Surface fails to boot from recovery USB

Question

Surface fails to boot from recovery USB

Merle Sebzda 10

Surface fails to boot from the recovery USB. The logo appears but disappears after about 5 seconds.

bwilkerson217 26 Reputation points

2025-11-20T15:50:50.93+00:00

I came across this because every new recovery image I make using the Surface toolkit or even if I download the latest ZIPPED does not work. Tried I Surface Pro 7+, Surface Pro 8, and Surface Pro 9. No matter what it will not boot from the USB.

Now I have some older recovery images downloaded and if I make a recovery drive manually and then copy the older recovery image data to the drive it boots fine.

Long story short I cannot get any of the latest 24H2 recovery images to boot but if I use an older 23H2 or earlier 24H2 recovery images it works fine on the same USB stick.

I think the lates images are the problem.
Steffen Schwerdtfeger 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T11:51:53.55+00:00

I can agree to @bwilkerson217 ! Had two Surface Pro 9 yesterday - both current 25H2 und 24H2 recovery images are not booting (also tested several USB sticks). Surface shows: "Couldn't find a bootable operating system. Check the Boot configuration to try to fix this. For more info, visit https://aka.ms/SurfaceBootError."

Finally, the 23H2 image works (I assume, older ones, too):

Maybe it is connected to the current Secure Boot certificate updates...!?

4 answers

Your answer

bwilkerson217 26 Reputation points

2025-11-20T15:50:50.93+00:00

I came across this because every new recovery image I make using the Surface toolkit or even if I download the latest ZIPPED does not work. Tried I Surface Pro 7+, Surface Pro 8, and Surface Pro 9. No matter what it will not boot from the USB.

Now I have some older recovery images downloaded and if I make a recovery drive manually and then copy the older recovery image data to the drive it boots fine.

Long story short I cannot get any of the latest 24H2 recovery images to boot but if I use an older 23H2 or earlier 24H2 recovery images it works fine on the same USB stick.

I think the lates images are the problem.
Steffen Schwerdtfeger 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T11:51:53.55+00:00

I can agree to @bwilkerson217 ! Had two Surface Pro 9 yesterday - both current 25H2 und 24H2 recovery images are not booting (also tested several USB sticks). Surface shows: "Couldn't find a bootable operating system. Check the Boot configuration to try to fix this. For more info, visit https://aka.ms/SurfaceBootError."

Finally, the 23H2 image works (I assume, older ones, too):

Maybe it is connected to the current Secure Boot certificate updates...!?

Answer 1

Hi Merle Sebzda,

Thanks for reaching out! That issue where the Surface logo flashes for a few seconds and then disappears when booting from a recovery USB is something we've seen pop up in the community. It usually points to either a corrupted recovery image, USB formatting issues, or sometimes a deeper hardware problem like a failed SSD. A few things you can try, use a fresh USB drive 16-32GB, FAT32 format, make sure you're using the correct recovery image for your Surface model from Microsoft’s recovery page, and boot using Volume Down + Power. If that doesn’t work, try Volume Up + Power to access UEFI and check if the USB is detected. You may also send a screenshot of the error here so we can review it. Additionally, please check if the USB and SSD are being detected in the UEFI settings.

Let me know how it goes, happy to help walk you through any of the steps!
Best,
Carl

Answer 2

Merle Sebzda 10

Thank you for your prompt reply. The USB drive, the downloaded image, are all correct. I do suspect a failed SSD or possibly a system board problem, but I was hoping for something that I may have missed.
Thanks again.

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Answer 3

Merle Sebzda 10

Thank you for your prompt reply. The USB drive, the downloaded image, are all correct. I do suspect a failed SSD or possibly a system board problem, but I was hoping for something that I may have missed. Thanks again.

Anonymous

2025-09-05T19:51:18.3566667+00:00

@Merle Sebzda
Thanks for the updates.

May I ask what Surface model you're using? Some models have specific tools or known issues that might help us figure this out more quickly.

Let me know, and I’ll do my best to help!

Answer 4

David Wilson (KEHS) 0

We are having this exact issue, brand new bootable USB's and on Surface Pro's that have a working SSD.

0 comments