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During installation of 8.1 preview, the several automated restarts resulted in a BCD error. I was smart enough to make a backup, however it is corrupt! Just a word of caution for people. MS techs are calling me tomorrow with possible workarounds but it sounded like they were just going to ship a new device and be done with it. If anyone has any tips or ideas I'd appreciate it. I definitely don't want to ship this tablet out if I don't have to.
RT or Pro?
Kraize said:
RT or Pro?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
32gb surface rt from usa
Wow that's odd...I just did it with no problems at all. Can you boot from USB? Because if you can, then you can just burn the rt ISO to a flash drive and recover it from there.
Oh, and btw, 8.1 makes this device at least 2 times as fast as it was out of the box. With 8.1, everything is just faster with almost no lag. So if you can, I really would recommend installing it if you get it fixed. It should only reboot twice. Once for the update, and once to set up everything.
Errored out during installation the first time for me and reinstalled my previous version of windows. Just went back in the store and reinstalled it. Worked just fine the second time. Crazy fast for me. Surface rt 32 gb.
I cant install it on mine yet, keeps saying not available at this time.
EN-GB 32 RT, have reset it and set it up as a EN-US device, got the Preview in Store but just waiting for server load to drop off I guess.
Oh, and if anyone nails the install and ends up with a dead machine, I have an EN-GB recovery link in my sig.
I also have an FTP server here in the UK with it on if people are desperate.
Trig0r said:
I cant install it on mine yet, keeps saying not available at this time.
EN-GB 32 RT, have reset it and set it up as a EN-US device, got the Preview in Store but just waiting for server load to drop off I guess.
Oh, and if anyone nails the install and ends up with a dead machine, I have an EN-GB recovery link in my sig.
I also have an FTP server here in the UK with it on if people are desperate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have your recovery file, do I just put the iso on a USB? Or do I need to make the drive bootable?
williams37 said:
I have your recovery file, do I just put the iso on a USB? Or do I need to make the drive bootable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As with every other ISO on the planet, you need to use a disk imaging tool to make a bootable USB
any chance you can post your link for the recovery file? I would appreciate it if you could
jolpool said:
any chance you can post your link for the recovery file? I would appreciate it if you could
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its in his signature
the link is taking me to another thread and there is no link there?
It shows up in the store for me when I did those four steps but the download always sais not available right now
So then I changed locale to US as suggested, the text is no longer corrupted but still won't download.
UK surface RT...and with RT you can't use iso file so store is my only option. It could just be overcrowded server but I really want the dam thing to download
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
SixSixSevenSeven said:
As with every other ISO on the planet, you need to use a disk imaging tool to make a bootable USB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't ask because I was being lazy, I asked because I have tried every method I can think of to boot from that iso and it still doesn't work. I can't get to anything other than the surface logo then the error. I have tried multiple ways of making that drive bootable, but whenever I start surface holding volume down, the drive will flash for about 3 seconds then cut to the BCD error. And the tool in the windows store "Windows 7 usb download" tool does not recognize the iso as a windows file and will not create the drive with it. I have tried rufus and a program called iso to usb. Drive formatted as NTSF and for the sake of not going crazy tried FAT32. Same outcome regardless of approach.
I need the link to the surface rt recovery file too. the link in the signature takes me to another thread
lilivo said:
I need the link to the surface rt recovery file too. the link in the signature takes me to another thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about you read the thread which then has the link in it.
Rocket science at its best
Maybe I should just have the file in my FTP and a direct link in my sig, perhaps that'd be easier lol
williams37 said:
I didn't ask because I was being lazy, I asked because I have tried every method I can think of to boot from that iso and it still doesn't work. I can't get to anything other than the surface logo then the error. I have tried multiple ways of making that drive bootable, but whenever I start surface holding volume down, the drive will flash for about 3 seconds then cut to the BCD error. And the tool in the windows store "Windows 7 usb download" tool does not recognize the iso as a windows file and will not create the drive with it. I have tried rufus and a program called iso to usb. Drive formatted as NTSF and for the sake of not going crazy tried FAT32. Same outcome regardless of approach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me. I guess the drive needs the bootfiles for an RT device. If you make an usb-drive bootable on an x86/x64-system, the drive will contain code that can't run on ARM.
If anyone knows how to make the drive bootable for RT, I'd really like to know as well.
Just copy the files in the recovery to a fat32 formatted usb drive, then hold the volume down button plus power button, this will take time to boot but its normal. I already have my own recovery on a usb stick, but never deleted the built in one. Tried installing this on an x86 netbook but the wim file isn't recognized.
