your stick may seem to be corrupted because the update wiped out some of the application and driver dependencies. You need to reinstall all of the drivers for your ICS manually. Here is a link to the Intel Download Center page that provides driver packages for your ICS: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/86612/Intel-Compute-Stick-STCK1A32WFC Downloads for Intel® Compute Stick STCK1A32WFC. Download and install all that are marked "Latest" and your version of Windows 10.

Hope this helps,

...S

[idata]

Thanks for the useful link!

[idata]

Hello R B:

You are welcome. Any other inquiry, do not hesitate in contact us again. Regards Alberto

[DeanG]

1. Once you have successfully upgraded to Windows 10 Home (which you did), any subsequent installs of Windows 10 on the same device, even a clean install, will automatically be activated (licensed).

So, instead of doing a restore and upgrade, you might consider just downloading an "ISO image" (see Microsoft's site) of Windows 10 Anniversary Edition onto a USB stick, and then doing a clean install. That will be much, much faster.

[idata]

Are you saying that the Windows 10 installation can recognize a previous installation, even after the system disk has been reformatted ("clean install")?

How is this possible?

Thanks for the tip about the ISO image. I didn't realize that one was available, as I had previously found only the "Media Creation Tool".

In case others reading this thread are looking for it, I found it here:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO/ Windows 10 ISO

[DeanG]

When you upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade procedure notes certain unique aspects of your computer (nothing on the hard drive), and forwards that information to Microsoft's servers. Microsoft obviously does not state what that entails.

When you do a fresh (clean) install of Windows 10, it sends that same information to Microsoft, so see if that information matches a previous activation.

Real-life cases:

1. When I recently bought a Windows 10 computer, I replaced the original 32 GB SSD (which had Windows 10 and had been activated), with a new (uninitialized) 64GB SSD, did a fresh install of Windows 10 on it, and it was recognized as activated.
2. A friend ungraded one of his laptops to Windows 10 (which activated it), and then moved the hard drive to another identical model laptop. The "moved" copy of Windows became "not activated". He had to re-insert the original hard drive into the 2nd laptop and do the upgrade.

See:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-quietly-rewrites-its-activation-rules-for-windows-10/ Microsoft quietly rewrites its activation rules for Windows 10 | ZDNet

[idata]

Hello R B:

Thank you for providing that link, and thank you very much also to Dean Gibson for the comments above. Just to let you know, since the stick came with Windows® 8.1 installed, there is a partition on the stick the belongs to it, that is why when you do the Windows recovery the stick will go back to Windows® 8.1, if you use an "ISO image" to install Windows® 10, that partition will get deleted, and there will be a new for Windows® 10. Any questions, please let me know. Alberto

[DeanG]

... if you use an "ISO image" to install Windows® 10, that partition will get deleted, and there will be a new [one] for Windows® 10.

I don't work for Intel Corp, and so the following comments are my opinion alone. Further, what I say is not a blanket recommendation, so ignore the following if you are not willing in the future to do a full (clean) install of Windows, should anything go wrong.

Space on some of these devices are limited and often make major Windows updates difficult without uninstalling a number of previously-installed programs. In addition, I have seen some updates/installs add additional recovery partitions, chewing up significant additional space.

So, I routinely delete any recovery partitions that are created during an install or update (or arrive as delivered on the device). Then, I extend the existing Windows partition to include the recently vacated space. I use DISKPART for both operations, so you should know what you are doing (leave the "EFI System Partition" alone). However, if you make a mistake, you just do (another) clean install.

Since I am willing to reinstall Windows 10 from scratch, I don't see the downside. I don't keep any user data on the device, so there's no potential loss there (if you do, you should have backups anyway) I do have to reconfigure my system and user settings, but that's not a big deal for me.

[idata]

Thanks, very illuminating!

[idata]

There seems to be a slight misunderstanding here. I received the ICS from an authorized dealer with Windows 10 already installed.

The fact that the Recovery only offers Windows 8.1 was the reason for my original question.

[DeanG]

I understand that was the basis of your original question. However, if your Stick showed "Windows is activated" in Windows 10 (and if it wasn't, I think you would have seen indications), then my comments stand.

If you have a Microsoft account, you can check the status of your registered computers here: https://account.microsoft.com/devices https://account.microsoft.com/devices

[idata]

That sounds like the way to go. Unfortunately, I have invested a fair amount of effort into configuration. I am prepared to do it agan for the sake of a "clean install", but would prefer not to repeat it. On my other systems I usually make an occasional complete disk image backup with Clonezilla or Redo. Is there some way to do something like this with an ICS? Could I, for example, boot Clonezilla from a USB thumb drive and backup the whole internal SSD to an SD card?

[idata]

Thanks, Dean, I understand. My comment above was actually directed at Alberto; I should have made that clearer. I am still trying to get used to this forum software. Sometimes I see a "Comment" option on a post and sometimes I see "Reply" and it isn't clear to me what the difference is or when one or the other appears.

[DeanG]

R B wrote:

... Clonezilla ...

I don't know.

[idata]

Hello:

Thank you very much to all the peers participating on this thread, your comments are always useful. To R B: After doing a Windows recovery, if the stick goes back to Windows® 8.1, in order to do upgrade it to Windows® 10, basically those will be the 2 options, to do it through WLAN connection, that as you mentioned might take a while, or to use an "ISO image" on order to install it, the thing about these 2 processes, is that it might ask you for a Windows license, and the original partition of the stick will be deleted. Remember, that Intel does not manage any information related to Windows® licenses, so, if you try the steps above, and a license is requested, then you will need to check with Microsoft about that. As an option you can always get in contact directly with Intel, to verify if maybe they can replace your stick, for the one that came with Windows® 10 already installed. If you are interested in checking on that, please get in contact directly with us through chat, email, phone or online support, you just need to select compute stick on product type and you will get those options: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html# @12 http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html# @12 Any questions, please let me know. Alberto