You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows. To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you'll find step-by-step instructions.

Surface Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) replaces the standard basic input/output system (BIOS) with new features including faster startup and improved security. You can use Surface UEFI to manage the firmware features on your Surface.

Use the steps below to verify this. Manually resize your partition by 250 MB. Open a Command Prompt window ( cmd) as admin. To check the WinRE status, run reagentc /info. If the WinRE is installed, there should be a “Windows RE location” with a path to the WinRE directory.

Press any key to boot from CD/DVD. In this scenario, you receive an error message that resembles the following: Boot failed. Cause. This issue occurs because the boot manager compares two device signatures incorrectly.

You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows. To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you'll find step-by-step instructions.

When you turn on your Surface, it boots to UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). If you see this, try the following steps for a possible solution. Solution 1: Check the configuration. Solution 2: Force restart. Solution 3: Reset your Surface using a USB recovery drive. Solution 4: Request service.

Before you begin. A recovery drive lets you reset your Surface to its factory settings and can help you troubleshoot and fix problems with your Surface device. Windows comes with a built-in tool to create a USB recovery drive. You'll need to provide an external USB drive that:

Fixes an issue in the Cdboot.efi, Cdboot_noprompt.efi, Efisys.bin, and Efisys_noprompt.bin files that causes a "Boot failed" error message. This issue occurs when you start a UEFI-enabled computer from the installation DVD of a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

UEFI offers new features including faster startup and improved security. It replaces BIOS (basic input/output system). More recent Surface devices use a new UEFI called Surface UEFI. For more info, including info about which specific devices use it, see How to use Surface UEFI.

Your PC isn't working well and you recently installed an app. Restore from a system restore point. You suspect your device has been infected. Use installation media to reinstall Windows 11. Select one of the recovery options below and follow the steps to try to get things working again.