Best way to increase size of WinRE partition to accommodate Bitlocker security vulnerability fix?

I get a failure to install message from a Windows 11 update intended to fix a Bitlocker security vulnerability in my WinRE partition. I use Bitlocker, so I want to extend the partition the recommended 250MB. The manual instructions Microsoft provided look too complex for my skill level, and the recently released Microsoft scripts also look pretty complex. Has anyone here tried them?

Or, can I simply use one of the free partition manager tools, such as those from AOEMI or EASUS? I don't want to hose my disk or invalidate WinRE, turning a small problem into a larger one, so I want a foolproof method. (Myself being that fool!)

Thanks!

@dbookbinder

It would help if you posted a screen shot of Disk Management..

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Thanks, but I'm not in front of that computer, which is currently going through an all-night restore operation.

The WinRE partition is the last partition on the drive. I'm just looking for whether there's any reason to prefer the script to a partition manager like EASUS to increase the size of the WinRE partition. I have plenty of space on the C: portion of the drive.

Hi,
Any third party partition manager can do this simple task.
I prefer free minitool but either of the two you listed is fine.

If you want a fool proof way just make a system image before and restore it if things don't work out.

Personally I'd just make the RE 1gb or 1024mb and not just adding 250mb to what ever it is atm unless that makes it larger than 1gb then go ahead.

Below are the steps you need to perform:
1. Download a portable Minitool Partition Manager from the link below:
then Unzip to desktop
2. IMPORTANT: Turn off Bitlocker and Disable Recovery Environment
3.Use Disk Managemnt, to shrink drive C for exact amount of 1024 = 1GB
4. Run Minitool Manager. Right click on the Recovery partition select Extent
5. Select the 1024MB unallocated space from drop down list then move the slider to the end for full 1024MB.
6. Click Apply
6a.Reboot your PC. NOTE: This step is required so that the BCD will be updated the info of new RE size.
7. Open Teminal Windows again then re-enable the recovery environment. Turn on Bitlocker

See Video for the above steps:

Topgundcp said:

.....then Unzip to desktop
2. IMPORTANT: Turn off Bitlocker and Disable Recovery Environment
3.Use Disk Managemnt, to shrink drive C for exact amount of 1024 = 1GB
4. Run Minitool Manager. Right click on the Recovery partition select Extent
5. Select the 1024MB unallocated space from drop down list then move the slider to the end for full 1024MB.
6. Click Apply
7. Open Teminal Windows again then re-enable the recovery environment. Turn on Bitlocker

Click to expand...

Good instructions, I have done at least half a dozen machines in exactly that way now, all of them successfully.

I would have put 'IMPORTANT' for #2 in bold and red, it is a vital step!

I found that a step 6a may be needed. After resizing the partitions I had to restart, seemed that I couldn't re-enable the recovery environment until I had done so.

@Bree

I would have put 'IMPORTANT' for #2 in bold and red, it is a vital step!

Click to expand...

Good point. Thanks

I found that a step 6a is needed. After resizing the partitions a restart may be required, seemed that I couldn't re-enable the recovery environment until I had done so.

Click to expand...

If you watch the video I recorded while doing it, It was a quick video, I did not bother to edit or beautifying it. There's no need to restart.

Topgundcp said:

@Bree ...If you watch the video I recorded while doing it, It was a quick video, I did not bother to edit or beautifying it. There's no need to restart.

Click to expand...

I found that reagentc /enable would fail to find the resized recovery partition, seemed that it didn't recognise the recovery partition's new location until after I had restarted.

In your video, at the start the recovery environment was in partition 4....



...but when you enabled it again it put it in partition 3, that's your C:\ partition (Disk Management doesn't show the hidden MSR partition).

The recovery environment will work just as well from the C: partition, that's reagentc's fallback position when it can't find a usable recovery partition. But you're not actually using the newly resized recovery partition.

Hi,
Didn't find it because he broke the RE using disk management to shrink C lol

Why on earth would you use DM when you use minitool to enlarge RE
Minitool can do both operations and won't break the RE in the process either.

Why is it important to disable Bitlocker before repartitioning? This is the first I've heard that was a necessary step. Not doubting it, just didn't see it in the Microsoft page where they use a script.

dbookbinder said:

Why is it important to disable Bitlocker before repartitioning? This is the first I've heard that was a necessary step. Not doubting it, just didn't see it in the Microsoft page where they use a script.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Yeah I lost track of that ms page.
Sure it is important if one uses bitlocker which I don't.

