Surface Pro 3 Windows 10 Recovery
- Thread starter Arktik
- Start date
There is no nor will there be a Windows 10 recovery image AFAIK. Recovery in Windows 10 was architected and runs from files on the C drive. Something they refer to as in-place Recovery although the $Windows.~BT directory appears to contain the complete install source it's said that with in-place recovery it will include all the updates as well (except maybe the most recent updates in my experience) which is a big improvement in that respect.
You can make a Bootable USB using the Media Creation Tool which can be used to do Recovery, an Upgrade, or a Clean Install. However the built in Recovery doesn't use a recovery Partition or external media. In part doing away with the Recovery Partition was to save space. i.e. you would always have to make the Partition somewhat larger than the actual file sizes.
I agree about the size, but in this way they leave uncovered some use cases.
- Users can more easily access the recovery folder and accidentally delete it
- Main partition might be corrupted and inaccessible
Accidentally deleting it is not that likely, it's hidden & protected, you'll get an error with an attempt at a simple delete... you will have to work at it.
I agree there are some potential risks but OTOH you don't have to download a special image only available by logging in with an approved serial number for your device. Just use the Publically available Media Creation Tool to make and verify your bootable USB or DVD or mountable ISO. If you wanted you could put this in the existing Recovery partition or on a micro SD. I think the end result is at least as good if not better than the previous methods.
What remains to be seen is how well Updates are incorporated into the recovery. I did a couple just for testing shortly after release and the few updates that were out were not incorporated. I assume there is perhaps a maintenance cycle that needs to run or something but if it avoids having to reinstall hundreds of updates after a recovery and you only need to redo that last few I'm fine with that.
majorgearhead
Member
IDK if I agree with this statement. While it is true Windows 10 no longer relies on a recovery partition, and the majority of users doing a refresh/restore can just do it with no problem, there is the case of a disk being corrupted enough to where the stubs needed to restore the system can no longer be used. In cases like this and also cases where a particularly verile virus has taken over, the users need to be able to boot off of a restore image, wipe and reinstall Windows. This doesn't really have anything to do with the restore partition, more being able to bring the system back to a factory fresh state when the OS is too corrupt to allow for it.
And lest anyone says just make a recovery key. I found the recovery key to not work if you updated your system from 8.1 to 10 and then tried to make the key. The key will boot but does not have the necessary bits to restore the system. Additionally if you did update from 8.1 to 10, go through the process of creating the key and then have the system delete the recovery partition. Then try to do a reset/refresh and it will fail asking for the media, of which it will not accept the USB key you just made. I have no idea why it works this way for an updated system but I know it does because I have tested the scenario close to 5 times now to see what triggers the error. On my clean Windows 10 install in contrast it does the proper Windows 10 thing with regards to reset/refresh and uses the stubs already in place in the OS partition.
One day I will dump out all of the testing scenarios I have been through in the past few weeks.
In short, we need MS to make public their image they are using to ship out the new SKU's with Windows 10. I am sure it is customized to take care of more things than the stock image like:
- Asking to pair pen on first start
- removing the redundant display off timers in power management
- proper connected standby operation
- proper drivers
I agree!
I have one question: if I reset my system, do I need to provide all the drivers again?
If I make a clean install of win 10, do I need to provide drivers again?
Is there a quick and easy way to make my SP3 in all similar to what is coming out of the shelves now?
majorgearhead
Member
There are a few options. Read up on slipstreaming the updates in. This is fairly complicated and I did not have time. Here is what I did which I believe to be as clean as possible. Of course this does not compensate for any special MS teaks they are doing for the SP3 in their image.
1) Create Windows 10 64 bit image using the media creation tool
2) Boot off of it by powering down, holding volume down+ pressing power button. Release volume down when Surface logo appears.
3) Go into advanced options and get a command line and do the following:
a) diskpart
b) select disk 0
c) select volume 0
d) delete volume OVERRIDE
e) exit back out
4) Power down system from menu
5) repeat step 2
6) Install OS
7) During setup don't join machine to a network (I do this to prevent auto update before official drivers are installed)
8) Enter local account info. (Needed because you are not on the network to connect to MS) (I also do this so I can control the short name it gives me, so I can better do linux things on here)
9) Get the official Windows 10 driver MSI from MS Support site and get it onto this machine with a USB key
10) Install that MSI
11) Join wifi
12) Update OS
13) Go to account and choose sign in with ms account
14) ...
15) Profit
