[REQUEST] HP HDX 18 with InsydeH20

[MoonSpot]

HP HDX X18-1378CA
http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp51501-52000/sp51618.exe
Pics - scream , bloody , murder
(if you need other picture plz inform. I've plenty of other "feels" at the moment)

Want advanced features, particularly AHCI enabled in order to Raid0 on upgrade/new install of OS.
I was only able to get as far as EZH20 w/ 7-zip to change the boot logo on my own, though I didn't flash it cause I'm paranoid.

anyone having new luck with these?

[MoonSpot]

I am just going to write out the progress/attempts I've made here, on the assumption that some other soul with the same issue(s) happens to come across it.

I managed to get windows 8.1 installed on and exteneral USB by using GimageX and the install.win file (link below)
http://buttur.com/how-to-install-windows...-hard-disk

However the facken BIOS would not allow for booting off of the USB.
So I tried using a windows 8 boot USB, which was just windows to go basically. No joy.
Tried using windows 7 boot usb to force system to look at the external. Waste of time.
Then I decided to disconnect the internal drives from the computer and see how the BIOS felt about that. And it didn't like it one bit. Would not allow me to F9 select boot and eventually ended on a black screen. Ctrl+alt+del seemed pretty useless, and after awhile I just held the power down to turn it off.
Restarted, and this time it did allow me to select a bootpath, and windows even booted up off the external! But crashed at the initialisation screen and auto reboot.
So repeated to selected boot off the external, and made it the distance this time.

It was running slow as heck, felt like I was on an HP all-in-one. But I took the time to updade the drivers on the external OS on the assumption that I'll need to boot into it again. As of yet I have not.

Once all the drivers were installed I plugged the internal drives back in while computer was still live, and...BINGO! drives seen by system. I quickly deleted them, setup a strip drive and am now repeating(more or less) the installation of the OS via the above listed USB method, but to the newly created stripped array. Now waiting for the the files to complete, which is taking an ungodly amount of time because of USB & operation. At least the computer picked up the pace in every other aspect shortly after the 2 SSDs were plugged back in.

All this just to get a stripped OS installation. We'll soon see if Insyde/HP crunch my nuts when I reboot without the external hooked up.

Fingers crossed.

[MoonSpot]

First, sorry for typos. Using 7" tablet.
To no ones surprise, I'm sure, it didn't work. Going to try a few more things, like changing the boot drive to C: before fdisk and giving up.
Although the GimageX worked and "installed" the OS on the dynamic stripped drive, I don't think the bcdboot cmd worked too well when appling it to the array.
Whatever, going to sleep now. Try more tomorrow.

[MoonSpot]

Okay. Been poking at this again today and I am just confused. I don't even know what kind of BIOS I have here, uefi, efi, old bios or some mixture of them. A normal BIOS should not have been adaptive enough to allow OS boot off USB only when no other drives are attached (and I since learned that AHCI drive are hot swappable, so my previous glee was unjustified)
Would appreciate someone jumping in and saying "Look, you daffy bas7ard. You got **** type O'bios."
Its Insyde H20 ver 3.5 shell.

Between searching here and everywhere else, reading and trying a fist full of software, I'm just completely cross-eyed now and could use guidance. If for no other reason then to make peace with my situation.

[donovan6000]

Look, you daffy bas7ard. You got Insyde type O'bios. And it's EFI (however it is booting into legacy).