Surface Pro 2 will not boot into Windows

[Curlyp]

Hello Community,

I am new to the forums and reaching out to the community for help. I've been the last several days reaching many different sites, forum posts, and guides on how to fix many errors, install Windows 8 & 10, and create the recovery USB from Microsoft site. None of these are working and I don't know what to do.

Let me try to make this a long story short, but with the details! I attempted to run the Windows 10 upgrade. After the upgrade, it powers on, but goes into an automatic repair loop, fails to repair, and does the same process every boot. The Surface Pro 2 never actually booted into Windows 10 after the upgrade. are a couple pictures of what I see:

I created a USB Surface Recovery drive and attempted to reset the PC. I received the following error, "There was a problem resetting your PC.". I launched CMD prompt from the advance tools selection to try and delete the partitions in order to install Windows 8.1 via the recovery USB. I was unable to delete the partitions as I received the following error:

Over the course of several days, I received the following errors:
1. Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation windows 10
2. Startup error 0xc000000d
3. Windows 8.1 won't load. Error code 0xc0000221 - ntoskrnl.exe
4. UEFI Bootloader won’t load
5. Reset your PC – there was a problem resetting your PC
6. The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again
7. "Unable to reset PC. A required drive partition is missing."
8. 0xc0000001

I've have researched every error and took it down to the last one '0xc0000001'. I read on a forum where someone recommended to create a bootable Linux Mint USB and use it to delete the partitions via a GUI interface. I created the Linux Mint Bootable USB and was able to boot into it and delete the partitions. Once the partitions were deleted and the space was unallocated, I created a bootable Windows 10 USB drive via the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. I inserted the USB drive, held down on the Vol - button and pressed the power on button. The Surface brings up the WIndows 10 installation, I go through the setps and select the unallocated space and click next to let Windows do the formatting and partitioning. After the installation is complete, the Surface restarts and starts to get the device ready. During the process, the circle is spinning then after awhile I receive the following error:

I repeat the process several times (boot Linux Mint, delete the partitions, and boot Windows 10 installation), but I have received the same outcome.

Since the Windows 10 installation did not work, I created another Surface Pro USB Recovery (following the steps on the Microsoft site). I delete the partitions again, and booted from the Surface Recovery Key. This time, when I clicked on 'Reset your PC' it came up with two options and I selected 'fully clean the drive. After it was done, it seemed like it had installed Windows 8.1, then was just at the Surface boot up loading screen with the circle spinning (I believe it gave me an error at the bottom, but I must have forgot to write it down- I was exhausted!).

So, my last option was to try and install a legit copy of Windows 8. I deleted the partitions again using Linux mint, and created a bootable Windows 8 USB drive from my Windows 8 ISO image. I inserted the USB drive, and went through the steps to boot from it. The Windows 8 install came up and I went through the steps to have Windows format and create the partitions.

After Windows 8 finished installing, it restarted and actually came up for me to configure. I went through the settings, and created a username and password. Once inside windows, I had no sound and wifi drivers. I download the Surface Pro 2 drivers from Microsoft's site (it was a zip package of them) and extracted them to the USB drive. When I tried to install them via the steps from Microsoft I received an error. It basically said it was incompatible and could not install. Since I had no wifi or ethernet dongle, I was unable to have Microsoft fetch the drivers.

When I woke up this morning I turned on the Surface Pro 2 and it went to the BSOD with the following error: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR.

I am basically stuck right now and have no idea how to get Windows installed and properly working on my Surface Pro 2. I can go and delete the partitions again, but then what? Is my Surface Pro 2 completely toasted?

Has anyone from the community experienced any of this? I would appreciate all and any help I can receive.

Please let me know what I should do and thanks in advance for reading.

CP

 

[Metalman]

Mybe you can try this with the USB recovery drive.


1.First, download the Surface Pro 2 recovery media from Microsoft

2.Next, extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP file onto a USB drive that has been formatted with the FAT32 filesystem. You will need at least 16GB of on the drive.

3.With your Surface powered off, insert the USB drive.

4.Press and hold the Volume Down button, and then press and release the Power button. When the Surface logo appears, release the Volume Down button.

5.Choose your language and country, and then go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.

6.Type "diskpart" then press Enter

7.Type "select disk system" then press Enter. This action will select the drive that the operating system is loaded on. There's no turning back after this next step…

8.Type "clean" then press Enter. Your hard drive is now erased.

9.Type "exit" then press Enter

10.Turn off your Surface and power it on using the method in Step 4

11.Choose your language and country, and then go to Troubleshoot > Reset your PC

12.Click Next

13.Click "Yes, repartition the drives."

