How to recover data from dead or broken Surface Pro 3/4/5/6/7?

Updated by Tim to Data Recovery Tips on April 26th, 2021

Surface is a series of touchscreen-based personal computers and interactive whiteboards designed and developed by Microsoft, running the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Microsoft has released Surface, Surface 2, Surface 3, Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 6, Surface Pro 7, Surface Book, Surface laptop, etc.

Like Windows PC, Surface users also would encounter data loss problem. For example, how to get data off broken Surface?

Microsoft Surface data recovery software free download

iBoysoft Data Recovery is a professional data recovery software which provides three recovery modules: Data Recovery, RAW Drive Recovery and BitLocker Recovery to recover lost files from hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, USB stick, memory stick, SD card , etc. in Windows 10/8/7/XP.

iBoysoft Data Recovery also provides a WinPE boot disk which can recover data after Surface Pro Surface Book and Surface laptop got crashed, failed, dead, broken, etc.

How to get data off dead or broken Surface Pro, Book or laptop?

Here is the detailed tutorial to recover data from dead or broken Surface Pro, Surface Book and Surface laptop:

Step 1: Download iBoysoft Data Recovery WinPE edition.

On a healthy computer, download iboysoftdatarecovery.zip file as below.

After extracting iboysoftdatarecovery.zip file, you will see iboysoftdatarecovery.iso (It is a disc image file) in it.

Step 2: Create a bootable USB drive of iBoysoft Data Recovery WinPE edition.

1) Download the portable version of the burning tool: Rufus.

2) Launch Rufus.

3) Insert an empty USB drive into your healthy computer. Otherwise, you will lose all data stored in USB drive when being erased during creating a bootable media.

4) Select USB drive in Rufus.

Select USB drive in Rufus

5) Click on Select to choose iboysoftdatarecovery.iso.

Select iso file in Rufus

6) Select GPT as partition scheme.

Select GPT partition scheme in Rufus

7) Select UEFI as target system.

Select UEFI as target system in Rufus

8) Click on Start to create a bootable USB drive.

Click start in Rufus

Step 3: Insert the bootable USB drive of iBoysoft Data Recovery into the USB port on your Surface.

Step 4: Set Surface being booted from USB drive.

There are two methods to boot Surface Pro from USB drive:

Method 1: Change the boot order in UEFI.

Press and hold the volume-up button on the Surface. While you're doing this, press and release the power button.

Continue holding the volume-up button until the Surface or Windows logo no longer appears on the screen.

You should now see the Surface UEFI, switch to Boot Configuration tab.

Surface boot configuration

Select USB Storage and drag it to the top of the list. Alternatively, you can swipe left on USB Storage to boot to the device immediately. This will not affect the boot order.

Select Exit and then select Restart Now.

Method 2: Using key combinations.

Press and hold the volume-down button on the Surface. While you're doing this, press and release the power button.

The Microsoft or Surface logo appears on your screen. Continue to hold the volume-down button. Release the button once spinning dots appear beneath the logo.

Follow the on-screen instructions to boot from your USB drive.

Step 5: Scan data from Surface Pro with iBoysoft Data Recovery.

1) After booting Surface Pro from iBoysoft Data Recovery bootable USB drive and loading iBoysoft Data Recovery successfully, you can remove iBoysoft Data Recovery bootable USB drive from your Surface Pro.

If you cannot operate iBoysoft Data Recovery by touching the screen, please insert a USB mouse into the USB port on your Surface Pro.

2) Choose BitLocker Recovery module. If your Surface is not encrypted by BitLocker, please choose Data Recovery module at this step.

Choose BitLocker Recovery module in iBoysoft Data Recovery

3) Enter 48-digit BitLocker recovery key and then click OK to unlock BitLocker encrypted OS drive.

Enter the password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key

4) iBoysoft Data Recovery is scanning lost data from BitLocker encrypted OS drive.

Scan lost data from BitLocker encrypted drive

Step 6: Purchase, activate iBoysoft Data Recovery and recover data.

1) After the scan completes, it is time to purchase iBoysoft Data Recovery.

2) After purchasing, follow the readme.doc in iboysoftdatarecovery.zip to activate iBoysoft Data Recovery bootable USB drive.

3) Select the files you want to recover and click Recover.

Recover lost data from BitLocker encrypted drive

4) Select an external drive to save the recovered files.

5) Select one folder in this external drive and then click Ok to start the recovery process.

After data recovery, it is time to reset Surface Pro and make it working again.