Hello, Well, I am stuck. As I said I got the surface pro 3 to boot off USB media, in this case it's microsoft-provided recovery image. All went well, until I tried to wipe and restore the system, I selected something like remove all, thinking it would nuke the partition, it started, then said it couldn't continue as the system was missing a required partition. Now earlier in the process I selected skip the key because I didn't and don't have it. This I have come to learn is the bitlocker drive encryption key. This machine does have a tpm chip in it so I assume it stores the key there. The problem is it was most likely backed up on the previous owner's skydrive account, which I don't and can't get access to obviously. The only thing I do have is the KEY ID which it says go to windows.microsoft.com/recoverykeyfaq to utilize. This is not valid because it points to the skydrive account, or written down/printed out key, or key on a USB thumb drive, I have none of that. I'm open to suggestions. The one other idea I have is to try derrick's boot n nuke on the drive, totally smoke it and do a fresh install from the USB recovery image I have. Suggestions welcome. Thanks. Dave.