If anyone else is having trouble installing the RT preview, there's a way to change the base language. First is installing a language pack (US) and setting it as default language, then changing something in the registry with the name InstallLanguage and changing its value to 0409.
downloaderintruder said:
Just copy the files in the recovery to a fat32 formatted usb drive, then hold the volume down button plus power button, this will take time to boot but its normal. I already have my own recovery on a usb stick, but never deleted the built in one. Tried installing this on an x86 netbook but the wim file isn't recognized.
If anyone else is having trouble installing the RT preview, there's a way to change the base language. First is installing a language pack (US) and setting it as default language, then changing something in the registry with the name InstallLanguage and changing its value to 0409.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! and without the condescending tone even. This is exactly what I needed. Back up and running thanks to this.
Hey.
I'm trying to perform a restore to leave my surface pro 1 back to factory defaults. When I try to do it, it says some files are missing and that I should use a media with those. However I never created a disk for that.
Did some research and found out that people who have upgraded to win 8.1 all experience this issue.
I also tried to download the win 8/8.1 isos from microsoft be it won't accept my product key...Then, I downloaded a legal windows 8.1 iso that would need to be activated after being installed. Put it in a flashdrive and then the surface didnt ask for the missing files anymore. It reset all fine. HOWEVER, I would always need that flashdrive to make it work. As Im planning on selling it, thats not the case.
I just wanted it to recover from the recovery partition, but apparently, it's not properly "seeing" it, as it keeps asking for additional files.
Im clueless. How do I make that partition work again?
sneak3 said:
Hey.
I'm trying to perform a restore to leave my surface pro 1 back to factory defaults. When I try to do it, it says some files are missing and that I should use a media with those. However I never created a disk for that.
Did some research and found out that people who have upgraded to win 8.1 all experience this issue.
I also tried to download the win 8/8.1 isos from microsoft be it won't accept my product key...Then, I downloaded a legal windows 8.1 iso that would need to be activated after being installed. Put it in a flashdrive and then the surface didnt ask for the missing files anymore. It reset all fine. HOWEVER, I would always need that flashdrive to make it work. As Im planning on selling it, thats not the case.
I just wanted it to recover from the recovery partition, but apparently, it's not properly "seeing" it, as it keeps asking for additional files.
Im clueless. How do I make that partition work again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's a bug, because my Surface Pro 2 which came with 8.1 has always done that. I needed to pull a recovery drive from my dad's Toshiba U925t to recover mine after a bad Linux dual boot
Well thats just bad. I guess the right question now would be how to fix the recovery partition.
Havent found anything about that yet though.
Have you tried searching for "create recovery" and creating a new flash recovery drive? I did this after updating my Surface Pro to 8.1. It creates an 8.0 recovery but I was able to create it from an 8.1 system. You can then boot from the flash drive and do a refresh.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Clean Install RT 8.1 from MS Surface EN-US 32gb.
Use this USB Image Tool to write the file to your USB drive.
This has to be done from a Windows 8 PRO, or Windows 7 computer. Will not run on RT.
This WILL make the USB Bootable! (unlike many .iso files)
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
Download the Image Here:
SurfaceRT8_1RecoveryEN-US.zip 3.53 GB
https://mega.co.nz/#!WAo2HZyT!RiKB1jVVd_LRMHf9ynpkbmYheQp5ZcG8oaPvm7Vt5d4
This was made with an 8gb flash drive. I believe you will need an 8gb flash drive, or to mess with options for smaller drives. Actual image data should be ~2gb.
What to do after downloading Files..
Can you please tell how to install it..
My device showing error 0x0000005C
Aju22 said:
What to do after downloading Files..
Can you please tell how to install it..
My device showing error 0x0000005C
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi did you come right with the recovery image.
Hi, I know this is a bit late, but when I follow this, I get stuck on not being able to select the keyboard language. I believe it is because the screen is not responding. I have a surface 2 that is running windows 8.1 rt, but is stuck on not being able to repair the installation. When I run bootrec /rebuildcbd, I get a message stating unable to find any windows installation. Is there a way to boot up to back up files to a usb?
