I am struggling to redownload windows on my surface laptop 3

Question

I am trying to redownload windows on my surface laptop 3 after it showed an error saying that it couldnt find a bootable operating software. I downloaded windows installer on a usb stick to install windows 10, but i got an error that said:

"we couldn't install windows in the location you chose. please check your media drive. Heres more info about what happened: 0x80300024"

The drive that i tried to save it in said that it was an unallocated space, so I opened up command prompt and typed diskpart -> list disk -> sel disk 0 -> clean -> create partition primary. Everything worked up until the create partition section which had an error:

"Diskpart has encountered an error the request failed due to a fatal device hardware error"

I also tried converting to gpt which gave me the same error.

I then typed chkdsk which said it found some problems in the file system but when i tried chkdsk /f i got the error:

"windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected."

I then tried to clear the attribute readonly which gave me this error:

"DiskPart failed to clear attribute."

After this i tried downloading the surface recovery image for my laptop but when attempting to reset my laptop i get an error:

"there was a problem resetting your pc. no changes were made"

So I tried sfc /scannow but this didnt work since it said:

"Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation"

Im not sure what to do at this point

Answer 1

Hello, JOWNL.

Welcome to Microsoft Community!

First, I will share with you a complete step-by-step procedure to reinstall Surface Laptop 3:

Since we don't have access to the current device, we need to use another computer to access the following site to get a dedicated image file for the Surface to create the recovery drive:

Surface Recovery Image Download - Microsoft Support

Get it by logging into your account and entering your device's serial number:

After completing the creation of the recovery drive, continue to refer to the guidelines in the following link to complete the recovery operation:

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

The link shows us a complete demo video and key textual guidelines:

With the above steps, we were eventually able to reinstall the device.

If you are still unable to reinstall the device and it still prompts that no available installation location can be found even after confirming that the USB recovery drive was created correctly, you need to consider whether there is a hardware problem with the device's hard disk or motherboard.

In such a case, I would prefer you to get in touch with the Surface technical support team and get valid hardware service. I am sharing the steps to create a service order with you here:

1. Use your personal Microsoft account (not your organization account) to access the following links:

Contact - Microsoft Support

2. Type Surface won't start, press Enter, and click "Contact Support" at the bottom:

3. Select Technical Support and select the device model (Surface Laptop) you are currently using in Product family, then click Confirm:

4. You will see contact options for Chat support and Phone support, please contact them during business hours:

I wish you all the best.

Best Regards.

Leo.L - Microsoft Community Support Specialist