But as noted using disk management broke the RE pretty quickly lol

ThrashZone said:

But as noted using disk management broke the RE pretty quickly lol

Click to expand...

I used Disk Management to shrink C:, then MiniTool to enlarge the recovery partition. It only takes a restart for the resized recovery partition to be found and used when you re-enable the recovery environment. Done it many times, always puts WinRE back in the correct recovery partition.

Bree said:

I used Disk Management to shrink C:, then MiniTool to enlarge the recovery partition. It only takes a restart for the resized recovery partition to be found and used when you re-enable the recovery environment. Done it many times, always puts WinRE back in the correct recovery partition.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Well have you thought to let minitool do both chores and leave the RE enabled to see if nothing changes.

Hi All,

I recently had to do this. I used a script that MS has provided and it worked well. You could modify the amount it extends it by in the script.

Add an update to Windows RE

I've attached the script here too...

They also have manual instructions here. Recently I also saw a link to here that has some scripts to do the same thing (might be a similar script to above, but I haven't looked at it thoughly yet.

Hi,
Yeah that process is sort of funny in that they delete the RE and recreate it hehe

And yeah they do not say disable bitlocker lol
And they also do not do anything in disk management the oldest inept pos app on the planet hehe

SuperJC710e said:

Hi All,

I recently had to do this. I used a script that MS has provided and it worked well. You could modify the amount it extends it by in the script.

Add an update to Windows RE

I've attached the script here too...

They also have manual instructions here. Recently I also saw a link to here that has some scripts to do the same thing (might be a similar script to above, but I haven't looked at it thoughly yet.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've looked at these scripts but wasn't sure what to do about Bitlocker. Since the scripts are running inside a Bitlockered system, I wouldn't think I'd need to decrypt or even suspend. Was your system drive encrypted with Bitlocker when you ran the script?

dbookbinder said:

Thanks! I've looked at these scripts but wasn't sure what to do about Bitlocker. Since the scripts are running inside a Bitlockered system, I wouldn't think I'd need to decrypt or even suspend. Was your system drive encrypted with Bitlocker when you ran the script?

Click to expand...

It was a Windows 10 system, but it looks like the drive was not encrypted. However, I could be wrong, but I don't think the WinRE partition is encrypted by BitLocker. Also, I think the system drive can shrink without disabling BitLocker, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I don't have time to test it on a VM right now, but perhaps I can test later...

I attached those 2 other scripts from the above linked MS page as well...JIC...

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Didn't find it because he broke the RE using disk management to shrink C lol

Click to expand...

Either way, The RE is not broken. Instead the BCD was not updated to point to it.

ThrashZone said:

Why on earth would you use DM when you use minitool to enlarge RE
Minitool can do both operations and won't break the RE in the process either.

Click to expand...

There's a good reason to use DM instead of minitool. Using DM will take affect immedately while minitool will require reboot to perform the operation.

SuperJC710e said:

It was a Windows 10 system, but it looks like the drive was not encrypted. However, I could be wrong, but I don't think the WinRE partition is encrypted by BitLocker. Also, I think the system drive can shrink without disabling BitLocker, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I don't have time to test it on a VM right now, but perhaps I can test later...

I attached those 2 other scripts from the above linked MS page as well...JIC...

Click to expand...

Thanks. I've seen those scripts, which involve downloading a specific KB package, though it wasn't clear which of the two I should apply. I'll go with the simpler script and let Windows figure that out. But, if you do find out if anything has to be done with Bitlocker, let me know, as I don't want to have to restore from a Macrium drive image if things go south because of Bitlocker. Since this fix is only needed by Bitlocker-encrypted drive systems, I would think they would have tested it on such systems, but one never knows.

@Bree
I found that reagentc /enable would fail to find the resized recovery partition, seemed that it didn't recognise the recovery partition's new location until after I had restarted.

In your video, at the start the recovery environment was in partition 4....

Click to expand...

You are correct. Thanks for pointing it out. I updated my post above to include this step 6a.
This is where I screwed up: During the restart, the BCD will be updated by the UEFI firmware to the new environment,
without Restart, the BCD still contain the old info and that's why Reagentc could not locate the Recovery partion.