Thanks!
daathword said:
Hi, I know this is a bit late, but when I follow this, I get stuck on not being able to select the keyboard language. I believe it is because the screen is not responding. I have a surface 2 that is running windows 8.1 rt, but is stuck on not being able to repair the installation. When I run bootrec /rebuildcbd, I get a message stating unable to find any windows installation. Is there a way to boot up to back up files to a usb?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
I'm actually surprised that it let you boot-up a Surface 2. I was under the impression that the image was just for the Vivo Tab. I unfortunately don't have the table anymore so I cannot check for you. I'm sorry about that.
apatcas said:
Hey,
I'm actually surprised that it let you boot-up a Surface 2. I was under the impression that the image was just for the Vivo Tab. I unfortunately don't have the table anymore so I cannot check for you. I'm sorry about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I managed to figure most of it out. I had managed to get a backup from the surface Microsoft website but I was trying to avoid a complete reinstall as I was trying to save files for a friend. Unfortunately the c drive was blank except for a few log files and then there was an x drive. Fortunately I found the "dir \*.doc /s" and it didn't find anything, so I had to reinstall everything anyway.
Okay, so some of us were in this boat. You have to reinstall Windows on your nice little Surface Pro tablet. But sadly you don't have a recovery partition or a flash drive! So what are you supposed to do?
Well, first you ask Microsoft support. That does not go well: they tell you to send them your Surface. But that's not really a good option - to lose your tablet for two weeks over a software problem? That's just not fair!
So, next, you try googling for help. But all you ever find are similar unanswered pleas for help, which usually end up being either unanswered or closed by moderators.
But fear not, as you CAN solve this, and you don't even need to do crazy things like making your own recovery image, or downloading one from weird Chinese sites.
----
HOW TO REINSTALL WINDOWS 8.1 ON YOUR SURFACE PRO WITHOUT A RECOVERY PARTITION/USB
Step 1.
Obtain a Windows 8.1 ISO. I can't tell you where to obtain one, but it is not a hard task.
The flavor Surface Pro uses is Windows 8.1 Pro x64. I used the EN-US version, as I have an American Surface, so I can't verify how other languages will work.
Step 2.
Burn that ISO to a USB drive. I suggest using Rufus for that: http://rufus.akeo.ie/
Step 3.
Boot your Surface from the USB drive.
To do that, hold the volume down button when turning on your Surface
Step 4.
Install Windows 8.1.
Step 4.5.
It will ask you for an install key, and might not accept your real Surface key. The reason for that is that the installer for Windows 8.1 does not accept Windows 8.0 keys (and your Surface might have one of those).
To proceed with installation, you will need this install key:
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This key is for installation only. IT DOES NOT ACTIVATE WINDOWS.
Step 5.
After installing the OS, you'll notice that it's not behaving quite right, for example, there are 4 rows of tiles on the start screen instead of three.
Go to Windows Update, and install everything.
Step 5.5.
If you installed with the install key, use this utility to get the original Windows key: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/30363-Windows-8-Product-Key-Viewer
Choose the "MSDM" option, copy that key, and activate Windows with it.
Step 6.
Enjoy your happily recovered Surface.
----
So there. That was a little guide on how to recover a Surface Pro without a recovery drive. I was in this situation myself recently, and Microsoft offered me to send my Surface to them - which would've cost me $200, as I live in a different country from the one my Surface came from, and also would've meant living without my tablet for a month or even longer. So I just fixed it all myself.
A lot of people seem to be posting in that other recovery thread, so I'm just gonna make this visible again.
Only one question, do I need a keyboard or mouse for that?
Cause I've got only wireless mouse and original type cover, which does not work for some reason, and that's why I want reinstall windows.
I think it should pop up the on-screen keyboard if you use touch.
Anyone else did this process and got the Surface Pro 2 back to "out of the box" state?
touch screen
has anyone of you got the issue with the touch controller? and after the windows reinstall did it come back?
regards
Worked perfect
Worked perfect on a MS Surface Pro 1, with windows 8.1 Pro install USB, no keyboard or mouse needed.
Thank you! :good:
Thanks a heap for this guide, thought my Surface was done for.
For those unable to boot normally into Windows, holding VolKeyDown + Power while the unit is off will force the unit to boot from removable storage (doesn't have to be a USB Stick, you can plug in any kind of bootable media, including a USB DVD-ROM).
Have fun!
Can this works for Surface Pro 2
westjgames said:
Thanks a heap for this guide, thought my Surface was done for.
For those unable to boot normally into Windows, holding VolKeyDown + Power while the unit is off will force the unit to boot from removable storage (doesn't have to be a USB Stick, you can plug in any kind of bootable media, including a USB DVD-ROM).
Have fun!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Can this method work for surface pro 2?
syahchrono said:
Hi,
Can this method work for surface pro 2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm gonna try this now on my Surface Pro 2 because I got one with only scandinavian languages and I'm from Germany ^^ Will report back!
# UPDATE #
Worked perfectly fine
question
I just installed the latest Firmware / Drivers MS has pushed through Windows Update,
and i would like to refresh my Surface Pro 2 to get a clean install.
