Can't reinstall Windows on Surface Pro

[kenjancef]

I had a friend (yea, really...) give me his Surface Pro last week, said he tried installing Windows 10 and it just went crazy. So he tried going back to Windows 8 but it doesn't work. He also deleted all of the partitions on the drive, but he didn't mind loosing his data and recovery anyway (thank goodness..). So here is what I've done so far, and where I'm at:

I have a program called Parted Magic, a program that can partition drives, especially SSD's. So I created a boot USB and can boot to the Parted Magic program. I see the hard drive, and all of its partitions. I ended up deleting them all again, to have Windows recreate them when Windows got reinstalled. i even did tests on the SSD, and they all passed...

In the meantime I downloaded the original shipping Windows 8 image from Microsoft, by entering the serial number of the tablet and downloading the recommended image. I then copied that to USB as per their instructions.

So I booted from that USB, and I get the install process rolling, and I get to the point where I'm asked what I want to do, and I say Reset, and also say to partition the drive, and delete all my files. The screen turns black, and I see the Surface logo, and saying that it is installing Windows with a percentage in parentheses. It gets to 2% and sits there for sometimes 2 hours (yea, I've done this process a bunch of times on this tablet...), and then I get the screen that says it can't continue, and then I get back to square 1...

So the thing here is... what in the world is making it hang at 2% for 2 hours then having the install fail? I've tried 3 different USB drives and it happens every time. Sometimes it takes a few tries to have the tablet boot from the USB, but when it does, it goes through the restore routine fine until the process actually starts.

I am an IT tech, so I'll try anything at this point to get it working.... thoughts????

 

[Chintan Gohel]

So I booted from that USB, and I get the install process rolling, and I get to the point where I'm asked what I want to do, and I say Reset, and also say to partition the drive, and delete all my files.

so what would happen if you don't try the partition option or reset option or even both?

 

[kenjancef]

so what would happen if you don't try the partition option or reset option or even both?

Not sure I know what you mean... I can access all menus that have to do with restore, reset, troubleshoot, etc...

If I turn off Secure Boot and boot from the SSD I get the Surface logo for about 5 -10 seconds or so, then the screen turns black. i can tell it's on because I can see a glow from the screen, but it stays at a black screen, doesn't boot.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Not sure I know what you mean... I can access all menus that have to do with restore, reset, troubleshoot, etc...

If I turn off Secure Boot and boot from the SSD I get the Surface logo for about 5 -10 seconds or so, then the screen turns black. i can tell it's on because I can see a glow from the screen, but it stays at a black screen, doesn't boot.

your issue seems to start after you go through the process of reset and partition. I thought if you didn't do that, would it be any different? I'm not an IT person but it looks logical that that particular step could be the issue

 

[v535]

Are you sure, you formatted your disk as GUID Partition Table(GPT) using Gparted or whatever disk utility found in Parted Magic?
It seems to me, the required image files isn't copied correctly. Please enlighten me, are there any ISO file after un-zipping? If there's an ISO, try Rufus 2.8 and then select UEFI mode install scheme and you are good to go.
One more thing to clear up, do you get option to do a custom install instead of going to Reset option?

 

[kenjancef]

Are you sure, you formatted your disk as GUID Partition Table(GPT) using Gparted or whatever disk utility found in Parted Magic?
It seems to me, the required image files isn't copied correctly. Please enlighten me, are there any ISO file after un-zipping? If there's an ISO, try Rufus 2.8 and then select UEFI mode install scheme and you are good to go.
One more thing to clear up, do you get option to do a custom install instead of going to Reset option?

Good question, but I didn't format the drive with Parted Magic. I deleted the partitions, and doing the Windows restore actually created the partitions, so i figured that if Windows did it then it should be right... right??? lol...

The process for the USB drive is: You enter the serial number for the Surface, then the correct restore files are chosen, based on that serial number, and you download it as a ZIP file. Then, with a USB drive formatted as FAT32, you extract the contents of the ZIP file onto that USB drive and proceed to boot from it. That all works fine. This is what I do when it boots from USB:

(and i am actually going through this as I type, to make sure I note the steps I'm taking...)

