Hard drive icon on the bottom right corner of Surface pro 6

Question

I forced shutdown my surface last night so i think my SSD drive catche might have be corrupted. When i turn on this morning, a blue screen appear telling me to restart. I forced shutdown and restarted again. Then a black screen with the Microsoft logo and a drive cache rebuild icon in the lower right corner showed up. No other icon showed up in the UEFI page. I followed the instructions accodringly in this link (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4036297/surface-windows-doesnt-start) and USB drive recovery option did not work showing  "There is a problem recovering the PC". Anyonw have any idea how to fix this?

Answer 1

Hi junshichang,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your Surface  Pro 6 and we appreciate the time and effort spent to troubleshoot the issue.

First, I edited the post to remove the 3rd photo that contains PII.

Please run the Microsoft Surface Data Eraser Toolfirst on the device then perform the USB Recovery Image again. Steps for the data eraser tool is provided on the link. for the USB Recovery Image, I'll include the steps below to make sure: This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll need a PC running Windows 7 or later or Surface Device.

1. Visit the page 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

If this answer your question, we highly encourage you to inform our Community by clicking on Yes or marking my post as an answer. This will help other members who may have the same issue as you. Otherwise, don't hesitate to update us so we can further assist you.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.

Answer 2

Hi Marrion,

Thanks for the prompt reply. 

I tried running Microsoft Surface Data Eraser Tool but only to found that it doesnt work as well. It says that "No disk drive found."

Do u have any suggestion or solution to this?

Answer 3

Hi junshichang,

Thank you for the response. I'm sorry to hear that the Surface Data Eraser Tool also got an error. The drive failure on the device seems to be a hardware issue already. For this, I suggest that you Contact Support so you may check for replacement options available for your Surface Pro 6.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.