Recovery USB does not show the internal storage on my Surface Pro 4 and I am unable to do a clean install because of this.

Question

I recently attempted to reset my surface pro 4 (2017) because I am giving it to someone but during the process it froze and I had to force a shut down which broke my installation and now I am unable to boot past the windows logo/surface logo. I have gotten it to boot into the recovery drive I created on my other PC which should be able to do a fresh install but internal storage doesn't show up and therefore I cannot install anything to it. I have secure boot disabled. I just can't access my internal storage on my surface with any bootable USB.

***Moved from Windows 10/Sleep and Power on/off***

Answer 1

Hi ParisLamb,

Thank you for reaching out Microsoft Community. We're sorry for the troubles this has caused you.

By the way, when accessing **UEFI Settings,**do  you see this icon  ? If you do, then this means that your Surface device is having a hardware issue which it can't detect its Solid State Drive, the reason why it won't boot up passed from the Windows logo and  won't allow you to use a bootable drive.

If it's not showing in UEFI, you can press exit to restart the device and follow the instructions below to reimage the Surface device.

- HOW TO DOWNLOAD, CREATE AND USE A USB RECOVERY DRIVE -

You'll need a PC running Windows 7 or later or a Surface Device and a USB flashdrive (16GB or 32 GB).

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 your Surface 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 and continue with the reimaging process.

If this helps, feel free to mark this post as an answer. Otherwise, don't hesitate to respond to this thread if there's anything else that needs to be addressed. 

Kind Regards,

Crest

Answer 2

Thanks so much for your response! I do get that symbol in the UEFI settings so I bet the problem is with the SSD but after I select fully clean the drive on the recovery USB it loads for a bit and then says there was a problem. I've tried recreating the recovery USB but it does the same thing every time. I don't think the Recovery USB can read the SSD at all so it is unable to install windows anywhere.

Answer 3

Hi ParisLamb,

Thank you for your response. 

Seeing that logo in the UEFI Settings doesn't only mean that your device can't locate its Solid State Drive and won't boot up but also, it hinders you from reimaging the Surface device. It can't be reimaged considering that its SSD itself can't be detected by the Surface. Its SSD plays a vital role in reading and writing data faster than a hard drive. Since this can't be replaced easily because it requires to crack open the Surface device which may induce more damages to the Surface, in this case, the best resolution I can recommend is contact our Microsoft Surface Support if you want to get taken cared of through an out of warranty replacement.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Crest