Solved Using Windows 8.1 recovery to roll back from W10

[1000]

Hi all,

I installed the 10240 build of Windows 10 on my SP3, now I want to go back to Windows 8.1 until 29th July. I have downloaded and built a Win 8.1 recovery drive onto a USB drive, turned off bitlocker and set the BIOS boot order to USB>SSD so I can boot from my recovery drive and re-install 8.1. Problem is that I can't seem to get 8.1 to install - each time I try to boot off the USB drive I get the blue windows screen with "choose language" >'Choose keyboard layout" then the options to boot to W10, use a device, troubleshoot. I've tried to select "use a device" and then select the USB recovery drive but it simply reboots my SP3 and then I arrive back at the same options again.. choose language etc..

There has to be a way I can reinstall from the USB drive and blow away Windows 10 .. any ideas ? Have I missed a step ?

1000

 

[jnjroach]

Make sure the USB Drive is formatted FAT32....the easiest way is from Update and Recovery and go to Advanced Boot Options and choose USB Drive....

 

[1000]

Figured the problem out. It was the presence of an SD card in the SP3 memory card slot. No matter what I did with boot drives I couldn't get the SP3 to boot from USB, removed the SD card and problem solved. Talk about finicky.

1000

 

[leeshor]

Good deal.....Marked solved.