How do I reformat the Surface Pro with Windows 8 Pro?

[billgatesforprez]

Hello everyone,

My dad ended up getting a Surface Pro, with Windows 8 Pro, from a garbage sale for $20, he was so happy to have his first Windows computer and in tablet form! Unfortunately it had the following error once we bought a charger and booted the tablet"

File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Info: The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

How can I get a copy of Windows 8 Pro on a USB stick to reformat the tablet? If it matters, I want to eventually upgrade the tablet to Windows 10 for my dad.

We'd both really appreciate any help, thank you.

 

[GreyFox7]

Hello everyone,

My dad ended up getting a Surface Pro, with Windows 8 Pro, from a garbage sale for $20, he was so happy to have his first Windows computer and in tablet form! Unfortunately it had the following error once we bought a charger and booted the tablet"

File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Info: The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

How can I get a copy of Windows 8 Pro on a USB stick to reformat the tablet? If it matters, I want to eventually upgrade the tablet to Windows 10 for my dad.

We'd both really appreciate any help, thank you.

You can download recovery images for USB here I'm not sure what it will offer you for an Original Surface Pro... W8.1 or maybe also W10, IDK.

If you're going to W10 you might just go straight to it but I'm not sure how it will handle the upgrade at this stage, assuming it's not already been upgraded. The Media Creation Tool is available for making both W8.1 or W10 Install USBs.

Windows 8.1 MCT

Windows 10 MCT
This can also be used to reinstall (clean install) at any time after upgrading.

So if there's a problem upgrading for FREE (although I have heard rumors there isn't) regardless, this still works and anyone qualifies...

 

[billgatesforprez]

You can download recovery images for USB here I'm not sure what it will offer you for an Original Surface Pro... W8.1 or maybe also W10, IDK.

If you're going to W10 you might just go straight to it but I'm not sure how it will handle the upgrade at this stage, assuming it's not already been upgraded. The Media Creation Tool is available for making both W8.1 or W10 Install USBs.

Windows 8.1 MCT

Windows 10 MCT
This can also be used to reinstall (clean install) at any time after upgrading.

So if there's a problem upgrading for FREE (although I have heard rumors there isn't) regardless, this still works and anyone qualifies...

Thanks for the insightful reply, I really appreciate it!

So I first go to your first link "here" and download the recovery image. I then follow their steps, get it onto a USB and reformat the Surface Pro, side question: can I put it onto a 500gb external HD? I can reformat the hard drive.

Or do I download the recovery image from the first link, then use the MCT to the recover image onto the USB to reformat the Surface Pro?

Thanks again for the reply! I really appreciate it

 

[GreyFox7]

Thanks for the insightful reply, I really appreciate it!

So I first go to your first link "here" and download the recovery image. I then follow their steps, get it onto a USB and reformat the Surface Pro, side question: can I put it onto a 500gb external HD? I can reformat the hard drive.

Or do I download the recovery image from the first link, then use the MCT to the recover image onto the USB to reformat the Surface Pro?

Thanks again for the reply! I really appreciate it

The Recovery images are bare metal images... to factory default or equivalent depending on the version of windows in the image. With those you download the Zip file... extract it to a folder then copy the contents to the USB which should be formatted Fat32 NOT ntfs.

Boot the USB drive by holding the volume down button while powering on. Then chose the recovery option in the menu... remove everything.

You could make a 16GB partition on the HDD and it *should* work although I never tried it. Some USB drives can give you trouble booting because of other partitions etc., trouble copying files, or other issues.

The way to prep a USB drive ... you can use Rufus or Diskpart or strangely the MCT.
With Diskpart connect the USB drive and run DiskPart.
List disk ... look at the list and identify the USB drive.

Select disk # - where # is the number of the disk, usually 1 or 2 depending on number of drives installed.

Clean - Caution, this command will remove every partition on the drive and write zeros over the first and last megabyte of the drive... leaving in "clean" make sure you've selected the right drive.

Create Partition Primary

Select Partition 1
Format fs=fat32 quick

Exit.

Note: for booting on UEFI you don't need to make it Active or apply MBR info.

Go to the extracted directory. make sure hidden files are shown.
Select all then Copy and Paste them into the root of the USB drive.

With the MCT, it wipes, formats and creates a Windows Install USB so you just point it at the drive and go. It also has an option to Verify. Also use the 64 bit only Option. As a strange option, you could make a USB with the MCT then delete all the files and copy the Recovery Image files to it resulting in a properly formatted Recovery USB.

When you boot to the Install USB you would be doing a regular install just like from a CD or ISO.
Again hold the volume down button and press power on... release volume down after the Surface logo appears... follow the prompts once it boots.

There are a couple differences in what you end up with between the Recovery vs Install but not huge. If W10 was ever installed on it then it's already permanently activated so even if you installed W8.1 it would upgrade to W10 and activate with no issues.