{"id":5225,"date":"2026-08-30T11:10:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T02:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/server-tech\/surface-pro5-windows10-installmedia-2\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T11:10:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T02:10:33","slug":"surface-pro5-windows10-installmedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/en\/diy-repair\/repair-pc-hardware\/surface-pro5-windows10-installmedia\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When Creating a Recovery Drive Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to try installing Ubuntu 24.04 on my Surface Pro 5. However, anticipating the possibility that I might want to revert to the original Windows 10 just in case, I needed to create a recovery USB beforehand.<\/p>\n<p>Normally, you can use the &#8220;Create a recovery drive&#8221; feature to set up a system that restores Windows onto a USB flash drive. However, when I actually tried it, an error occurred halfway through and it couldn&#8217;t finish.<\/p>\n<h2>Securing a Way to Reinstall Windows 10<\/h2>\n<p>The goal is simple:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make it possible to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 on the Surface Pro 5 at any time.<\/li>\n<li>Have the peace of mind of being able to return to Windows even after installing Ubuntu.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once this is achieved, you can try out another OS with peace of mind.<\/p>\n<h2>Failure to Create a Recovery Drive<\/h2>\n<p>I actually selected &#8220;Create a recovery drive&#8221; in Windows 10, connected a 16GB USB flash drive, and proceeded.<br \/>However, after a few minutes, an error popped up and I couldn&#8217;t proceed. Changing the USB flash drive yielded the same result.<\/p>\n<p>Possible causes include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The recovery partition on the Surface Pro 5 is corrupted<\/li>\n<li>The state of Windows Update or system files is affecting it<\/li>\n<li>Or compatibility issues with the USB flash drive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In any case, it did not succeed in my environment.<\/p>\n<h2>Creating Official Microsoft Installation Media<\/h2>\n<p>Therefore, I changed my approach and chose to create installation media from the official Microsoft website.<\/p>\n<p>The steps are as follows:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Access the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/ja-jp\/software-download\/windows10\">official Microsoft Windows 10 download page<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8220;Download tool now&#8221; to get the Media Creation Tool.<\/li>\n<li>Run the tool and select &#8220;Create installation media for another PC&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Check the edition and architecture, then select the USB flash drive.<\/li>\n<li>The installation USB is completed in a few tens of minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Booting from this USB allows for a clean installation on the Surface Pro 5. Since the license is embedded in the device itself, there is no need to manually enter a product key, and it will be activated automatically.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion: Official Media is the Most Reliable Option<\/h2>\n<p>Even if you cannot create a recovery drive on a Surface Pro 5, creating official Microsoft installation media is a sufficient alternative.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Insurance for when a recovery drive cannot be created<\/li>\n<li>Peace of mind before trying Ubuntu or other OSs<\/li>\n<li>License activation happens automatically without any issues<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result, there was no need to obsess over the recovery drive. In fact, using the official media allows for reinstallation in a more up-to-date state, so it seems best to use this method going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to try installing Ubuntu 24.04 on my Surface Pro 5. However, anticipating the possibility that I migh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/?p=2219","footnotes":""},"categories":[1165],"tags":[771,352,1005,381],"class_list":["post-5225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-repair-pc-hardware","tag-surface-pro-5","tag-ubuntu","tag-windows","tag-381","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5228,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225\/revisions\/5228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}