Surface 4 Network boot and Image

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman yeah I have done just that with some other software so I would have physical access to it on a USB drive. I’m just trying to find out for sure weather or not I can just boot to a USB flash drive if I was to wipe out that EFI partition on accident

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid I would think so, as the device’s firmware is what evaluates what devices can be booted from.

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman I would agree but I want definitive proof before I move forward.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid

straight from microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/storage-files-and-folders/boot-surface-from-usb-recovery-device?os=windows-10

Configure your Surface to start from a USB device

Once your USB drive is set up as a bootable drive with an appropriate operating system on it, you’ll need to set up your Surface to boot from this drive. This requires you to make changes in the UEFI. Here’s how to configure the boot order on Surface so the USB drive is the first option.

For info on using the UEFI on your Surface, see How do I use the BIOS/UEFI?

To make changes in the UEFI:
Step 1: Shut down your Surface.
Step 2: Once Surface has turned off, press and hold the volume-up button.
Step 3: With the volume-up button held down, press and release the power button.
Step 4: Continue holding the volume-up button until the Surface logo no longer appears on the screen.

You should now see the Surface UEFI. Do one of the following:

Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3: Go to Step 5 below.
Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2: Skip to Step 9 below.

Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3:
Step 5: Select Configure Alternate System Boot Order.
Step 6: Do one of the following:

Surface Pro 3: Select USB > SSD
Surface 3: Select Network > USB > SSD.

Step 7: Select Exit Setup.
Step 8: Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.

Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 (optional for Surface Pro 3)
Step 9: Select Secure Boot Control.
Step 10: Select Disable. This will allow Surface to search for an alternate device to boot from aside from your SSD.

Note
This may affect the look of your Surface splash screen.

Step 11: Select Exit Setup.
Step 12: Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.
Start Surface from a USB drive

Once you’ve followed the steps above to set up a USB drive as a bootable drive and configure the UEFI appropriately, you’re ready to start your Surface from your USB drive.
Notes

Before starting your Surface from a USB drive, make sure you don’t have any other USB devices connected to your Surface, including USB mice, keyboards or other storage drives. Surface will try to boot from other USB devices after you change the UEFI configuration.
If you don’t want to start your Surface from your USB drive, make sure the drive is not inserted in the USB port on your Surface when you start it.

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman Yeah those are guides for 2s and 3s. I am on the support line with “Bob” at M$. They are checking to be sure. I am sure it will be fine but if I brick a 1700 device my boss my call me bad names. I have gotten the answer direct form them that the UEFI is embedded int eh device not the HDD. So I am good to try now.

[Tom Elliott]

@Psycholiquid Is it okay to solve this thread, now that we CAN network boot and you CAN image this system?

[Psycholiquid]

yeah I would say so.

[Psycholiquid]

OK imaging did image to the device, however, it does need the EFI parttion or it will not boot into the Surface so far as I can tell.

I have tried changing the host EFI Exit type to all different options no change. I will try and see if I can somehow put the partition on there , but I am thinking there will be two different images since the one I made with sysprep and this use two different types of boot partitions.

But to nail the point down the UEFI is on the device not the HDD.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid What image type are you using? Please try single disk non resizable and multiple disk non resizable before you give up.

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman I am using that now, it isn’t the image it is the device, so when it boot to the drive it needs the EFI partition in order for the device to continue. I am attempting to insert the files into the system partition on the existing image to see if it will pick those up.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid Where is the EFI partition and why is FOG not taking a copy of it?

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman I think I am not explaining it right, from the surface upload I am getting everything I need. I was able to restore it back to factory orig with eh captured image.

My custom image doesn’t have a EFI partition due to it being loaded form ISO. So in normal Windows install there is the System partition that has stuff in there to allow for the machine to boot. I will be pushing the EFI files to there to see if I can make a hybrid solution.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid Oh, ok. I think I might suggest trying to capture your image using different OS types - specifically Linux. See if that works.