- First thing i did was create a bootable usb drive using Microsofts new 'Create Installation Media Tool'
. I selected 'Windows 8.1 Pro x64' in my native language which is Dutch.
The tool created a bootable USB stick, which i haven't tried yet.. before i continue i have some questions;
....
1. I copied my recovery image to a USB stick and deleted the recovery partition.
- If i reinstall Windows can i still use the recovery usb in case something goes wrong during the installation, or is it linked to your current installation?
2. Would Windows automatically recognize the serial number, which i believe is stored in the BIOS / UEFI, and activate Windows? I've written down the serial using the tool mentioned in the OP to be on the safe side.
3. Like i mentioned before, i installed the lastest driver / firmware package, will Windows automatically install the latest drivers after installation or first install more basic drivers to get WiFi up and running and then install the latest drivers?
4. When you install new driver / firmware software will Windows automatically update the then older drivers in the recovery image?
I've read the previous posts saying that everything went smoothly, but i just want to make sure i'm not forgetting anything..
i have a Surface Pro 2 btw!
koffiemelk said:
I just installed the latest Firmware / Drivers MS has pushed through Windows Update,
and i would like to refresh my Surface Pro 2 to get a clean install.
- First thing i did was create a bootable usb drive using Microsofts new 'Create Installation Media Tool'
. I selected 'Windows 8.1 Pro x64' in my native language which is Dutch.
The tool created a bootable USB stick, which i haven't tried yet.. before i continue i have some questions;
....
1. I copied my recovery image to a USB stick and deleted the recovery partition.
- If i reinstall Windows can i still use the recovery usb in case something goes wrong during the installation, or is it linked to your current installation?
2. Would Windows automatically recognize the serial number, which i believe is stored in the BIOS / UEFI, and activate Windows? I've written down the serial using the tool mentioned in the OP to be on the safe side.
3. Like i mentioned before, i installed the lastest driver / firmware package, will Windows automatically install the latest drivers after installation or first install more basic drivers to get WiFi up and running and then install the latest drivers?
4. When you install new driver / firmware software will Windows automatically update the then older drivers in the recovery image?
I've read the previous posts saying that everything went smoothly, but i just want to make sure i'm not forgetting anything..
i have a Surface Pro 2 btw!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1:I have no idea
2: Yes it will, I have a surface pro 1 and it was activated automatically, so i didnt had to do anything with my serial. (on a new windows 8.1 install)
3: Yes it will, but you can always install them manually (doesn't really matter unless there are issues with drivers).
4: Dont know (dont think so). (I havent ever uses a recovery installation ever, i always install everything manually back on .
Hi together,
I did the steps and everything went fine. But I had to disable secure boot at first.
Now, after the isntallation of Windows 8.1, I activated it again and reinstalled the default keys. Is this the way it is meant?
Or do I need to leave it disabled?
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
thrain2
So I have a question.
I removed my recovery partition to regain the space.
Does your method reformat the drive and repartition everything? Will it reinstall the recovery partition?
I remember all former windows os installations I've done allowed me to format the drive and clear the partitions and then either create new ones myself or use the blank disk. Win7 would (on a blank disk) create it's recovery partition.
So I went ahead and did it.
To anyone looking to do this, use the official media creation tool. It's free from Microsoft and extremely simple.
I didn't have to disable secure boot or anything, just hold down the volume and power button with the USB plugged in.
The installer let me delete all my existing partitions and it automatically created only the ones needed.
It never asked for a key and was activated correctly when I booted into widows.
I found the installer created 3 total partitions on it's own.
1st a 300mb empty partition which I believe is supposed to be for windows RE and required by bit locker.
2nd a 100mb partition containing an EFI folder.
Note: these two aren't supposed to be accessible, I did special mounting to check them out.
3rd the rest of my disk space was created for my system partition
I'm mostly happy with this.
The only issue I've had so far is I can't turn bit locker on, even though there is a 300mb partition, it's empty and bit locker complains about the widows recovery environment not being on the system dive.
iXNyNe said:
So I went ahead and did it.
To anyone looking to do this, use the official media creation tool. It's free from Microsoft and extremely simple.
I didn't have to disable secure boot or anything, just hold down the volume and power button with the USB plugged in.
The installer let me delete all my existing partitions and it automatically created only the ones needed.
It never asked for a key and was activated correctly when I booted into widows.
I found the installer created 3 total partitions on it's own.
1st a 300mb empty partition which I believe is supposed to be for windows RE and required by bit locker.