14.Follow the prompts to begin the recovery process

15.If prompted, confirm that you want to clear the TPM (trusted Platform Module) by pressing F12


Your Surface will now boot up and finish the installation. You then will be directed to the initial device setup, starting with Region and Language settings.


I use this to go back to Win 8.1 on my Surface Pro 3. It should work for the Surface Pro 2 also.

 

[Curlyp]

Mybe you can try this with the USB recovery drive.


1.First, download the Surface Pro 3 recovery media from Microsoft

2.Next, extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP file onto a USB drive that has been formatted with the FAT32 filesystem. You will need at least 16GB of on the drive.

3.With your Surface powered off, insert the USB drive.

4.Press and hold the Volume Down button, and then press and release the Power button. When the Surface logo appears, release the Volume Down button.

5.Choose your language and country, and then go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.

6.Type "diskpart" then press Enter

7.Type "select disk system" then press Enter. This action will select the drive that the operating system is loaded on. There's no turning back after this next step…

8.Type "clean" then press Enter. Your hard drive is now erased.

9.Type "exit" then press Enter

10.Turn off your Surface and power it on using the method in Step 4

11.Choose your language and country, and then go to Troubleshoot > Reset your PC

12.Click Next

13.Click "Yes, repartition the drives."

14.Follow the prompts to begin the recovery process

15.If prompted, confirm that you want to clear the TPM (trusted Platform Module) by pressing F12


Your Surface will now boot up and finish the installation. You then will be directed to the initial device setup, starting with Region and Language settings.


I use this to go back to Win 8.1 on my Surface Pro 3. It should work for the Surface Pro 2 also.

Thanks for the advice. I would like to try it, but unfortunately, I am unable to download the Surface Pro 3 recovery media. Microsoft will only let me chose the media for the product I have. Check out the site: Download a recovery image for Microsoft Surface

 

[Metalman]

Sorry for the miss understanding. I copied a pasted this from my notes.
Use your Surface Pro 2 Windows 8.1 USB recovery.

 

[Curlyp]

Sorry for the miss understanding. I copied a pasted this from my notes.
Use your Surface Pro 2 Windows 8.1 USB recovery.

No problem! Before I try the steps you provided, check out these settings below (should I enable TPM and Secure Boot?)

 

[Metalman]

I would first try with all enabled.
On my Surface Pro I had to disable secure boot before I could boot from a USB. On my Surface Pro 3 I did not.

 

[Curlyp]

I would first try with all enabled.
On my Surface Pro I had to disable secure boot before I could boot from a USB. On my Surface Pro 3 I did not.

Well, the reset PC doesn't work. After Step 11 I get an error.

 

[Curlyp]

Alright, I was able to get reset PC to work. I went back into CMD and went into diskpart, selected disk 0, and list the partitions. Four partitions came up so I did a "clean /all". This removed all partitions. I booted back into the USB, advance options, Rest PC, and selected "yes, repartition the drives" and the prompts came up. It attempted to reset the PC. When done, I had to select F12 for TPM. Then after the restart, it spun forever at the surface screen and gave me a BSOD (we ran into a problem- then it restarted quickly before I could read the rest. Below are some pictures and one video of what happens from the TPM screen. The circle spun for about 30 minutes before the BSOD appeared (no the video is not 30 minutes long!).

EDIT: surface pro 2 restarted after the BSOD then went back to the spinning circle. After about 15 minutes the automatic repair came up and now it says diagnosing your PC. See images below video.

 

[Metalman]

You may have a bad recover image. You can try downloading your Surface Pro 2 USB recovery from Microsoft again.
Step 7 and 8 should have removed all partitions from the drive.

 

[Curlyp]

You may have a bad recover image. You can try downloading your Surface Pro 2 USB recovery from Microsoft again.
Step 7 and 8 should have removed all partitions from the drive.

Already did that. After you posted your initial post, I deleted the old image and downloaded it again. So this attempted is from a new download (different from last night).

 

[Metalman]

Sorry to hear that, I have done this may times on my Surface Pro and Pro3 with no problem.
If I think of anything that may help I will post back.

 

[Curlyp]

Sorry to hear that, I have done this may times on my Surface Pro and Pro3 with no problem.
If I think of anything that may help I will post back.

Thanks. It doesn't make sense. I blew away the partitions again and attempted to install Linux Ubuntu just to see....what do you know, it installed and booted up fine. I am completely stumped as why to none version of Microsoft (Surface Pro Recovery, Windows 8/8.1 USB or Windows 10 USB) will not work.