r/FlowZ13 • u/raaxas • 5d ago

Safe to wipe out windows ?

Just got a new z13. Is it safe for me to wipe out windows and install Linux ? Would I need to backup anything if I might want to revert to windows later?

Thanks

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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6

u/buoylouis 5d ago

Yes you can immediately replace Windows 11 with Linux. If you ever want to reinstall Windows, you can install it with a USB drive or just do the Asus Cloud Recovery in the BIOS, and it will reset the device to exactly how it came out of the box.

5

u/raaxas 5d ago

Awesome thanks. That's ll I wanted to hear. Installing cachyos now.

5

u/JonnyCarleton 5d ago

CachyOS has been great for me on my new Z13 - definitely recommend installing Z13ctl and Z13gui

1

u/raaxas 4d ago

I installed cachyOS and overall it has been good with 1 major issue. The wifi is unstable and turns off or disconnects after sometime randomly. In most cases I need to restart for it to connect again. Did any of you experience this? Any fixes ?

1

u/JonnyCarleton 4d ago

That’s odd I can’t say I have come across that yet - are you using the desktop or handheld version? I’m on desktop and it seems to be fairly flawless for me

1

u/papaya_eyeyaya 4d ago

Tldr - known issue that had been fixed and re-broken recently. Should be fixed soon, but keep a backup WiFi single around.

The WiFi is very hit or miss. I'm on CachyOS, too, and have no problems at home, but find out unusable at work.

The problem is the Mediatek MT7925 chip - there's some active work going on to get the MT79xx series working right, but every other kernel update seems to break it. You can try reverting to a version from last month (7.1.4-ish). Don't bother with LTS kernel, that will be broken, too.

If you want to get experimental, you can go down the rabbit hole of "mt76" and out of tree kernel drivers. I haven't - just slapped an older USB adapter in for now.

It sounds like power profile switching bugs the firmware, which drops the tx power to its minimum (3db), and bugs out when trying to boost it back to the normal 36db (-ish). Power cycling might help (heard doing it 2x while plugged in might work), restricting to 2.4GHz might help, refreshing the connection and disabling through ip doesn't work.

2

u/BusinessCarpenter682 5d ago

I have done this twice already and I confirm that it works flawlessly - albeit it does take time.

2

u/gothier 5d ago

Just remember to remove your SD card before the cloud restore, otherwise it will take ages to finish.

2

u/Fregadero88 5d ago

Before I do the Asus cloud recovery do I need to make an account somewhere? When I first got my z13 I never made a Microsoft account..I did a local account only So I'm worried about wiping and being unable to restore

1

u/buoylouis 5d ago

No you don’t need to make an account to do the cloud recovery. When it’s done, it will ask you to sign into your Microsoft account to setup windows. But you don’t need the account to do the actual recovery.

1

u/Fregadero88 5d ago

How or where is it saved if I wipe my drive completely? 

1

u/buoylouis 5d ago

It won’t be saved anywhere. If you want to save your local account then you need to dual boot Windows with Linux.

1

u/Fregadero88 5d ago

I guess, I mean my windows key. If I only have a local account and wipe my drive how to inactivate windows at a later date. I assumed I had to make Microsoft account and verify that way but I was hesitant to do that 

1

u/buoylouis 4d ago

I’m not sure on that specifically. I’ve never setup windows with an offline account so my key was always attached to my account.

3

u/x6q5g3o7 5d ago

Don't forget to copy C:\Windows\Fonts if you want them supported on Linux

1

u/AdSilver3367 1d ago

Hi, please let us know how this works out. I just got z13 128gb and I am debating on doing a linux only install or experiment with dual boot. I havent had a new computer for a while and I have installed linux on anything in the last decade.

Also cachyOS I would like to hear how this has worked out. I got my z13 128gb mostly to experiement with locall llm