Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface

Download a factory recovery image

If you're able to use your Surface or you have another Windows PC, visit our Surface Recovery Image Download page. From there, select your Surface and download a recovery image .zip file for the device you selected.

Download Recovery Image

Create a USB factory recovery drive

After you've downloaded the recovery image .zip file, you'll need to provide an external USB drive that:

• Has enough storage size to fit the recovery image you download. 32 GB is large enough to fit any recovery image, but you may be able to use a smaller size depending on the image downloaded.

• Is formatted with the FAT32 file system. This is necessary to boot the device from and the tool will automatically partition and format the drive for you.

• Is a USB 3.0 or higher drive for best performance.

Windows comes with a built-in tool to help create the USB recovery drive. Follow these steps:

1. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. Select Start, enter recovery drive, and then select Create a recovery drive or Recovery Drive from the results. You may need to enter an admin password or confirm your choice.

3. In the User Account Control box, select Yes.

4. Clear the Back up system files to the recovery drive check box and then select Next.

5. Select your USB drive, and then select Next > Create. Some utilities need to be copied to the recovery drive, so this might take a few minutes.

6. When the recovery drive is ready, select Finish.

7. Double-click the recovery image .zip file that you previously downloaded to open it.

8. Select all the files from the recovery image folder, copy them to the USB recovery drive you created, and then select Choose to replace the files in the destination.

9. After the files have finished copying, select the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media icon on the taskbar, and remove your USB.

Use the USB recovery drive

A reset returns your Surface to its factory settings. It deletes all your personal files, resets your settings, and removes all apps that you installed.

Before you begin, make sure you have access to the product keys and installation files for any desktop apps, such as Microsoft Office, that you plan to reinstall after the reset.

When you're ready, here's how to reset your Surface: 

1. Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in, and then insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button.

3. When the Microsoft or Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button.

4. When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.

5. Select Recover from a drive or Troubleshoot > Recover from a drive. If prompted for a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.

6. Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive.
   The option to clean the drive is more secure but takes much longer. For example, if you’re recycling your Surface, you should clean the drive. If you’re keeping your Surface, you just need to remove your files.

7. Select Recover.
   Surface restarts and displays the Surface logo while the reset process continues. This can take several minutes.

If the USB recovery drive doesn’t work

If you can’t boot from your USB recovery drive or don’t see the Recover from a drive option, you may need to ensure that the boot-from-USB function in the Surface BIOS is enabled or configure the boot order so the USB drive is the first option.

For more USB troubleshooting steps, see Boot Surface from a USB device.

If your USB drive used was more than 32 GB

Here is how to remove the 32 GB partition and get the USB drive back to its full size after you have completed the recovery process.

1. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. Select Start > Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes
   
   Open Storage Settings

3. Locate the partition labeled "RECOVERY" from the list of Disks shown. This should show as a FAT32 partition. An Unallocated partition will show below it.

4. Select Properties. The volume properties should look like this:
   
   Label: RECOVERY
   Type: FAT32 partition
   File System: FAT32
   Size 32GB

5. Under Format, select Delete > Delete volume.

6. Navigate back to Disks & volumes, and on Unallocated volume, select Create volume > Create Simple Volume and follow the prompts on screen.

Related topics

• Restore or reset Surface

• Boot Surface from a USB device

Download a factory recovery image

If you're able to use your Surface or you have another Windows PC, visit our Surface Recovery Image Download page. From there, select your Surface and download a recovery image .zip file for the device you selected.

Download Recovery Image

Create a USB factory recovery drive

After you've downloaded the recovery image .zip file, you'll need to provide an external USB drive that:

• Has enough storage size to fit the recovery image you download. 32 GB is large enough to fit any recovery image, but you may be able to use a smaller size depending on the image downloaded.

• Is formatted with the FAT32 file system. This is necessary to boot the device from and the tool will automatically partition and format the drive for you.

• Is a USB 3.0 or higher drive for best performance.

Windows comes with a built-in tool to help create the USB recovery drive. Follow these steps:

1. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. In the search box on the taskbar, enter recovery drive, and then select Create a recovery drive or Recovery Drive from the results. You may need to enter an admin password or confirm your choice.

3. In the User Account Control box, select Yes.

4. Clear the Back up system files to the recovery drive check box and then select Next.

5. Select your USB drive, and then select Next > Create. Some utilities need to be copied to the recovery drive, so this might take a few minutes.

6. When the recovery drive is ready, select Finish.

7. Double-click the recovery image .zip file that you previously downloaded to open it.

8. Select all the files from the recovery image folder, copy them to the USB recovery drive you created, and then select Choose to replace the files in the destination.

9. After the files have finished copying, select the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media icon on the taskbar, and remove your USB.

Use the USB recovery drive

A reset returns your Surface to its factory settings. It deletes all your personal files, resets your settings, and removes all apps that you installed.

Before you begin, make sure you have access to the product keys and installation files for any desktop apps, such as Microsoft Office, that you plan to reinstall after the reset.

When you're ready, here's how to reset your Surface: 

1. Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in, and then insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button.

3. When the Microsoft or Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button.

4. When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.

5. Select Recover from a drive or Troubleshoot > Recover from a drive. If prompted for a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.

6. Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive.
   The option to clean the drive is more secure but takes much longer. For example, if you’re recycling your Surface, you should clean the drive. If you’re keeping your Surface, you just need to remove your files.

7. Select Recover.
   Surface restarts and displays the Surface logo while the reset process continues. This can take several minutes.

If the USB recovery drive doesn’t work

If you can’t boot from your USB recovery drive or don’t see the Recover from a drive option, you may need to ensure that the boot-from-USB function in the Surface BIOS is enabled or configure the boot order so the USB drive is the first option.

For more USB troubleshooting steps, see Boot Surface from a USB device.

If your USB drive used was more than 32 GB

Here is how to remove the 32 GB partition and get the USB drive back to its full size after you have completed the recovery process.

1. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

2. Select Start, enter create and format, and then select Create and format hard disk partitions from the results.

3. Select the partition labeled "RECOVERY" from the list of Disks shown. This should show as 32.00 GB FAT32 partition. An Unallocated partition will show beside it.

4. From the Action menu, select All Tasks > Delete Volume... and select Yes.

5. Select the Unallocated partition and then select All Tasks > New Simple Volume... > and proceed to follow the prompts on screen.

Related topics

• Restore or reset Surface

• Boot Surface from a USB device

Create a recovery drive

Surface comes with a built-in tool to create a USB recovery drive. To create a recovery drive, you'll need an external USB drive formatted to FAT32, with enough available storage space for all your recovery data.

Related topics

• Restore or reset Surface Pro or Surface 3