Recovery drive on Surface Go throwing me into a system 32 command prompt instead of keyboard

Hello B L ,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community, Regarding on you issue/concern "Recovery drive on Surface Go throwing me into a system 32 command prompt". It sounds like your Surface Go is booting into the recovery environment but not launching the graphical Windows Recovery interface as expected. Instead, it's dropping you into a command prompt at x:\windows\system32> — which is part of the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).

you can check if the Recovery Environment is Present Type the following command to see if the recovery tools are available:

dir /b

Look for a file named setup.exe or a folder like sources.

and try Launching the Recovery GUI Manually If you see setup.exe, try launching it:

setup.exe

If that doesn’t work, try:

start recovery

or

start msconfig

Navigate to the USB Drive Your recovery USB might be mounted as a different drive letter (like D:, E:, or F:). Try switching drives:

D:

dir

Repeat with other letters until you find the one containing the recovery files.

Run the Recovery Tool from USB Once you find the correct drive, look for a folder named sources and a file named setup.exe. Run:

setup.exe

This should launch the Windows installer.

incase this doesn't work you can check bios settings and make sure Secure Boot is enabled and the boot order prioritizes USB devices

and also you can use Surface Recovery Image, You can download a specific recovery image for Surface Go from Microsoft’s support site-Surface Recovery Image.

Please let me know if it works. I await your response.

Warm regards,

JayMark.D | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

First, get the Surface Data Eraser https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/2/E/82EEFB07-1AB3-4557-B654-B34D64C9DD94/Surface_Data_Eraser_v3.54.139.0.msi here's a video on how to use it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYpDlEYhweQ - after completion, you'll want to use the official recovery image for your Surface https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-recovery-image (more info at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/creating-and-using-a-usb-recovery-drive-for-surface-677852e2-ed34-45cb-40ef-398fc7d62c07 )