Surface Book is the first laptop built by Microsoft, and the company is aiming the device as the “ultimate laptop”. However, even though, this could be the best laptop you will ever buy, at one point in time, as with any device, you will need to go through the recovery process to go back to the factory defaults settings, because of system failure, things aren’t working correctly, or just because you might be getting ready to sell the device.
Thanks to many of the improvements in Windows 10, you can reset your Surface Book without losing your data and apps or you can start fresh again by deleting everything with the “Reset This PC” feature located in the Settings app. However, if your Surface Book can’t boot or things aren’t working the way it should, you might need to use the recovery image to go back to the factory defaults settings.
Fortunately, Microsoft has now updated its support page for its Surface line of devices and now users can download the recovery image for any Surface device, including Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, Surface 3, Surface 2, and Surface RT.
Downloading the Surface Book recovery image from Microsoft is easy and free, but there are a few steps you need to follow to get it.
Download Surface Book recovery image
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Head over to the Microsoft support page, sign-in with your Microsoft Account, and you’ll need to register your Surface Book if you haven’t done it already. If you have already registered your laptop, it will appear in the list. Simply select it and click Continue.
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The link to download the recovery image for your Surface Book will appear, click Download to get the image. It’s important that you don’t save it directly into a USB flash drive, you need to save it to your Surface Book or another PC.
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On “Step 3”, the support page will provide all the instructions you need to follow to create a Recovery Drive. The process involves connecting a USB drive, formatting it to FAT32, and copy all the unzip files into the drive.
After you’ve completed the process, you can use the Recovery Drive with the recovery image to recover your Surface Book to the default factory settings or to refresh your laptop without losing your files and programs. Microsoft has documented the instructions to recover your Surface using a USB recovery drive (It’s worth pointing out that at this moment the support page still hasn’t been updated to reflect that the instructions also applies to Surface Book).
Alongside the recovery image, Microsoft is also making available the Surface Book drivers and firmware in case you need to install them manually.
Source Microsoft
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].