Share via

Windows not resetting, disk in readonly

Anonymous
2023-09-03T20:04:52+00:00

Hello,

I recently encountered an issue with my dad's Surface Book 3. It experienced a bluescreen and upon restart, it landed on the "choose an option" screen.

When I selected "continue," the system restarted and displayed the Windows logo with a message stating "preparing Bitlocker recovery." However, it then returned to the "choose an option" screen and didn't proceed to the Windows 11 desktop.

I attempted to use Windows Troubleshoot's startup repair, but it couldn't resolve the problem. Additionally, when I tried to reset the PC (after entering the Bitlocker key), it reported an error during the reset process.

My technical knowledge is limited, so I turned to ChatGPT and experimented with various commands. Here's a brief summary of what I tried:

  1. Running "manage-bde -off C:" in Command Prompt resulted in a "the media is write protected" error with code 0x80070013.
  2. Executing "repair-bde C: YourRecoveryKeyHere" repeated the "failed to authenticate (0x80310000)" error multiple times and also displayed error 0x00000017 numerous times. Ultimately, it suggested using a different key protection method.
  3. Running "sfc /scannow" identified some corrupt files but didn't resolve the issue.
  4. The command "attributes disk clear readonly" returned "diskpart failed to clear disk attributes."
  5. Executing "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" resulted in error code 87.

After trying these suggestions from ChatGPT and receiving advice to seek professional help, I'm now reaching out here for assistance. It's important to note that I don't need to recover any data from the disk; I simply want to get it working properly again.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards, Jort Coone

Surface | Surface Book | Performance and maintenance

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

6 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-16T10:29:43+00:00

    Best Marrion,

    I opened the surface and replaced the drive with an new 2280 m2 from samsung.

    everything is working again after using the surface recovery tool.

    After opening the laptop the right half of the screen is not responding to touch, I know from visual inspection that I nicked the right hand digitizer connector. after bending it back it seems to be fine but still the right half is not responding.

    I will try to reinstall some drivers but I'm not expecting this to help.

    If you have some suggestions I would love to hear them.

    Kind regards,

    Jort Coone

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-07T13:23:57+00:00

    Hi Marrion,

    I just tried this method but without any succes.

    When starting from the usb stick and going through the steps I end up with an failure.

    To be more specific:

    sanitize SCSI disk # 0

    Failure: SCSI status (2) error(70) Key/ASC/ASCQ(5/24/0)

    sanitize failure

    Failure to perform a data erase

    Kind regards,

    Jort Coone

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-06T21:13:18+00:00

    Hi JortCoone,

    Thank you for the response and sorry to hear that performing the clean installation of Windows following the steps given also results on the error. To proceed further, I suggest that we run first the Surface Data Eraser Tool on the device to clean the drive first then proceed again with the clean installation of Windows using the Surface Recovery Image. To run the Surface Data Eraser Tool, see this page for the guidance: Microsoft Surface Data Eraser (Surface) - Surface | Microsoft Learn

    Kind regards,

    Marrion

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-06T07:31:34+00:00

    Best Marrion,

    Thanks for the reply.

    I tried the steps above, but performing them resulted in "there was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made."

    I tried skipping the drive when prompted for the BitLocker key but also tried just entering the key and continuing that way.

    I retried both steps above by formatting the drive as explained on the recovery page, using the recovery drive program on another PC, but with no different results.

    Best regards, Jort Coone

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-09-04T19:45:15+00:00

    Hi JortCoone,

    Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community.

    I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're experiencing with your dad's Surface Book 3. Based on the information you've provided; it seems like the BitLocker encryption on the device is preventing you from resetting the PC and accessing the device.

    it is possible that there are some corruptions on the Windows image on the device already causing the issue with the BitLocker prompt and unable to access the device. For this case, considering that you have tried the steps needed already, I recommend that we instead perform a clean installation of Windows on the device through USB Recovery which should bypass also the BitLocker Recovery Key prompt. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset and it will wipe out everything on the device. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. See the steps below for guidance.

    How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

    To download the Recovery Image:

    • You'll need another working device running on Windows.
    1. Go to: Download the recovery image for your Surface
    2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
    3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for
      Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device
    4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page
    5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

     Format USB Drive:

    • Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.
    1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
    2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
    3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
    4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
    5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
    6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

    Create a recovery drive:

    1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
    2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

    Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

    1. Shutdown the Surface
    2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
    3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
    4. Press and release the power button
    5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
    6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
    7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
    8. Select Troubleshoot
    9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
    10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
    11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

    Let me know how it goes.

    Kind regards,

    Marrion

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments