Surface Pro 3 Wont Boot Off Microsd?

[bennettvonbennett]

hey there - used rufus to build a bootable 'drive' on my microSD card - but I can't seem to get the SP3 to boot from it no matter what I do... I don't have an extra external usb drive handy so i'd sure like to get this work.

I've tried holding down volume-up, and changing boot order and making sure ssd card is enabled there. I've tried it with bitlocker enabled and with it disabled, I've tried it by using "Advanced Startup Options" to reboot using external USB drive...

basically I want to know if there's some kind of reason microSD cards cannot be used to make a bootable drive?

NOTE: thanks to SaM for his help so far - still trying!

 

[bennettvonbennett]

Also - I tried using Rufus to build a basic bootable recovery drive and couldn't get my SP3 to boot from that either using all the above methods. I have no experience with Rufus or with building recovery drives so this could very well be operator error.

 

[bennettvonbennett]

hmmm - I managed to install NUMIX DUO on a usb drive I found and now I can't get that to startup either :-((

so - never mind, i'll make a new post on this problem

 

[bennettvonbennett]

I can't change the title of this post... should I just go ahead and start another one?

 

[Uncle Mac]

basically I want to know if there's some kind of reason microSD cards cannot be used to make a bootable drive?

Making MicroSD bootable not that easy the way you do bootable USB. Bud when i've last made a post on your previous thread i remember you've talking about USB and here you came with MicroSD. Please don't change topics and don't try to get knowledge at dual merged things. Anyways here you can see how to make Bootable MicroSD cards to make bootable MicroSD card to install OS.

1.

You must be registered for see links

2.

You must be registered for see links

3 .

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Good luck and be careful doing it. Else do google search and it will provide most trusted links to get solutions. Have a nice day!

 

[Uncle Mac]

I can't change the title of this post... should I just go ahead and start another one?

Read my previous post and consider at it. No need to create threads thoughtlessly and no need to create threads in row under same topics but they're merged to your mind to ask.

Do not test other Staff members to take action that you're spamming on site only. Beware!

@TheMacGyver @The Rain Buddies! you both free to take any action if required. If he's not following then i cannot walk far away by correcting him at each spot. Please look forward and take care of it up next.

 

[bennettvonbennett]

well - certainly not trying to piss you off SaM - I appreciate your help... I have tried it BOTH with USB and microSD. unable to do it either way. I will read your links and see if I can get the microSD boot to work... please note SaM that at the moment I have followed all the instructions to make a bootable USB and made one out of a stick I found... and am STILL unable to get that to work.
I don't mean to make duplicate posts but at this point i'm pretty confused.

 

[bennettvonbennett]

after looking at the links for the SD card I have decided to simplify things and just stick to trying to install off a standard USB stick... however - as I said above I have followed all the instructions SaM pointed me to and am unable to boot from it.
after your post SaM I don't want to create another thread to ask about this specific problem but it is different from the title of the post. so what do you suggest?

 

[Uncle Mac]

after looking at the links for the SD card I have decided to simplify things and just stick to trying to install off a standard USB stick... however - as I said above I have followed all the instructions SaM pointed me to and am unable to boot from it.
after your post SaM I don't want to create another thread to ask about this specific problem but it is different from the title of the post. so what do you suggest?

Wait on @SaM and do not do another Thread Please.. You have spammed this one bad enough.. Try and hold and collect your thoughts please.. One after another posting is getting us now where.

No need to reply to me. Please.. Or I'll gently Lock this..

 

[Uncle Mac]

after looking at the links for the SD card I have decided to simplify things and just stick to trying to install off a standard USB stick... however - as I said above I have followed all the instructions SaM pointed me to and am unable to boot from it.
after your post SaM I don't want to create another thread to ask about this specific problem but it is different from the title of the post. so what do you suggest?

I've told you 100 times, Please take a screenshot and provide it so i can see what settings you're using under boot option. Let me clear it here.

1. You're trying to install to Windows 10.
-Turn off and turn on your system, during restart press bios key to go to bios settings (start up) now go to advanced settings and check under boot option: Your system's Boot option should be ''Legacy'' not UEFI.
2. Disable ''Secure Boot'' option if enabled.
3. Save changes and exit.
4. Go to this tutorial:

You must be registered for see links

Just create Bootable usb with same options shown at screenshots. Do not change anything, just create bootable usb by following it.
5. When usb ready, turn off and turn on your system. During restart press Boot key to boot system from USB. it will start booting else you would ask to boot from devices like Network/DVD Rom/Usb/ select USB and press enter. That's all.

Now please consider and follow on. There nothing remain to assist you. It depends on you to do it correctly.

 

[Cumulonimbus]

I've told you 100 times, Please take a screenshot and provide it so i can see what settings you're using under boot option. Let me clear it here.

1. You're trying to install to Windows 10.
-Turn off and turn on your system, during restart press bios key to go to bios settings (start up) now go to advanced settings and check under boot option: Your system's Boot option should be ''Legacy'' not UEFI.
2. Disable ''Secure Boot'' option if enabled.
3. Save changes and exit.
4. Go to this tutorial:

You must be registered for see links

Just create Bootable usb with same options shown at screenshots. Do not change anything, just create bootable usb by following it.
5. When usb ready, turn off and turn on your system. During restart press Boot key to boot system from USB. it will start booting else you would ask to boot from devices like Network/DVD Rom/Usb/ select USB and press enter. That's all.

Now please consider and follow on. There nothing remain to assist you. It depends on you to do it correctly.

Maybe next time,reply in braille

 

[Uncle Mac]

Maybe next time,reply in braille

LOL that's deep anyways Let see how it goes and where it stops. i have done my part, now i'm hopping to hear something ''Yes i'm succeed to install windows'' this task keep popping up since last 4 days every after several hours. Hehehehe! But i'm sure it has been resolve here.

 

[bennettvonbennett]

thanks SaM - trying it today... I think this was the part I was missing:
"-Turn off and turn on your system, during restart press bios key to go to bios settings (start up) now go to advanced settings and check under boot option: Your system's Boot option should be ''Legacy'' not UEFI."

Will hopefully report success.

 

[bennettvonbennett]

SUCCESS!
FWIW - I was never able to get the Surface Pro 3 to boot off a USB drive, no matter what I did. This seems to be a very very common issue with these devices - there are threads all over about it.
But the real problem turned out to be the difficulty in unlocking bitlocker - the process of turning it off in the "About" section of the Settings turns out to have a VERY slow activation - I don't mean the decryption process (which is also slow) I mean that clicking the "About" link produces no results for approximately 10 minutes... It just seems to freeze. I only stumbled upon this when I left my machine in frustration to make lunch and came back to find it had actually gotten to the About window where I could turn of bitlocker.
I had also tried turning it off from the command line but also gave up on this after nothing seemed to happen at all after a couple of hours and the -status command showed nothing.

Anyway - long story short, as soon as I disabled bitlocker I just used a USB with Altus to install on my machine and now it's working fine!

Thank you to SaM for being so patient - it seems the process is somewhat different for Surfaces - or at least SP3's and this led to a lot of frustration on my part.

 

[Uncle Mac]

Whew Wee... Thanks @SaM for everything here..
It Now appears completely "Completed" so "Locked" Now