Wanted to remove Linux from my Surface Pro and go back to Windows so I could dual boot, now I have no OS.

Question

Okay, so. . . .I installed Fedora onto a partition, but I only took the two partitions that were BENEATH windows. 

So, I took them and put Fedora on them. Unfortunately, I could not dual boot and I could not go back to Windows and access the amazing features of Surface Pro. This was unacceptable, so I deleted Fedora (after much effort) but now I have no OS, my Surface Pro just boots into Windows Boot Manager (EVERY TIME) 

so, I went and created a recovery drive, and what does it say? "Oh, we're sorry but the System Drive is too small." 

Now, I'm installing Windows 10 onto a drive and hoping to recover from an image file, but I doubt this is going to work either so . . . HOW do you re install Windows onto a Surface pro? 

Also, I purchased a Micro SD card so that I could put Linux onto THAT rather than the surface's main drive.

Answer 1

Boy, did you screw up!

Since you have the recovery on a USB pendrive (at least you should), reboot the tablet with Fedora and run it in "live" mode and then run the disks utility and completely reformat the SSD.  Wipe it out completely and remove all partitions!

When completed, shut down the tablet and remove the USB pen drive and insert the recovery pen drive in the USB port and restart the machine by holding the Volume UP button and click on the power button.  You should get a blue screen and there, tell it to boot from the USB drive.

Answer 2

You probably need to go into the UEFI and turn Secure Boot on, then use a

generic Windows 10 bootable USB to delete all partitions and then install..

Answer 3

I managed to remove Fedora already, and I created a bootable Windows 10 thumb drive.

It works, hooray! The thing is, now I don't have all of my Surface Pro's features. 

Should I just create a recovery drive and re install Windows again? 

I'm thinking a less nuclear option and re-installing via drivers.

Answer 4

Yeah, you should have used the recovery image because it has the Surface drivers included (the generic Windows 10 iso image does not).

The time it would take you to find the Surface Pro drivers, you can just perform the recovery which takes about 20 minutes.

As for running Linux; it does work but I would recommend to get a second tablet or run Linux via Hyper-V or other virtual machine instead of a dual boot option.  External drives will work but do not rely on that (keep everything internal if you can).

Also, running Linux on a Surface Tablet; you will notice that your battery will only last about 3 to 4 hours and WiFi will drop off at times even though the connection will display 5 bars (unreliable).

Do not attempt to run Linux on a Surface Laptop, Book series, or the Studio.  Microsoft only made drivers for the Surface tablets.  There is an attempt by a 3rd party to make drivers for the Laptop at GitHub but they do not work.

Answer 5

I only need Linux to practice C coding for class, that is why I got a micro SD card to install Linux onto.