Recovery USB not working

[riggi]

Hi all,

I created a recovery USB on my Surface Pro from within windows.
It didn't give any errors.

When I try to boot into the recovery USB I get this error.

I tried another USB stick (both of them were 16GB) and get the same error when trying to boot into it.

Any ideas on what I should do to fix this?

Is there a problem with my recovery partition on the Surface Pro?
Should I try to run the recovery from the SSD?

Thanks,
Richard

[edit] image doesn't seem to be working, so here is the link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/37vukfkqqs9dieb/2013-04-01 12.49.59.jpg
[/edit]

 

[Cowboy]

Is that something you created with Windows file recovery? I have heard that was broken and the fact that it is called Windows 7 File Recovery in control panel does not give me a warm feeling. Before you tried to boot from the USB stick did you turn off Secure Boot?

 

[jnjroach]

Also the drive needs to be FAT32 for the UEFI Firmware to boot from it....

 

[malberttoo]

Also the drive needs to be FAT32 for the UEFI Firmware to boot from it....

I have not heard this before. So I should take my existing recovery drive, reformat it to FAT32, then re-create the recovery drive?

 

[bertopl]

If I remember correctly, the process of copying the recovery partition includes formatting the usb stick so it's pretty much all automated.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

Sort of off topic...
Can you use an SDHC card in a card reader, or just a memory stick?
I would thing a card in a reader would work, but it may have issues with drivers when you try to recover.

 

[jnjroach]

No, the USB Drive needs to be FAT32

 

[riggi]

Thanks for the input.
I tried disabling secure boot in the UEFI settings, but get the same error.

I created it using the recovery utility from within windows. It formats the drive as part of the process (well it says it does anyway).

 

[oldsock]

I have the same problem and I have tried 3 different flash drives, one of which was brand new. I will try reformatting it as Fat32 to see what happens. Riggi, keep us posted of any progress and I will do the same.

 

[riggi]

I tried doing a Refresh from the PC Settings screen from the Charms menu. It reboots to do the refresh, but then says there was a problem and no changes were made.

I haven't got time to try a fullwipe/factory reset, but might try that on the weekend.

The system is running fine now, so it's a pain in the butt to have to reinstall everything, but want to get this sorted in case I have to use it

 

[oldsock]

I made some progress today. I formatted the flash drive as FAT32 before starting the process and it seems to work now. It's weird that I had to do this on a brand new flash drive, especially since the process says it is formatting the drive, but it works now.

 

[J515OP]

I made some progress today. I formatted the flash drive as FAT32 before starting the process and it seems to work now. It's weird that I had to do this on a brand new flash drive, especially since the process says it is formatting the drive, but it works now.

"Formatting" a drive can often simply mean removing all data from the drive. More technically it means modifying the drive to indicate it is empty since this type of formatting doesn't actually go and set all the bits to 0.