Can a recovery partition that's been deleted be put back?

[RMansfield]

I created a recovery drive on a USB thumb drive and deleted the recovery partition on my Surface RT as part of the process to save space. I'm more concerned now that I'm going to lose the thumb drive. In fact, I've already lost it, but fortunately found it later.

Anyway, is it possible to simply move the recovery partition back to the Surface RT so that I don't have to worry about the USB thumb drive? If so, how?

 

[jnjroach]

Yep: windows rt tip - how to recreate a recovery partition - s.t.i.l.l.drey - Site Home - TechNet Blogs Good luck...

 

[RMansfield]

You're awesome! Thanks!

 

[RMansfield]

Okay, that didn't work. I can't get the Surface RT to recognize the recognize the recreated recovery partition. I even went to the Microsoft Store in Cincinnati this morning to see if they could help me, but they couldn't get it to work either.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

 

[J515OP]

It should come back if you do a full Reset of course then you are starting totally over with setting your Surface up. If you have a backup on a different disk you may then be able to restore from that once you have the recovery partition back.

 

[jnjroach]

Is the recovery partition formatted Fat32 and Active?

 

[RMansfield]

It should come back if you do a full Reset of course then you are starting totally over with setting your Surface up. If you have a backup on a different disk you may then be able to restore from that once you have the recovery partition back.

You'd think it would work that way. It just doesn't. I was under the assumption that a full reset would put everything back on the Surface RT exactly as I bought it from the store. Not so. If you remove the recovery partition, there's currently no way to put it back simply by resetting the device.

I couldn't do it, and the folks at the Microsoft Store couldn't do it.

I asked if they had some master image in the back that they could copy to it. They said they had that for the Surface Pro, but not the Surface RT.

Folks should be warned before deleting that partition. If you've moved it to a USB thumb drive, you can use that to reset the machine, but it simply doesn't put the recovery partition back on the machine to do that.

 

[RMansfield]

Is the recovery partition formatted Fat32 and Active?

Yes, to both.

The Surface RT simply would not recognize the re-created recovery partition as a means for actual recovery.

Doesn't matter to me now. I have already sold it on eBay. I was trying to set it back to factory conditions, but ended up having to include the USB thumb drive for recovery purposes.

I plan to eventually get a Surface Pro, but I'm going to wait for the second generation at this point because I imagine new models are imminent. However, when I do get it, I'm not going to mess around with these kinds of modifications. I'm through with that.

 

[J515OP]

Just to be clear you tried a Reset from the removable recovery your created and it worked but did not recreate the original factory partition? I definitely thought that was part of the Reset. You may find additional answers here (for the new owner) http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/...mage-surface-rt-says-winload-efi-missing.html and here https://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/support/storage-files-and-folders/create-a-recovery-drive.

 

[RMansfield]

Just to be clear you tried a Reset from the removable recovery your created and it worked but did not recreate the original factory partition?

That is correct. It does not create the original recovery partition when you do a complete reset.

I definitely thought that was part of the Reset.

You and me both. When I discovered this wouldn't work, I took it in to the Microsoft Store in Cincinnati, and they confirmed that the recover partition is not restored.

In hindsight, I would not recommend that anyone make this partition unless you want to keep up with a recovery USB drive indefinitely.