Reinstall Windows from image (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2711610)
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1) Obtain a Windows 8.1 ISO. I can't tell you where to obtain one, but it is not a hard task. The flavor Surface Pro uses is Windows 8.1 Pro x64. I used the EN-US version, as I have an American Surface, so I can't verify how other languages will work.

2) Burn that ISO to a USB drive using GPT. I suggest using Rufus for that: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ (faster than Win7 DVD Recovery Tool, allows for GPT partitioning)

3) Boot your Surface from the USB drive. To do that, hold the volume down button when turning on your Surface.

4) Delete all partitions on the drive so you see only “Disk 0 Unallocated Space” and install Windows 8.1 onto that partition.
— It will ask you for an install key, and might not accept your real Surface key. The reason for that is that the installer for Windows 8.1 does not accept Windows 8.0 keys (and your Surface might have one of those). To proceed with installation, you will need this install key:
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB
This key is for installation only. IT DOES NOT ACTIVATE WINDOWS.

5) [optional] After installing the OS, you'll notice that it's not behaving quite right, for example, there are 4 rows of tiles on the start screen instead of three.
Go to Windows Update, and install everything.

6) [optional] If you installed with the install key, use this utility to get the original Windows key: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/30363-Windows-8-Product-Key-Viewer, choose the "MSDM" option, copy that key, and activate Windows with it
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Recreate Recovery Partition from USB key (http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/microsoft/61252-recreate-recovery-partition-surface-pro.html#post376820)
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0) Create a temporary folder on your Surface. Doesn’t matter where, but I’ll be using <C:\RecImg> for this tutorial.

1) Attach your recovery USB key and copy the “sources” folder to C:\RecImg

2) Open an admin command prompt (Win+X > Command Prompt (admin)) and run:
DISM /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:C:\RecImg\Source\install.swm /swmfile:C:\RecImg\Source\install*.swm /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:C:\RecImg\install.wim
This will create one install.wim file from the separate swm files.

3) Create a folder under C:\RecImg called Mount. Then, from your admin command prompt, run:
DISM /mount-wim /WIMFile:C:\RecImg\install.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\RecImg\Mount

4) Allow Windows Explorer to show protected OS files (View tab > Options > View tab > uncheck “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”), then copy C:\RecImg\Mount\Windows\System32\Recovery\WinRE.wim to C:\RecImg. You should now have Install.wim and WinRE.wim in the root of your C:\RecImg folder.

5) Open Disk Management (Win+X > Disk Management) and shrink your C: drive (right-click C: > Shrink Volume) by 6000MB.

6) Create a new NTFS partition called “RECOVERY” in the Unallocated space (right-click Unallocated > New Simple Volume), format as NTFS and assign R: as its drive letter.

7) Create a folder at R:\OSImage and copy C:\RecImg\Install.wim there

8) Create a folder at R:\Recover\WindowsRE and copy C:\RecImg\WinRE.wim there

9) From your admin command prompt, run reagentc.exe /enable.
— If you receive an error, most likely suspect is that your reagent.xml config file in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery was reset to empty when the recovery image was removed. You may find an old copy there, something like “reagent_merged.xml1". Rename it to reagent.xml and rerun reagentc.exe /enable.

10) Run reagentc /setosimage /path R:\OSImage /index 1

11) Run reagentc /info to verify Windows Recovery Environment is enabled and an OS image is registered.

12) In Disk Management, remove the drive letter from the recovery partition (right-click R: > Change Drive Letter and Paths… > Remove)

13) Restart your machine. You should now be able to create a Recovery Disk (Win+W > “recovery” > Create a recovery drive), refresh (Win+W > “refresh” > Refresh your PC without affecting your files), and reset (Win+W > “reset” > Remove everything and reinstall Windows)