Factory Reset - Surface Book 2

Question

Factory Reset - Surface Book 2

Anonymous

I have had my Surface Book 2 for about two months now. I'm not entirely impressed and have decided that I will sell it. What are the recommended steps to ensure all of my information/data is off the device before selling it? I am essentially looking to do a "factory reset" but first would like to take any other recommended steps before I do the reset.

Thank you.

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2 answers

Answer 1

The process ran into a problem and did not complete. I did the following:

Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in, and then insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.
Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button.
When the Microsoft or Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button.
When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.
Select Troubleshoot , and then select Recover from a drive . If prompted for a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.
Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive. (I selected the Fully clean the drive option.)
Select Recover.

The process would start, get to about 1%, then stop. I do not recall the specific statement on the screen and unfortunately I do not have access to my computer while I am work. But error was something to the effect that the process ran into a problem and the computer did not reset.

Of note, I did notice something interesting when I download the recovery image for my Surface Book 2. Using the link you provided, I selected my Surface device and it gave me two options for download:

Surface Book 2 - 15 in. 256GB i7 16GB with GPU - Windows 10 Version 1703
Surface Book 2 - 15 in. 256GB i7 16GB with GPU - Windows 10 Version 1709

But if looked at my system correctly, I had Windows Version 1803 after I had all the updates installed. Version 1803 is the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, correct?

Could this be the reason (Version 1709 versus Version 1803) why I ran into an issue with the resetting/recovery?

Another observation: I do not recall ever being asked by the system to select the USB drive.

Request additional assistance please.

Answer 2

Go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surfacerecoveryimage and download a recovery image for your Surface. You will need a 16GB USB stick formatted FAT32. Unzip/extract the recovery zip to the formatted USB stick and then-

To reset your Surface from a USB recovery drive:

Step 1: Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in (hold down the power button for 30 seconds).

Step 2: Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port on your Surface.

Step 3: Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button on your Surface.

Step 4: When the Surface logo appears, release the volume button.

Step 5: When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.

Step 6: Select Troubleshoot > Reset your PC.

If prompted for a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.

Step 7: Select the target operating system you wish to reset. This refers to the current operating system installed on your Surface.

Step 8: Select Yes, repartition the drives, and on the next page, select Next.

Step 9: Choose Fully clean the drive.

Step 10: Select Reset.

Surface restarts and the Surface logo displays while the reset process continues (this can take a while).