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Solved Will Microsoft Provide new recovery images for Surface Pro, Pro 2, Pro 3 with Windows 10?

dan62

New Member
Currently, I have a Surface Pro running Win 8.1 Pro if I need to recovery I am forced to first install Win 8 Pro and then Upgrade. This is an incredible waste of time and hope that they plan to fix this going forward. Does anybody have insight into this issue?

Best Regards,
Dan
 

leeshor

Well-Known Member
Welcome to the forum

A recovery image is all but a guarantee. As it stands bow you won't even need a SN to do a fresh install of Windows 10 after release so a recovery image should be a go and fresh install relatively easy.

Windows 10 on a fesh install creates a recovery partition as well. On my systems it's 450MB.
 

jaekqubp

Member
Thanks. This is really helpful information, and something that I had been wondering as well. This in and of itself may make the upgrade worth it for me.
--
Sent from Microsoft Surface Pro using Tapatalk
 

F27

New Member
If I upgraded from 8.1. to 10 on my Surface Pro 1 will it make a new Windows 10 recovery Partition? Also will it keep the old Windows 8 recovery partition because it seems I have lost a lot of space.
 

jaekqubp

Member
That's a really good question, and one that I'm wondering as well. I think that we will see an answer with users upgrading to Windows 10 in coming days.
If I upgraded from 8.1. to 10 on my Surface Pro 1 will it make a new Windows 10 recovery Partition? Also will it keep the old Windows 8 recovery partition because it seems I have lost a lot of space.
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
I just 'upgraded' to Windows 10 yesterday using the ISO, and I was told doing a system restore afterwards would install a 'fresh' version of Windows 10, as it would be from the factory.

This wasn't the case.

In fact it re-installed Windows 8! Not even 8.1 :oops: with 150 required updates... (I tried installing Windows 10 before the updates; it wouldn't work)

Overall spent just over 5 hours going from Windows 8.1 - Windows 10 - Windows 8 - All the updates - Windows 10 lol... not that impressed so far! Anyone else experienced this?
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I just 'upgraded' to Windows 10 yesterday using the ISO, and I was told doing a system restore afterwards would install a 'fresh' version of Windows 10, as it would be from the factory.

This wasn't the case.

In fact it re-installed Windows 8! Not even 8.1 :oops: with 150 required updates... (I tried installing Windows 10 before the updates; it wouldn't work)

Overall spent just over 5 hours going from Windows 8.1 - Windows 10 - Windows 8 - All the updates - Windows 10 lol... not that impressed so far! Anyone else experienced this?
Which option did you pick, there are a plethora of them with an upgrade from 8.1
Refresh W10
Reset W10
Go back to previous ... This would use the Recovery partition which is likely what you did.
Boot from W10 media
Boot from previous recovery drive.

So WILL MS PROVIDE NEW RECOVERY IMAGE . . . NO.

However due to the changes in Win10 recovery it doesn't need or use a recovery partition.

Microsoft:
“We are also redesigning Windows’ Refresh and Reset functionalities to no longer use a separate recovery image (often preinstalled by manufacturers today) in order to bring Windows devices back to a pristine state.”

Without a separate recovery image, the Refresh and Reset functionalities will instead rebuild the operating system in place using runtime system files. Not only does this take up less disk space, it also means you will not have a lengthy list of operating system updates to reinstall after recovering your device.
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
I actually followed the instructions from something which was posted on the official Microsoft blog. I can't find the link now but I did take a screenshot with my iPhone, so, the actual wording was:

[after upgrading to Windows 10] You can then proceed to do a clean install by using recovery media or using the Reset function in Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC (Get Started).

So that's what I did, but it didn't do what they said it'd do. Doesn't really matter, got there in the end... but worried about having to restore sometime in the future!
 

Wayne Orwig

Active Member
I am going through this now. Installed Win 10 on my Surface Pro last week. Liked it in general. Suddenly had a couple of issues. (Mail and calendar quit and can't easily be uninstalled/reinstalled those) Wanted a fresh install anyway. Had boot issues doing that, so it was painful. I am now at a fresh Win 8. So I need to update the updates, update to 8.1, more updates, then install Win 10 again. All of this will take days for me because I have an internet speed just over dialup. :)

So, my question is, if I create a Macrium Reflect disk image at each major upgrade/install step, will I be able to use Macrium Reflect to get back here faster, when there is a next time?
Or is there a better way to make an OS image?
Personal files are not an issue as those are backed up well.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I am going through this now. Installed Win 10 on my Surface Pro last week. Liked it in general. Suddenly had a couple of issues. (Mail and calendar quit and can't easily be uninstalled/reinstalled those) Wanted a fresh install anyway. Had boot issues doing that, so it was painful. I am now at a fresh Win 8. So I need to update the updates, update to 8.1, more updates, then install Win 10 again. All of this will take days for me because I have an internet speed just over dialup. :)

So, my question is, if I create a Macrium Reflect disk image at each major upgrade/install step, will I be able to use Macrium Reflect to get back here faster, when there is a next time?
Or is there a better way to make an OS image?
Personal files are not an issue as those are backed up well.
Macrium is Da Bomb.
 
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