Installing Windows 11 on the Surface pro 9

Question

Hi, All,

I have questions about the reinstalling of Windows 11 on my surface pro 9 (2035).

I accidentally unchecked [the service] option in the booting dialog (use msconfig command). After the system rebooted, I am no longer able to login the system. Its camera and pin input are both not available.

The system stuck in the loop of two screens:

[Camera not available, please sign in with your PIN.]

[Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again.]

I try to reinstall Windows 11, I found the surface pro 9 only supports FAT format of USB boot-able driver, and this FAT type of USB driver can not save the Windows 11 install image.

What is the solution?

Thanks.

surface pro 9:

s/n: 2035 *43BF

system UEFI: 14.101.143

Answer 1

It sounds like you're stuck in a boot loop and unable to reinstall Windows due to the FAT32 limitation. Here's what you can do:

1. Create a bootable USB using NTFS: Use tools like Rufus to create a bootable USB with Windows 11 and choose NTFS as the file system. Although Surface Pro 9 primarily supports FAT32, it should still boot from an NTFS-formatted USB.
2. Access UEFI settings: Hold the Volume Up button while pressing the Power button to access UEFI. Disable Secure Boot temporarily to allow booting from the NTFS USB drive.
3. Reinstall Windows: Once booted from the USB, proceed with the Windows 11 installation.

This should help you bypass the boot loop and reinstall the OS.

Answer 2

Thanks for replying,

Yes, I created an NTFS formatting boot-able USB driver, and it worked on the PC and the other laptop, but it can not work with the surface pro 9, the dialog showed:

"

[Boot error]

Couldn't find a bootable operating system. Check the Boot Configuration to try to fix this.

"

The boot configuration:

[USB storage]

[Windows Boot Manager]

[Internal storage]

Any idea?

It sounds like you're stuck in a boot loop and unable to reinstall Windows due to the FAT32 limitation. Here's what you can do:

1. Create a bootable USB using NTFS: Use tools like Rufus to create a bootable USB with Windows 11 and choose NTFS as the file system. Although Surface Pro 9 primarily supports FAT32, it should still boot from an NTFS-formatted USB.
2. Access UEFI settings: Hold the Volume Up button while pressing the Power button to access UEFI. Disable Secure Boot temporarily to allow booting from the NTFS USB drive.
3. Reinstall Windows: Once booted from the USB, proceed with the Windows 11 installation.

This should help you bypass the boot loop and reinstall the OS.

Answer 3

Hi Huaye,

You are best off using a Surface recovery drive. The steps here will help you create the USB recovery drive and download the necessary factory image.

Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface - Microsoft Support

Hope this helps,

Greg