Surface RT startup error 0xc000000d

Create a USB recovery drive from another Surface RT

To create the recovery drive, you’ll need:

• An additional Surface RT

• A USB drive with more than 4GB storage capacity.
  

  Warning: Creating a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

  
  Here’s how to create the recovery drive:

1. Connect the power supply to Surface and plug into an electrical outlet.

2. Insert your USB drive into the USB port on Surface RT.

3. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
   (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

4. In the search box, enter recovery, and in the search results, tap or click Recovery, and then tap or click Create a recovery drive.

5. In the User Account Control dialog box, tap or click Yes.

6. Tap or click to select Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive, and then, tap or click Next.

7. Tap or click the USB drive you want to use, and then tap or click Next.

8. Tap or click Create.

9. The recovery image and necessary recovery tools will be copied to your USB drive. Your Surface must stay awake during the copy process, which will take 10 to 15 minutes.

10. After the recovery tools are copied, tap or click Finish.

Download and create a USB recovery drive

To download the recovery drive, you’ll need:

• A PC running Windows 7 or later.

• A USB drive with more than 4GB storage capacity.
  

  Warning: Creating a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

  
  Here’s how to create the recovery drive:

1. Tap or click to Download a recovery image for your Surface.

2. Sign in with your Microsoft account, enter the serial number of your Surface, and follow the instructions.

Use a Surface RT USB recovery drive to fix startup error 0xc000000d

The following process can be used to resume the Windows 8.1 update process, without resetting Surface RT:

1. Turn Surface RT off by pressing the power button.

2. Start Surface RT using the USB recovery drive.
   

   1. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.

   2. Press and hold the volume-down (–) rocker.

   3. Press and release the power button.

   4. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume rocker.

   5. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive.

3. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout.

4. Tap or click Troubleshoot.

5. Tap or click Advanced Options.

6. Tap or click Command Prompt.

7. From the BitLocker screen, tap on the screen to hide the touch keyboard and then tap or click Skip This Drive at the bottom of the screen.

8. At the command prompt,

   1. Type bootrec /rebuildbcd, and then press Enter.

   2. When asked “Add installation to boot list? Yes (Y) No (N) All (A)” for c:\Windows, type the letter Y , and then press Enter.

   3. [Optional] If asked “Add installation to boot list? Yes (Y) No (N) All (A)” for c:\Windows.old\Windows, type the letter N, and then press Enter.

   4. Type Exit, and then press Enter. The command prompt window will close.

9. Tap or click Continue.

10. Surface will restart and complete the Windows RT 8.1 update.

11. After the Windows RT 8.1 update is complete, sign in to Windows.

12. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Search, then enter command. In the search results, tap and hold Command Prompt, release and then tap Run as administrator.
    (If you’re using a keyboard, use Windows+X and then tap or click Command Prompt (Admin).)

13. At the administrator command prompt,
    

    1. Type reagentc /enable, and then press Enter.

    2. Type diskpart and then press enter.

    3. At the “DISKPART>” prompt,
       

       1. Type sel disk 0 and then press Enter.

       2. Type sel part 5 and then press Enter.

       3. Type Assign letter=R and then press Enter.

       4. Type Exit and then press Enter to exit the DISKPART command.

    4. Type reagentc /setosimage /path R:\recoveryimage /index 4 and then press Enter.

    5. Type Exit, and then press Enter. The command prompt window will close.

14. Remove the USB recovery drive from Surface.

15. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings. Tap or click Power, and then tap or click Restart.

16. Surface will restart and the Windows RT 8.1 update will be complete.

If Windows still won’t start on your Surface RT after using the USB recovery drive, please contact us.