Booting a Surface Pro from USB

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Posts
16,541
Help!!

I have a new 2017 Surface Pro which refuses to boot from USB. The USB stick has been created using diskpart commands (tried fat32 and ntfs) and the bootsect used from both a win10 image and a server 2016 one. I've also tried various makes of usb stick.

When holding vol down and power, nothing happens. Secure boot has also been disabled, and the boot order changed to put USB at the top.

Last resort was using rufus and I've been through different options..

Nothing!

Thanks.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jun 2004
Posts
5,409
Try :
  1. Open CMD and type diskpart
  2. List disk
  3. Select disk 1 (Or whatever your USB stick is)
  4. clean
  5. Create partition primary
  6. Select partition 1
  7. Format fs=fat32 quick
  8. Active
  9. Assign
you probably want SecureBoot on.

i think when i was building one recently it was fiddly and it took me a few attempts. keep trying a bit more

  1. Shut down your Surface.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up button on your Surface, then press and release the Power button.
  3. When you see the Surface logo screen appear, release the Volume Up button. The Surface UEFI screen will appear in a few seconds
is what i end up using.
 

Deleted member 138126

D

Deleted member 138126

Yeah, it *is* pretty fiddly. Also, test the USB is definitely bootable with another laptop or PC.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
2,692
Location
South Scotland
Help!!

I have a new 2017 Surface Pro which refuses to boot from USB. The USB stick has been created using diskpart commands (tried fat32 and ntfs) and the bootsect used from both a win10 image and a server 2016 one. I've also tried various makes of usb stick.

When holding vol down and power, nothing happens. Secure boot has also been disabled, and the boot order changed to put USB at the top.

Last resort was using rufus and I've been through different options..

Nothing!

Thanks.

Ive had this, tried a different USB drive and it worked, Kingston 32gb variant just wouldn't work at all, def try others.

To clarify further, the Kingston 32gb that wouldn't work was exactly same model as other Kingston 32gb that did work.....on further investigation one was made in china the other somewhere else (can't remember), the Chinese one works flawlessly, the other one fails every time, salient point is Surfaces seem to be picky booting from usb drives.
 
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