Surface Pro 3 Windows 10 Upgrade Clean Install and Recovery Partition

Anonymous
2015-07-17T19:54:51+00:00

I read that you can take your Surface to a MS store to have them install Windows 10 on it. Has anyone read the details, I can't seem to find out if this is going to be a new, clean install or an upgrade. And, will it update the recovery partition similar to what we have for Win8? I would guess I can use the iso files and do a clean install myself, but, I'm doubt I'd be able to update the recovery partition from the iso.

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

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Anonymous
2016-03-28T17:43:58+00:00

For Surface Pro 3, it is possible to perform a clean install of Windows 10 through the use of a downloaded recovery image. This will put your device into the same state as it would be in when purchased new with Windows 10 installed.

Until the free Windows 10 upgrade offer ends on July 29th, 2016 you can use the Windows 10 recovery image on a Surface Pro 3 that has never had Windows 10 installed and it will activate using the product key that came with the device. After July 29th, 2016 the Windows 10 recovery image will only activate on devices that came with Windows 10 or had previously installed and activated Windows 10.

To use the recovery image:

  1. Go to the Download a recovery image for your Surface page and select your product.
  2. You should see the original Windows 8 image that shipped with your Surface, as well the new Windows 10 Version 1511 image.
  3. Click Download and follow the rest of the steps to create the Windows 10 recovery drive and use it to reset Surface.
  4. For more detailed information, see our Restore or reset Surface article.

 

Hope this helps,

Greg

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-15T14:23:13+00:00

    The booting problem from USB was due to an SD card in my SP3.

    Guy

    I ran into the restore problem as well many months ago... worked with MS support, who in the end told me to bring it to a store and swap out for a new one or send it in for repair.  I figured the whole SD card thing myself, by accident.  I did go to MS support and tell them to at a minimum make sure that they logged that into their knowledgebase and support documents.  I hope they did so, so people didn't have to go through what I did.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-13T11:22:06+00:00

    Hello,

    Trying to do a clean install of Windows 10 on my SP3 in 2 steps:

    Update

    I (successfully) upgraded from Win8.1 to Win10 using this tool http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10, option "Upgrade this PC".

    Clean install

    To do a clean install I tried http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows\_10-win\_upgrade/how-to-perform-a-clean-install-using-reset-this-pc/6f6335fc-8d15-4598-af16-033d1d8c16bf

    however choosing the option "Remove files and clean the drive" doesn't work.

    So I created, on a USB flash drive, using the tool http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 now using the option "Create installation media for another PC".

    I can boot from the USB flash drive. Skipped the option to enter a Product Key (I read, normally, the Activation will happen automatically after installation). Is this correct?

    Choose "Custom installation". Here I don't know how to proceed (which Partition(s) to delete and where to install Windows 10?

    I have the following partitions:

    Drive 0 Partition 1: Windows RE tool 360.0 MB 67.0 MB Recovery

    Drive 0 Partition 2: SYSTEM                200.0 MB 171.0 MB System

    Drive 0 Partition 3:                              128 MB 128.0 MB MSR (Reserved)

    Drive 0 Partition 4:                              232.5 GB 232.5 GB Primary

    Drive 0 Partition 5: Recovery image   5.3 GB 381.0 MB Recovery

    On which partition should I install Windows 10? Which partitions should be deleted, or should all partitions be kept?

    Thanks for any help.

    Guy

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-13T10:26:08+00:00

    The booting problem from USB was due to an SD card in my SP3.

    Guy

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-12T19:35:52+00:00

    Here's a link to my experience, hope it helps!

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-surfupdate/how-to-clean-install-w10-on-sp3-as-told-from-ms/f8b03bfe-0a9c-47e5-8d5d-7d331931a66a?tm=1438973472157

    Just a follow up; this did indeed work, and afaik it's the only way to do a clean install of W10 on SP3 and be able to actually activate it. The W10 ISO media needs a product key, no matter what machine you're installing it on; on my SP3 the product key prompt came up almost immediately. Grabbing the W10  product key with produkey from Nirsoft, AFTER having updated from 8.1, works.

    Maybe the WinRE problem stems from overzealously deleting all those "extra" partitions (like I did)?

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