1. Choose the language (English (United States)
2. Choose your keyboard layout (US)
3. Choose an option (Troubleshoot)
4. Reset your PC
5. Here's what will happen... hit "Next" button
6. Choose a target operating system.
Here I have 2 choices: "Windows Rollback" and "Windows 8.1". I was choosing Windows 8.1 since that's what I downloaded from MS. Being that the drive had no partitions on it before doing this, I didn't think I would have anything to roll back from...
7. I get "Please wait..." for a good 15-20 seconds... but EDIT: After a good 4-5 minutes, it still says "Please wait" witht he little spinning dots to the left of the text, it's not progressing. It usually gives me the choice of keeping files and partitions, or erasing everything and having windows partition the drive, which is what i usually select... it's not happening now though...

Oh, and I've tried Rufus, and that didn't work either, with a valid ISO file from Microsoft... ugh...

 

[v535]

Good question, but I didn't format the drive with Parted Magic. I deleted the partitions, and doing the Windows restore actually created the partitions, so i figured that if Windows did it then it should be right... right??? lol...

The process for the USB drive is: You enter the serial number for the Surface, then the correct restore files are chosen, based on that serial number, and you download it as a ZIP file. Then, with a USB drive formatted as FAT32, you extract the contents of the ZIP file onto that USB drive and proceed to boot from it. That all works fine. This is what I do when it boots from USB:

(and i am actually going through this as I type, to make sure I note the steps I'm taking...)

1. Choose the language (English (United States)
2. Choose your keyboard layout (US)
3. Choose an option (Troubleshoot)
4. Reset your PC
5. Here's what will happen... hit "Next" button
6. Choose a target operating system.
Here I have 2 choices: "Windows Rollback" and "Windows 8.1". I was choosing Windows 8.1 since that's what I downloaded from MS. Being that the drive had no partitions on it before doing this, I didn't think I would have anything to roll back from...
7. I get "Please wait..." for a good 15-20 seconds... but EDIT: After a good 4-5 minutes, it still says "Please wait" witht he little spinning dots to the left of the text, it's not progressing. It usually gives me the choice of keeping files and partitions, or erasing everything and having windows partition the drive, which is what i usually select... it's not happening now though...

Oh, and I've tried Rufus, and that didn't work either, with a valid ISO file from Microsoft... ugh...

Is UEFI set to secure boot? Did you try installing windows image from a usb2 port instead of usb3 one. Oh, another thing, so MS says to copy the files and don't provide an ISO. Did you try to make an ISO file out of un-zipped files using Imgburn?

 

[kenjancef]

Is UEFI set to secure boot?

No... Surface won't boot to an external device if Secure Boot is on.

Did you try installing windows image from a usb2 port instead of usb3 one.

Umm.. the Surface Pro has only one USB port so I have no choice... and I believe on the original Surface Pro, which I have, the USB port is 2.0 (I could be wrong...)

Oh, another thing, so MS says to copy the files and don't provide an ISO. Did you try to make an ISO file out of un-zipped files using Imgburn?

No. But I did try using an ISO file that I downloaded from MS.

 

[v535]

You could take a look at this site and try installing win 10 https://petermeinl.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/how-to-really-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10-on-a-uefi-pc/

 

[kenjancef]

You could take a look at this site and try installing win 10 https://petermeinl.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/how-to-really-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10-on-a-uefi-pc/

I'll give it a shot, thanks.

I'll report back to let you know how it went...

 

[xuanphucn]

I'll give it a shot, thanks.

I'll report back to let you know how it went...

So how did it go? Im on the same boat. I deleted all the partitions and now the surface wont even boot from usb

 

[Paul May]

I had a similar issue with my surface pro classic and it was a secure boot issue. It has been a while but turning on secure boot and installing in Uefi mode seemed to do the trick for me. Forcing the computer to boot from USB by holding the volume-down button and press and release the power button.