Boot Surface from a USB device

Get help for Surface running Windows 8.1.

Note

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Starting your Surface from a USB drive can be useful if you want to change firmware settings or Windows startup settings.

Booting from a USB device doesn’t refresh or reset your Surface. Instead, it allows you to start your Surface using Windows or another operating system that’s on your USB device.
For info about recommended recovery methods, see Restore or reset Surface.

Important

This article contains advanced troubleshooting steps. You’ll need to be comfortable with using a command prompt and configuring the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, also known as the BIOS) on your Surface. For more info, see How do I use the BIOS/UEFI?

Use the following steps in the Configure your Surface to start from a USB device section of this page if you want your Surface to always start form a USB device. Otherwise, follow the steps in the Start Surface from a USB drive section.

Configure your Surface to start from a USB device

Once your USB drive is set up as a bootable drive with an appropriate operating system on it, you’ll need to set up your Surface to boot from this drive. This requires you to make changes in the UEFI so that the USB drive is the first option.

Shut down your Surface.
Once Surface has turned off, press and hold the volume-up button.
With the volume-up button held down, press and release the power button.
Continue holding the volume-up button until the Surface or Windows logo no longer appears on the screen.
You should now see the Surface UEFI. Do one of the following:
- Surface Pro 4, Surface Book and Surface Studio, Surface Pro 1796, Surface Pro LTE, Surface Laptop, Surface Book 2: Go to Step 14 below.
- Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3: Go to Step 6 below.
- Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2: Skip to Step 10 below.
Select Configure Alternate System Boot Order.
Do one of the following:
- Surface Pro 3: Select USB > SSD.
- Surface 3: Select Network > USB > SSD.
Select Exit Setup.
Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.
Select Secure Boot Control.
Select Disable. This will allow Surface to search for an alternate device to boot from aside from your SSD.

Note

This may affect the look of your Surface splash screen.
Select Exit Setup.
Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.
Select Boot configuration.
Select USB Storage and drag it to the top of the list. Alternatively, you can swipe left on USB Storage to boot to the device immediately. This will not affect the boot order.
Select Exit and then select Restart Now.

Start Surface from a USB drive

Once you’ve followed the steps above, you’re ready to start your Surface from your USB drive.

Notes

Before starting your Surface from a USB drive, make sure you don’t have any other USB devices connected to your Surface, including USB mice, keyboards or other storage drives. Surface will try to boot from any other connected USB devices.
If you don’t want to start your Surface from your USB drive, make sure the drive is not inserted in the USB port on your Surface when you start it.
If you’re having trouble starting your Surface with the steps below, you can boot it from the USB drive through Windows. To do this

Insert the USB drive into the USB port and then go to Start , select Settings > Update & security > Recovery.
Under Advanced startup, select Restart Now.
On the Choose an option screen, select Use a device > USB Storage.

Surface Pro 1796, Surface Pro LTE, Surface Laptop, Surface Book 2, Surface Studio, Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Surface 3, or Surface Pro 3 with a configured boot order in UEFI

Shut down your Surface.
Insert the bootable USB drive into the USB port on your Surface.
Press the power button to turn it on.
Follow the on-screen instructions to boot from your USB drive.

Surface Pro 1796, Surface Pro LTE, Surface Laptop, Surface Book 2, Surface Studio, Surface Book, Surface Pro without a configured boot order in UEFI

Shut down your Surface.
Insert the bootable USB drive into the USB port on your Surface.
Press and hold the volume-down button on Surface.
While holding down the volume-down button, press and release the power button.
The Microsoft or Surface logo appears on your screen. Continue to hold the volume-down button. Release the button once spinning dots appear beneath the logo.
Follow the on-screen instructions to boot from your USB drive.

If the USB drive doesn’t work on your Surface

Make sure that the USB drive is formatted to FAT32. Here is how to ensure the USB device is properly formatted as a bootable drive:

Warning

Setting up the USB drive will erase everything that’s stored on it. Make sure to transfer any important data on your USB drive to another storage device before continuing.

Insert a USB drive into your Surface. The USB drive should be between 8 and 32 GB in size. A 16 GB USB drive will work for most purposes.
Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator. (To do this, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.)
In the Command Prompt window, enter diskpart, and press Enter.
To determine the drive number or letter of the USB drive, at the command prompt, enter list disk, and press Enter.

The list disk command displays all the disks on the computer. Note the drive number or drive letter of the USB drive.
At the command prompt, enter select disk X, where X is the drive number or drive letter of the USB drive that you noted in the last step, and press Enter.
Enter clean, and press Enter. This will delete all data from the USB drive.
To create a new primary partition on the USB drive, enter create part pri, and press Enter.
To select the partition that you just created, enter select part 1, and press Enter.
To format the partition, enter format fs=fat32 quick, and press Enter.
Enter active, and press Enter.
Enter exit, and press Enter.
When you have the operating system image that you want to boot to, save it to the root of the USB drive.

If that’s not the problem, check the following:

Make sure that Enable Boot from USB devices is On under Advanced options of the UEFI Boot configuration screen. To find out how to boot to the UEFI configuration, see How do I use the BIOS/UEFI? and Using Surface UEFI on Surface Laptop, new Surface Pro, Surface Studio, Surface Book, and Surface Pro 4.
If you have configured a boot order, check the Advanced options in the UEFI Boot configuration screen to ensure that Enable alternate boot sequence is On. To find out how to boot to the UEFI configuration, see How do I use the BIOS/UEFI? and Using Surface UEFI on Surface Laptop, new Surface Pro, Surface Studio, Surface Book, and Surface Pro 4.
Attempt to use another USB drive, if possible.
If you currently have a Windows Insider build installed, you may need to first turn off and then turn on Secure Boot for the USB boot drive to be recognized. For more info on how to change Secure Boot, see How do I use the BIOS/UEFI? and Using Surface UEFI on Surface Laptop, new Surface Pro, Surface Studio, Surface Book, and Surface Pro 4.

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