Microsoft Surface tablets are very popular with people who want the power of Apple iPad but do not want to switch to any other operating systems. If you are a Surface device user and have run into a hardware related problem that can only be fixed at one of the Microsoft service centers, then you have to worry about the data stored on those tablets. You do not want to send your Surface device with all of your private or sensitive data like the bank account details, login credentials, web site passwords, email account details and so on. And you cannot erase everything manually as you cannot really pick and delete every single file containing your confidential data.
Microsoft has released a special tool called Microsoft Surface Data Eraser to securely wipe all the data from your Surface devices using a USB key. The tool itself is used to create a bootable USB flash key which is then used to wipe the data from your Surface tablet.
After installation of the Microsoft Surface Data Eraser tool, you can attach a USB flash key with at least 4GB of free disk space. Then you can select the USB disk and tap on the “Start” button to initiate the creation of the data wipe USB key.
Now whenever you have to wipe the data from your Surface device, just plug this USB key in the USB port and then boot into the firmware mode. To boot into the firmware mode, you have to press the Volume Up + Power keys together for a couple of seconds. After the device boots into the firmware mode, you can first accept the license terms by typing accept and then press the S key to start the wiping of the device.
Conclusion: Microsoft Surface Data Eraser tool can be used to securely wipe the data from your Surface device in the case of sending it for repairs, selling it, or giving it away.
You can download the Microsoft Surface Data Eraser tool from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt605308.aspx.