2nd a 100mb partition containing an EFI folder.
Note: these two aren't supposed to be accessible, I did special mounting to check them out.
3rd the rest of my disk space was created for my system partition
I'm mostly happy with this.
The only issue I've had so far is I can't turn bit locker on, even though there is a 300mb partition, it's empty and bit locker complains about the widows recovery environment not being on the system dive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing this.good
Anyone tested this yet with a surface 3 or surface 3 pro?
Tried this with my Surface 3, which is stuck currently on Win10 10074, and the install key didn't work.
It works
I used the freeware ISO2Disc to burn a Windows 10 ISO file to my USB drive and I can then reinstall successfully. Remember to choose GPT partition style as Surface Pro can boot in UEFI mode only.
iXNyNe said:
The only issue I've had so far is I can't turn bit locker on, even though there is a 300mb partition, it's empty and bit locker complains about the widows recovery environment not being on the system dive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did basically the same, reinstall a clean Windows on my Surface pro 3, but can not turn on bit locker, too. Have you figured out, how to solve this issue?
I tried to run Windows 10 IoT from RPi2 on the Surface RT with included drivers from Surface RT. Appears BDOS error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. Maybe someone will change something? To run the system, unpack the archive on the USB-stick formatted in FAT32.
For launch on Surface RT, turn off the device, hold Vol- and press Power key. After turning on, release Vol- key.
Download: http://1drv.ms/1VG4wmt
P.S. You need the latest version of WinRAR;
My bet - missing drivers and USB boot. What device was source of Win10 IoT?
When Win10 for RPi2 was announced I thought about trying the same... sadly I don't own RT device anymore. But as it started booting, seems that secureboot certs are still valid
Dj_Art said:
I tried to run Windows 10 IoT from RPi2 on the Surface RT with included drivers from Surface RT. Appears BDOS error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. Maybe someone will change something? To run the system, unpack the archive on the USB-stick formatted in FAT32.
For launch on Surface RT, turn off the device, hold Vol- and press Power key. After turning on, release Vol- key.
Download: http://1drv.ms/1VG4wmt
P.S. You need the latest version of WinRAR;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible to run it, https://twitter.com/never_released/status/660133493872140288 (it's me)
That is fantastic! How were you able to do so, where others have failed?
black_blob said:
It is possible to run it, https://twitter.com/never_released/status/660133493872140288 (it's me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hilga007 said:
That is fantastic! How were you able to do so, where others have failed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just installed the RPI image without modifications in a USB stick, after adding the Kits Secure Boot policy to fool Win10IoT
I wonder if it's possible to get Windows 10 Mobile executables to run?
SilverHedgehog said:
I wonder if it's possible to get Windows 10 Mobile executables to run?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check the link to the picture posted above. The answer there is
' potentially yes' -
Would be awesome btw..
P.S. You need the latest version of WinRAR;[/QUOTE]
You can actually install Windows IoT on any x86 tablet, like new surface or the ridiculously cheap Linx1010. On BayTrail tablets you can usually boot the minnowboard image and install all the drivers. For Apollo Lake you have to build your own image of Windows IoT because Microsoft does not provide x64 images, and most computer have 64-bit UEFI.
Check out my guide for detail, i can't post URIs here, but it's blog.quickbird run-windows-iot-everywhere (google that)
If I want to flash Win10 IoT instead of running off of USB, what would I need to do?
Edit: Nevermind -- I saw the youtube video. Anyone know the status on Redstone?
Any update on this? Would love for it to work
I have a Windows RT tablet. I successfully performed downgrade from 8.1 to 8.0. The former owner when sat on Windows 8.1 RT said that he was not updated. That's nice. After creating the second user, I started trying to perform secureboot debug. In the account policy I created another user and assigned to him all the roles, including administrator, User Replicator, etc. After that I managed to run the script and on a black background to press the treasured inscription "Accept and install". After the download, I ran the command that was in the Readme file from the Secureboot folder. After that I started to prepare a flash drive. Build ffu file Windows 10 IoT as a person from the video I mounted through the command DISM /mount-ffu. After that I added the files efi to download, but unfortunately further I did not succeed in doing anything. By the way I install a jailbreak. When you try to boot from a prepared SD card, it ignores it. All the methods are tried. What could be wrong? i may to record video
I successfully installed Windows 10 iot core on Surface RT! And I need help for install drivers!!!!
mickel52 said:
I successfully installed Windows 10 iot core on Surface RT! And I need help for install drivers!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How were you able to do it, Could you explain? I have an old RT sitting around and I cant do anything with it.