The two quotes above give me the impression installation is in legacy mode but trying to boot in UEFI mode.
Because the option to boot Windows is still there after supposedly wiping it off suggests there is a protected MBR on this GPT embedded multimedia card and the EFI partition still exists with the Windows .efi file.

I recently tried to fix a Windows 8 tablet with a Hynix 32GB eMMC, from a live Windows I could not do anything to the partition structure with diskpart. From Ubuntu live I wiped it with dd urandom, dd exited successfully, booted Windows live and nothing changed. I eventually did a diskpart clean all (similar to dd zero fill) and the drive was empty, but could not initialize it, thus could not partition it with any of the supper fantastic partitioning applications available in any platform including diskpart.

It's an Acer Switch 10, and the "locked drive" thing has happened to many that owned this thing, the only ones whom got around it were the ones who broke down and gave Acer extra cash for a recovery disk that fixed it. It is a firmware feature as far as I'm concerned designed to get extra money from something that didn't bring in much money from the original sale.

You may be able to use WinToUSB to put Windows 10 (download ISO from Microsoft) on a pendrive or clumsy external USB drive, extract the product key which is in the UEFI firmware with Rw-Portable from a Windows PE live session to activate it if the owner would prefer Windows 10 over Linux.

I don't have windows installed which is why it's so frustrating.

A usb storage device is bootable on linux since 2006-ish. So as long as your hardware is NOT > a decade old, you can boot from USB. There are some card readers that require drivers to work, that can't boot, otherwise most storage things usb can be used to run a distro off of. Some usb sticks are horribly slow so you wouldn't want to run a distro off of them. But a lot of recent things are more than good enough.

In short hard drives galore, install and boot from any of them. You don't even need to wipe the drive that came with the system. You can spam a key at boot and select your boot drive. ESCape on my hp stream 11, F12 on my gateway desktop, and other options depending on your hardware. Since USB drives can be removed and moved so easily, you can literally do your install on a different machine. And then use that drive to boot linux on other hardware. As long as the CPU types match.

Yes but how do I do this on a usb stick? This notebook is new. I know how to put a distro n a usb stick and boot from it. I guess if worse comes to worse I can use it as a live distro and use it for surfing, etc. Is there an emoticon for pulling your hair out?

them @
ok get into your BIOS first and look in the menu going through them all until you find boot order or boot selection or anything to do with boot 'ing
look to see what options it is giving to to select the order to look in for a boot drive.

if you see an option USB hdd or something with USB ... in it. then 99.9 percent you're going to be able to boot off a hdd hooked up to your USB Port.

Most external hdds that come in a case. well it is a 50/50 it will work.
an internal hdd 2.5" laptop is best because a USB port has a better chance of supplying it power without an extra cable. As a 3.5" desktop hdd you will have to supply a power source to it.

don't forget the cable to hook the hdd up to your laptop.
"usb 3.0 to 2.5" sata iii hard drive adapter cable"

nevertheless, if you got a means to use your laptop 2 USB ports.

1.plug in the Linux OS to boot it (install OS off it USB Linux)
2. turn it on
3. when it is booting up off that USB then plug in your other external hdd you are going to install Linux on. So Linux can see it as it is booting, so it will be there when you get into Linux.
4. when you log into that USB Linux OS then open up a terminal
5. sudo lsblk = /dev/sdx and hdd size to help determine which is the one you want to use to install on. VERY IMPORTANT
6. install it onto the external hdd, install grub onto the external hdd remember your dir /dev/sdx so you will NOT install grub on the wrong drive. VERY IMPORTANT
7. (scratching head)
8. when all is done- reboot-
9. how ever your laptop allows you to select that new install in one of your USB ports. select it at the optimum moment to boot into it.
10. enjoy
11. post back - cuz I know you're going to want to.

as far as the hdd to install on being recognized by Linux USB boot live. The, I am going to use this one to install Linux onto somewhere else Linux.

When to actually plug it in(the hdd to be installed upon)?

That can be a hit and miss . their are only so many options try them all if needed until a success is achieved.

if you have any trouble with the steps post back. it has been awhile sense I've done this. so I may have missed something.

Basically you are just using your CPU and its ports in that Laptop as a means to transfer data from one device to another device without touching that Laptops hdd. Therefore, you want to ensure that you do not. lsblk

piece of cake.

