I cannot get a surface 9 pro to reset

I've tried everything. Reset gets stuck at 74% downloading. I can't use the Surface USB stick, I forget the error, no valid OS found. I tried Endpoint Central which I use for OS deployments. I found the surface drivers, but they are not in WINPE format. I'm about to tell my company we have to buy a new one. I've never fought so hard with a computer.
Any ideas? I tried a windows 11 standard rufus boot disk, but the driver issue again.

Thanks

I know nothing about a surface so I had co-pilot analyze your thread. Here is its response.

It sounds like you’ve hit a perfect storm of storage‑related failures on that Surface Pro 9. When every reinstall path fails — Reset hanging at 74% , the Surface Recovery USB reporting no valid OS found , Endpoint Central deployments failing Current page, and even a standard Windows 11 USB not seeing the drive due to driver issues — the common denominator is usually the SSD or its controller.

On the Pro 9, the SSD is soldered and uses a specific Surface/Intel storage controller. When that controller becomes unstable or the SSD is failing, WinRE and WinPE environments can’t enumerate the disk, which leads to exactly the symptoms you’re seeing.

Here are the steps I’d take before declaring it dead:

1. Check whether the SSD is visible in UEFI​

Boot to UEFI (Vol+ + Power).If the drive doesn’t appear under Devices or Storage, that’s a hardware failure and no software fix will help.

2. Recreate the correct Surface Pro 9 Recovery Image​

Make sure the image matches the exact model. A mismatched image will fail early with the “no OS found”‑type errors you mentioned.

3. Use Microsoft Surface Data Eraser​

This is more aggressive than Reset or standard recovery media.It wipes and reinitializes the SSD at a lower level and often succeeds where WinPE fails.

4. If WinPE still can’t see the SSD after that​

At that point, it’s almost certainly a failed storage controller.Given everything you’ve already tried, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to tell your company it needs replacement.

Just create a GPT (UEFI mode bootable) USB flash drive with Rufus from the official Windows 11 ISO. I read in another thread that it is upgraded to build 8457, so you will have few updates after installation. Probably the touch feature won't work immediately, so make sure you fully charge before installing Windows 11 and you use a USB hub to connect the flash drive, a keyboard and mouse for the installation.

I found these Surface Pro 9 drivers:


You can download the official Windows 11 ISO from here, scroll down it is the third option:


You can download Rufus from here:

kfarrell said:

I've tried everything. Reset gets stuck at 74% downloading. I can't use the Surface USB stick, I forget the error, no valid OS found. I tried Endpoint Central which I use for OS deployments. I found the surface drivers, but they are not in WINPE format. I'm about to tell my company we have to buy a new one. I've never fought so hard with a computer.
Any ideas? I tried a windows 11 standard rufus boot disk, but the driver issue again.

Click to expand...

1. Download the Surface Pro 9 drivers:
Download Surface Pro 9 with Intel Processor Drivers and Firmware from Official Microsoft Download Center

2. Extract the drivers to a folder (may take a few minutes):

3. Run DISM /Add-Driver /Recurse, like you would normally do to add driver folders to an image.

Tried the rufus with 25h2 ISO. Still getting the no valid boot issue. Tried the data eraser. It did erase everything.

Tried a surface recovery usb as well. Same error as above.

Here's the fix. DAMMIT

1. Volume Up + Power to enter Surface UEFI (bios screen)
2. Go to Security section
3. Select 'Reboot to UEFI mode' (skip to step 5 if you don't see this)
4. It will reboot back into the bios, go back to Security section
5. Under Secure Boot, click the 'Change configuration' button
6. Select 'None' on the 'Change Secure Boot configuration' screen
7. Go to Exit section
8. 'Restart now'

Wow! That's pretty darn mysterious. How did you figure this out?
Thanks for persisting, and thanks for sharing the solution.
Good work.
--Ed--

That's the forum for. To share our own experience and help others with the same issue. Once I read the symptoms, I remember a similar issue I faced and how I solved. So I post the solution to help the other posters.

Rufus has an option to copy the newer CA 2023 boot files, when creating a boot drive. Depending on whether this Surface was updated for Secure Boot, it needs the newer or older boot files in Secure Boot mode.