Cannot enable the recovery partition after re-creating it

JimDoe · May 22, 2025

This is an old Windows 10 installation that I have done a repair reinstall on and updated to Win 11 a while back, everything is working fine, until I realized I have no recovery so I can't boot into safe mode. I had a recovery partition but it was 470 MB in size and didn't have a .wim file. So I nuked it, created a 1074 MB partition, and followed this guide. Now I get this:

Code:

>reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target C:\Windows
Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk2\partition5\Recovery\WindowsRE

Code:

>reagentc /enable
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

Code:

C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Disabled
    Windows RE location:
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

Here's the partition I created (and copied winre.wim to):

Code:

Partition 5
Type    : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden  : Yes
Required: Yes
Attrib  : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 131904569344

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
* Volume 6         Recovery     NTFS   Partition   1074 MB  Healthy    Hidden

Here's my BCD:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit.exe /v

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume4
path                    \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {e1386422-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
resumeobject            {e1386421-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
displayorder            {e1386422-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
bootsequence            {e1386422-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {e1386422-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 11
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence        {1dc3ffd2-dbda-11ee-9491-eb522f2eea46}
displaymessageoverride  Recovery
recoveryenabled         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \WINDOWS
resumeobject            {e1386421-db8d-11ee-bb6d-be2b7762a7d9}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Legacy
sos                     No

Any idea what's wrong and how to get recovery working? Thanks!

FreeBooter · May 22, 2025

In this video, i will take you through the steps to create a Windows recovery partition in a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC installed in UEFI mode with GPT partition style.

Berton · May 22, 2025

Windows doesn't like Users accessing the small partitions it creates during initial install. I had success in resizing it when it started requiring more than 600MB when doing updates. I'd either Shrink the C: partition by a few hundred MB or a GB and then Expand the recovery partition to include the newly-unallocated space or boot a USB Thumb drive with Linux Mint and use the included GPARTED to do the same. For some reason the markers Windows put on the drive screws things up when deleted.

JimDoe · May 22, 2025

FreeBooter said:
In this video, i will take you through the steps to create a Windows recovery partition in a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC installed in UEFI mode with GPT partition style.

Thanks, but this is exactly what I've already done, and it doesn't work, as described in my opening post.

FreeBooter · May 22, 2025

Any error message?

JimDoe · May 22, 2025

Since the first post I fixed my BCD entries, also manually edited ReAgent.xml to reference correct GUIDs. Now I get this:

Code:

ReAgentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Disabled
    Windows RE location:
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 1dc3ffd2-dbda-11ee-9491-eb522f2eea46
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

BCD identifier is no longer null. However:

Code:

ReAgentc /enable
REAGENTC.EXE: Unable to update Boot Configuration Data.

This is the XML, is it correct? Why doesn't the "info" command show the location?

Code:

<WindowsRE version="2.0">
  <WinreBCD id="{1dc3ffd2-dbda-11ee-9491-eb522f2eea46}"/>
  <WinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="131904569344" guid="{9B82FB10-DC81-4B16-A745-1329D23A94A4}"/>
  <ImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/>
  <PBRImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
  <PBRCustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
  <InstallState state="0"/>
  <OsInstallAvailable state="0"/>
  <CustomImageAvailable state="0"/>
  <IsAutoRepairOn state="0"/>
  <WinREStaged state="1"/>
  <OperationParam path=""/>
  <OperationPermanent state="0"/>
  <OsBuildVersion path=""/>
  <OemTool state="0"/>
  <IsServer state="0"/>
  <DownlevelWinreLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/>
  <IsWimBoot state="0"/>
  <NarratorScheduled state="0"/>
  <ScheduledOperation state="5"/>
</WindowsRE>

JimDoe · May 22, 2025

But if I change the xml a little bit, the /enable command regenerates it incorrectly, and nukes the boot.sdi file that I put in R:\Recovery\WinRE. All while reporting "Operation Successful".

P. S. I found out that my /info output with the all-zero GUID is normal for when Windows RE status is "Disabled", so that's not the issue. The problem is that the /enable command says "success", but doesn't actually enable Windows RE.

XxXxX · May 22, 2025

have you tried system tools > system configuration
second tab 'boot'
then tick/mark boot into 'safe mode'

a menu will appear for you to restart the system in 'safe mode'

when finished in safe mode open system configuration again and untick 'safe mode'
and restart the system for normal boot.

best of luck, Steve ..

JimDoe · May 22, 2025

Thanks Steve, I have tried that and it does absolutely nothing. There's also no startup options in the Shift+Restart menu. It was my understanding that the options rely on WinRE, so I embarked on the journey of fixing it.

KevTech · May 22, 2025

You need to follow the rest of the guide in the first post as your WinRE.wim file is gone as I think you deleted it when you nuked the partition.
It would have been a hidden system file so you would not be able to see it when looking in the directory unless you enabled being able to view hidden and system files.
Need to extract a winre.wim file from the install.wim file which the guide explains how to do.

XxXxX · May 22, 2025

JimDoe said:
Thanks Steve, I have tried that and it does absolutely nothing. There's also no startup options in the Shift+Restart menu. It was my understanding that the options rely on WinRE, so I embarked on the journey of fixing it.

i don't have a recovery partition. i deleted the recovery partition and extended C: drive.

the above works for me so there maybe something else not allowing you to boot using the above method.

in windows tools right click system configuration.
on this menu click open as Administrator

then please try the above.
best of luck, Steve ..

Cannot enable the recovery partition after re-creating it

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