how do you make a bootable USB to recover from image backup?

[GreyFox7]

Do you have other antivirus software installed? you didn't actually indicate Defender deleted it just that you saw references in a Google search to the possibility Defender deleted it which would have left it in Quarantine and logged an entry in history.

 

[tony8154]

Do you have other antivirus software installed? you didn't actually indicate Defender deleted it just that you saw references in a Google search to the possibility Defender deleted it which would have left it in Quarantine and logged an entry in history.

no i do not have any other software installed. this is the first thing that I'm doing right out of the box.

no I am not 100% sure that the file was deleted by windows defender, but considering that i do not have any other antivirus software, and that google shows that's what windows defender does, what other scenarios could there be?

 

[GreyFox7]

Other scenarios might be listed under M.

Launch Resource Monitor and watch Disk tab for file activity on the file.
When downloading use the Desktop browser and choose Save As then select a new folder you created such as C:\Temp

 

[tony8154]

If i recover from the image backup do i still have to do all the windows updates again or does the restore cover that?

 

[tony8154]

wow ok this is frustrating..

ok so I finished downloading the windows recovery file from microsoft.

here was the process

1. followed link in this forum sticky to download windows usb bootable file:
http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/recovery-disk-image.11561/
2. logged into my microsoft account
3. selected my current hardware (SP3 i5 256)
4. began downloading 7GB zip file
5. took HOURS after 2 failures.
6. copied zip file to brand new FAT32 formatted 64GB USB drive
7. unzipped files
8. plugged into surface pro 3
9. held down volume down button + power
10. when surface logo appeared i released the power and volume down button.
11. nothing different. just loads surface log on screen


after some searching on microsoft it says I can do the same from windows
charm - pc settings - recover advanced etc etc

still no luck.

I got to the prompt with the option of recovering windows image, but still asks me to boot from USB drive.

after some more searching on this site it says I have to disable secure boot.

steps to disable secure boot

1. turn off surface
2. hold volume up + power button
3. surface logo appears with a red background instead of a black one, which seemed odd, but it must have meant something was happening
4. options appear
5. secure boot shows as enabled
6. I disable
7. save changes and exit
8. reboot
9. shut down
10. volume down and power again to boot from USB
11. same surface logo with red background, then a brief image of the windows logo in blue
12. screen flickers
13. back to window 8.1 log on screen
14. FAIL again.

OK seriously. What am I doing wrong here? This is getting ridiculously frustrating.

 

[tony8154]

so i messed around with a few settings and this was just taking too long so I decided to do a factory reset and just start from scratch.

There wasn't much on my old surface to begin with, just a few programs and windows updates. I wanted to try the windows image backup so I'd be able to use it in the future but I just can't seem to get it to work. There is no where that I can find a complete guide step by step either.

Anyway. stuff just doesn't get any better.

I lost my micro 128GB micro SD card today somehow..
I can't work out this friggin USB boot
I factory reset the surface to just start fresh and now the charms don't work. I swipe from right to left to have them appear and tap them but they don't respond.

lol..

redoing the reset (this one says it should take several hours. great.)