Question Re-partition tablet storage

[hw_user]

I inherited a noname tablet which can dual boot WIN 10 and Android 5.1. The processor is Atom X5 Z8350. Android Device setting shows 1898MB (2 G) RAM and 3.9GB memory. WIN 10 system info shows 2G RAM and 28G storage. I am not sure what is using all the storage under WIN10 and only have 2G free (i.e. 26G used already). I don't really need the Android system. I was thinking of removing the Android partition and give WIN 10 all 32G. I have dual boot Windows systems (WIN XP and WIN 7) on PC before. If I want to remove WINXP, I just have to used software like partition magic , which provide me a boot disk, to delete the WINXP partition and give all the storage to WIN7. This will leave me just the WIN 7 system. Can I do the same on the tablet to remove Android ? What software can I use to boot and do the partition deletion ?

 

[britechguy]

I could go all sorts of ways with this response. But what I'll do is offer a few opinions, which you're free to consider or ignore.

I would not even consider trying to keep Windows 10 on a machine with the specs you quote. It does not generally run well with less than 4G, minimum, of RAM and there has been a lot of recent discussion of issues on machines with only 32 GB internal memory. An Atom processor is going to be quite stressed.

If you inherited this tablet, and it's no great loss if it eventually ends up bricked, I'd be far more inclined to root it (if you can find an easy method to do this), install a custom recovery (e.g. TWRP, see detailed instructions here: https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-install-twrp/ ) and then flash a more modern custom ROM of Android, if such is available. Sites like xda-developers, androidforums.com, and several others are the places to check on all this stuff, as the whole focus is all Android all the time and talking about rooting, custom recoverys, and custom ROMs for virtually any device you can name.

You would need to do your homework with regard to whether there's a custom ROM based on a more recent Android than 5 that would work on this tablet as the first order of business.

It is my feeling that you won't have much luck with Windows 10 on that hardware configuration right now, and it's likely to end up unsupported sooner rather than later.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a similar level 2 in 1 laptop/tablet, an Asus Transformer.
2GB RAM, 32GB eMMC drive, Atom Z3740 CPU.

Runs Win 10 Home. It is slow, but it was slow with its original Win 8 it came with.
And it just finished updating to the current Win 10 v1903.

As a basic web browsing machine, it is somewhat OK. But absolutely nothing more complex than that.


Bottom line - Win 10 will run on it, but do NOT expect greatness.
I would do a full wipe and reinstall, killing off the android install and starting with a bare OS.
See how it works for you.

 

[hw_user]

Thanks for the suggestion. I agreed that I should look at removing WIN 10 instead. I understand that Android 5.1 is old. But to lower the risk (I have not done any rooting before), can I just remove the WIN10 partition and just leave Android 5.1 running with all 32G ? Of course re-partitioning work is needed. What tool to use for the re-partitioning work ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'd keep windows 10.
Windows 10 runs fine on such hardware in web browsing/movie watching mode. Also some low system requirement games can be run on it.

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management? That would give ideas, how to remove android and expand available space for windows.

 

[britechguy]

If you do end up wanting to go back to Android, could you not do a factory reset on the device? That should take it back to it's "out of the box" state.

There are partition manager apps for Android just like there are for Windows. But I'd be far more inclined to do a factory reset to wipe the slate clean.

The choice about which way to go is yours. My prior opinions are based on my own tolerance level for "slow performance" and you are absolutely sure to have that with Windows 10 on this hardware spec. I also fear that hardware may very well fall out of ongoing Windows 10 feature update support in the next couple of Feature Updates, but that's strictly my gut feeling, and nothing more.

 

[Alabalcho]

Install an utility like WinDirStat, and use it to see which folders are using these 26gb of storage. Clean Win10 should fit into less than 20gb. And as others said - don't think for anything important being done on that tablet. The best upgrade you can do for it is to get fast 32GB microSD card, and use it as a main storage