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
    2015-08-04T13:17:49+00:00

    Josh, can you report on your success or failure using this method?

    Thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-04T12:02:42+00:00

    You'll need that Win8.1 image.

    Prior to doing this, I contact MS and they told me it was not problem, sent me the links to do the clean install. The clean install did fix my issues.

    However, when I tried to activate Win10, it failed. I did a chat with tech support and they told me just do a phone activate and it's not a problem; they emailed me the information. Phone activation failed and now I'm told to either purchase a new $200 license, or, reimage the SP3 to Win8.1, then do an upgrade to Win10. Clean install will not work.

    In short, MS is every bit as disappointing as it was prior to Nadella.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-04T06:58:35+00:00

    Hi,

    I recently upgrade to windows 10 on my surface pro 3. i am unable to use recovery to clean install pc. i tried to reset to factory environment but it could not find the recovery environment.

    How do get windows 10 environment? so i can do clean installs for surface pro 3

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-03T22:45:38+00:00

    Hi all,

    Have a semi-new Surface Pro 3 and just performed the upgrade to Windows 10. I simply waited for the notification and proceeded normally. Windows 10 boot time, after upgrade, is VERY slow. What should be 10 to 15 seconds is now well over a minute, simply not acceptable with an SSD.

    Upon reading online, several suggested to perform a "clean install" by resetting the PC, which, was explained, must happen after first upgrading, thereby confirming the new Windows 10 activation was accepted within your Microsoft account.

    No problem. Happy to do a clean install, although I've always done this with software or at least a USB. But let's give it a shot...

    When I go to Settings -> Recovery -> Reset this PC and choose "Remove Everything", it gives the following error message:

    "Could not find the recovery environment"

    I did look at the disk management, and see that there are TWO recovery partitions. My guess is that one is from Windows 8.1, with the second possibly being a new one for Windows 10. Perhaps this is the issue?

    Nevertheless, it claims to not be able to find the recovery environment after the Windows 10 upgrade.

    Is my only option to do a clean install via the USB, which is currently in the process of downloading Windows 10? (On an aside, this download is VERY VERY slow.... been at it for three hours and only 20 percent)

    Thanks.

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