How to Get Data Off My Surface That Won't Turn On

Microsoft Surface is a line of touchscreen-based personal computers, tablets, and interactive whiteboards that Microsoft has created and is marketing. They are made to be high-end gadgets that serve as models for others who make other Windows-compatible goods. 

Among them, the Surface Pro is arguably the best-selling product. This tablet is equipped with all the hardware and IO interfaces needed by a PC, and it is incredibly light and thin. It has evolved into a true productivity tool from the perspective of many people.

However, any machine may fail, and the Surface Pro is not an exception. Some people found that the Surface Pro won't turn on after they press and hold the power button for about 20 seconds, and then all the data is inaccessible. This post will help you to recover data from a dead Surface.

First of all, you should identify the Surface Pro malfunctions, given that there are differences between Surface won't turn and Surface won't boot up.

A Surface not turning on means there is no response after you press the power button on the keyboard the Surface screen remains black without any visuals, and there is no sound. It seems the Surface Pro is dead. The problem would be hardware-related. 

Surface not booting up refers to the machine being successfully turned on, the monitor lit up but not loading the OS, it is stuck on an unresponsive screen, getting a Windows black screen of death, or not passing the Surface screen, etc. Such an issue is usually caused by software.

Share with people who encounter a Surface Pro that won't turn on!

How to fix Surface not turning on

When you attempt to turn on the Surface Pro by pressing the power button but it is totally unresponsive, the culprit could be some hardware components, including the charger, the cable, the battery, the peripherals, the monitor, etc. Therefore, before moving to recover data from dead Surface, you can try some basic methods to troubleshoot the Surface Pro that won't turn on.

Recharge the Surface Pro

Your Surface Pro or another Surface device's battery may run out of power if you use it for an extended period of time without connecting it. Therefore, you can simply connect your Surface to a wall outlet using its original power supply for at least 15 minutes and then try to turn it on again. You should make sure that the connection is solid and the charging connector's LED indication is lit. 

Check the charging cable

If the LED light on your Surface doesn't turn on or flashes white when it's attached to a power source, your power cord is probably broken. You can verify the white LED light on the end of the cable that attaches to the Surface's side to determine whether the charging cable is damaged. When the cable is working properly, the LED turns on as soon as the cable is inserted into the Surface.

Turn on the Surface with keyboard shortcuts

When you press the power button on the Surface Pro but it doesn't work, you can try keyboard shortcuts. Press the Windows logo key+Ctrl+Shift+B to start the computer if a Type Cover, Touch Cover, or other keyboard is connected to your Surface.  In addition, if your Surface doesn't have a keyboard attached, quickly flick the volume up and down buttons three times to turn it on. 

Disconnect all Surface peripherals

Occasionally, a Surface Book, Laptop, Go, or Pro's ability to power on properly can be impacted by the presence of connected devices. Then you can try to remove all keyboards, mice, and other USB devices from your Surface before turning it on. 

Soft reset Surface Pro

If the above methods fail to fix the Surface Pro won't turn on issue, you can try to perform a soft reset on the Surface Pro. A soft reset can be used to restart a computer without erasing any data, preferences, or running programs. Here's how:

Force a shutdown and restart Surface Pro

When the Surface Pro is not turning on, you can forcibly shut down it and restart it. You should identify the Surface Pro model given that the specific steps for forcing a shutdown and restarting vary based on device models.

For Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4:

For Surface Pro (5th Gen), Surface Pro 6, Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro X:

How to recover data from dead Surface

The scariest thing when your computer is dead is that all your data is inaccessible. If there is no available backup for the Surface Pro containing crucial files, you may feel helpless when your Surface Pro won't turn on. However, it is still possible to recover data from a dead Surface device.

When the Windows won't boot or won't turn on, you can still get data off the Surface with iBoysoft Data Recovery which offers a WinPE boot disk that can restore data after the Surface Pro, Surface Book, and Surface laptop crashes, fails, died, broke, etc.

Here are detailed steps:

If you have encrypted Surface Pro with BitLocker 

Some people may be concerned about whether the data can be recovered if the drive of the Surface Pro in question is BitLocker encrypted. The answer is YES. As long as you have the BitLocker recovery key, you can recover data from the BitLocker drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows.

iBoysoft Data Recovery features a BitLocker Recovery module, you can choose it when accessing the drive of the not-turning-on Surface Pro after booting from the bootable USB drive, it will ask for the BitLocker recovery key to unlock the drive, then it begins to scan the drive to search for lost and deleted files as many as possible.

You can also remove the internal drive and reconnect it to another healthy Windows computer, and then you can access the data on it with professional data recovery software as well. This process could be challenging, you'd better do it with the help of a professional. 

Just download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows and have a try!

Recommend the software to help more people recover data from dead Surfaces!

FAQs about Surface Pro won't turn on