Thanks for the great info. I've already got it set to boot from usb because I've installed kubuntu on a usb drive. I actually understood all of that. The only thing I'm torn about is that I installed the previous version of Kubuntu (the latest won't work) and I'm booted in it now. Is there any reason I can't use the usb thumb drive instead of an external hd? That way there'd be no expense and it would be more convenient. And shouldn't I be able to write to it and install software? I ask because I tried to install chromium and it didn't work so that's a deal breaker for me. I'm willing to go the hd route if this doesn't work. Besides I'd actually be able to use it which I wouldn't be able to do if I ran over it! Thanks again!

well it just so happens I've done that too.
That can be a little more tricky but I did get one distro to install, not that I tried everyone out there.

here is one I develop the method on how to. And I used Slackware and Voids xbps toolset to do it. But you need a POSIX system to get it to work.
https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/User:Userx

you can read that one post and try this too. gives you options, insight. and knowledge?

Just like the hdd install. Apply the same method the USB Stick. If your BIOS can differentiate between the two USB Sticks being plugged in at the same time, then that is a plus.

the only thing that needs to be made sure of --
fstabatime and nodiratime to cut back on read and writes to the USB Stick so it does not get wore down as fast.

You can play with UUIDs too in your fstab if you are going to be using it other then that one laptop. due to whichever mounts / spins up first gets first "drive-letter"

so /dev/sdd1 does and maybe can be /dev/sdc1 /dev/sde1 if booting with other things pluged in or more then one internal hdd connected and mounting in Linux. then your fstab will not match and you will not be able to boot it.

and if it does not take you try clearing the USB Stick using dd as root of course. rule of thumb if it does not work not using su or sudo then try su or sudo then decided if something might not be right.

you got a 50/50 on whatever Distro you are trying to get to install on a USB Stick as a full blown Linux OS.

so be prepared to change distros if you really want to do it that way.

The bootable USB stick is just like a harddrive. As far as the technicals of creating a bootable linux. Grub might be slightly harder to install on them, but it can be installed on them. Otherwise it's functionally the same as far as any linux installation goes.

I tend to do debootstrap installations from an existing debian based linux. You can also use this route to install flavors of ubuntu.

While in the chroot you might want to install networking tools and drivers / firmware. It's a very minimal installation going the debootstrap route. But you should still have the host linux to chroot again if things need more things. With post boot installation steps like install a bootloader, creating users, installing X and environments (tasksel if you're lazy). But the basic steps I do when installing with debootstrap to a USB (or any) storage device. Once the install and bootloader is on the "stick", shutdown that computer, stick it in the other computer and boot from USB.

There are simpler options. Which tend to require a storage device to boot and a second device to install to.

http://cdimage.debian.org
https://www.debian.org/CD/

Wow! I hate to admit it but this may be over my head. But I'll definitely try to figure something out using your instructions. The thing is I don't need this notebook. I have more computers than I need. But I'm too damn stubborn to quit! And I don't think I'm the only one!

Offtopic: I tried to install slack on my new laptop today and I quit after the third try. I kept having fatal package installation, Suggestions?

that would be a different post in the Slackware area.

I installed slackware once. I had to slap the debian kernel onto it to get it to boot.

Ok, before I go any further I think I ruined my debian partitions. I installed gparted because I've never been good at cli partitioning. It wouldn't run so I booted gparted live. I had /dev/sda for debian so I used /dev/sdb in the drop down menu and did my partitioning. It booted with no problems. But when I ran blkid I got weird output so I checked /etc/fstab and it shows debian as /dev/sdb and my thumb drive as /dev/sda but it says that debian was originally installed on /dev/sda etc. I have no idea what to do.

Edit: nm, I had forgotten to remove the device before I booted. :stupid:

Ok I'm still lost. I used BW-Userx's instructions because I understood them better but it's for another distro and I don't know where to use Kubuntu instead.I know you've gone out of your way to help me but I need a little more guidance. Plus at one point you say you use a script but you don't say what it is. I

which instructions are you using the Void Linux on the wiki? that is only for Void Linux

refresh my memory in what exactly you are doing and with what distro and what instructions of mine.