Booting from USB drive on Surface

Try using a 32GB USB and make sure that is formatted correctly to FAT32.

If that still won't work, consider reaching out our live support team for further assistance. They may be able to provide additional troubleshooting steps or arrange for a repair or replacement if necessary. You may reach them following the instructions below:

1. Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support
2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.
3. Type in the problem you need help with.
4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

I appreciate you for responding back. Allow me to ask some additional questions.

• Do you mind confirming what issue you have encountered when you turn on your device and why you need to boot it from the USB drive?
• How much storage capacity and format does the USB drive do you use? Don't use anything larger than a 32GB USB and it is formatted to FAT 32

Check in the UEFI setting and provide a screenshot of what will show, or options shows under "Configuration boot device order."

When do I hold the power button? Also it's not spinning dots anymore (at least for me, since I enabled a tweak.). And I also got no results for the first method, neither the second. I even tried to boot from USB directly from there, nothing.

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I appreciate your inquiry regarding booting from a USB drive on your Surface device. Let’s address this step by step.

1. Legacy Booting on Surface:
   • While Surface devices primarily use UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), you can still boot from a USB drive using legacy (BIOS) mode.
   • Follow these instructions to boot from a USB device on your Surface:
     1. Shut down your Surface.
     2. Insert the bootable USB drive into the USB port on your Surface.
     3. Press and hold the volume-down button on your Surface.
     4. While holding the volume-down button, press and release the power button.
     5. You’ll see the Microsoft or Surface logo on your screen.
     6. Continue holding the volume-down button until you see spinning dots beneath the logo.
     7. Follow the on-screen instructions to boot from your USB drive.
   • This process allows you to start your Surface using Windows or another operating system from your USB device.
2. UEFI Booting and Changing Firmware Settings:
   • If you prefer UEFI booting, you can configure your Surface to start from a USB drive in UEFI mode.
   • Here’s how:
     1. Shut down your Surface.
     2. After it turns off, press and hold the volume-up button.
     3. While holding the volume-up button, press and release the power button.
     4. Continue holding the volume-up button until you see the Surface UEFI screen.
     5. Follow specific instructions for your Surface model to proceed.
     6. Change the boot order in the UEFI settings to prioritize the USB drive.
3. Additional Tips:
   • Ensure that no other USB devices (such as mice, keyboards, or storage drives) are connected during boot.
   • If you encounter any issues, you can also try booting through Windows:
     • Insert the USB drive and go to Start > Settings > System > Recovery.
     • Under Advanced startup, select Restart Now.
     • On the Choose an option screen, select Use a device > USB Storage.
4. Creating a Bootable USB Drive:
   • If you haven’t already, create a bootable USB drive with the desired operating system.
   • For Surface recovery, you can also create a USB recovery drive.

Remember that booting from a USB device won’t refresh or reset your Surface—it simply allows you to choose an alternative startup option.

For more detailed information, you can refer to this article, Boot Surface from a USB device - Microsoft Support.

Kind regards,

Lavenia

Not sure what type I'm booting to, I believe it's fat32, and its 64GB, I also don't have secure boot on.

also the order of the boot is:

USB

hackbgrt (boot logo changer)

windows boot manager

other stuff i forget