I'm not sure this is correct.
-today I just got my surface rt (thxs ms for sales price of $199)
-after charging up and doing all the updates I made a usb recovery stick 3.44gb in size used space
-I then went to MS store and did the 8.1 RT update,and right away made another usb recovery stick and it is 1.99gb in size
-so i now have two usb recovery sticks and I'm guessing the first one has rt 8.0 and the second one has rt 8.1
***note*** I can confirm after you do a upgrade to RT 8.1 if you do a complete reset (like as if fresh from store) you Surface will stay with RT 8.1!
Hmmm, thanks for the verification.
I'll have to update my article. Good to know.
Edit to add: Basically to retain WinRT 8.0 for any reason, like the ability to do the soft jailbreak and/or keep IE10, any new Surface RT owner should create the recovery drive BEFORE upgrading to 8.1 to retain for true factory condition. And then you can make another recovery drive AFTER upgrading to 8.1.
I have two identical RT's Do I need to create a Flash Recover drive for each, or can the single recovery in a pen drive be used for both?
Is it possible to create this on a DVD with an external drive?
Identical devices, so the same recovery drive will work fine. Not sure about an optical disc solution at the moment.