Boot from USB?

[beq]

I couldn't seem to boot the SP2 from a USB disc drive. I tried both methods here.

I tried three Samsung USB drives: DVD tray, DVD slot, and Blu-ray tray (since my Apple USB SuperDrive only works with Mac hardware).

I was trying with a WinPE-based ShadowProtect 5 boot CD from StorageCraft, in order to take a cold partition image (I already have ShadowProtect hot incremental imaging set up on all our machines, this was just for an extra archival copy).

Can anyone share how they booted from USB, and which optical drive or flash drive was used?

 

[beq]

FYI I had each USB drive plugged directly into the SP2's single USB3 port when I was attempting this.

(Although, if it turns out that I can't get the WinPE networking to run on the SP2, I'll have to also plug in one of our 2TB portable HDDs, which will necessitate the use of the Dock or a USB hub.)

 

[Nuspieds]

The boot disks I have created are all on USB sticks, not CDs, and they boot just fine.

However, you have to make sure that your software supports UEFI when it builds the bootable disks; otherwise, they won't boot on the SP. A former software I used created WinPE-bootable disks and they booted fine on my old laptop, but never on my SP and that was because the bootable image they created were not UEFI-enabled.

So research and verify that ShadowProtect creates UEFI-enabled boot disks.

 

[guymalloc]

The bootable usb drives also have to be fat32, as well as UEFI compatible. Sometimes you have to turn off secure boot, too. Not all 3rd party imaging software supports GPT partitioned hard drives, even if they present a MBR partition table for backward compatibility.

 

[GoodBytes]

You may also need to disable Secure boot option in the Surface Pro UEFI menu

 

[kozak79]

You can use this tool from microsoft to make bootable usb dongles from dvds:
Microsoft Store

 

[beq]

Thanks everyone for all the helpful answers! Will try those suggestions when I can get back.

 

[javispedro]

I doubt the Surface Pro will boot normal "El Torito" PC-bootable DVDs, because it completely lacks a BIOS (the same reason it will never boot anything older than Windows 8).

Discs that are FAT32 formatted or at least hybrid, containing a "EFI" directory are your best bet. You will not be able to boot much else.

EDIT: In fact, if ShadowProtect is based on a Windows 7 WinPE, then it won't work on a Surface Pro. Windows 7 needs enough BIOS for at least int10 support and Surface firmware will not give any of that. >=Win8 only.