MiniTool Partition Wizard

For the average user, Pro Annual license doesn't add much that the Free version doesn't already let you do:

• Change Cluster Size
• Convert NTFS to FAT
• Copy System Partition
• Change Partition Type ID
• Change Serial Number
• Convert OS Disk to GPT Disk
• Copy System Disk
• Migrate OS to SSD/HDD
• Dynamic Disk Management featureset
• Win-PE Based Bootable Media

LuckyEleven said:

I am having trouble with the last step, build your own ISO/USB.

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I've not ever actually attempted the process.

I received a very prompt reply from MiniTool. They have been very helpful and I appreciate it. Here is an excerpt:

If a PE file exists in the C:\Boot\winpe_10_64 directory [created by Partition Wizard], our boot media generator will directly use that file to create the bootable drive.

If not found [t]here, it will copy files from the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ directory.

If still not found, it will download the PE version matching the current system from the official Microsoft website.

However, Microsoft has not publicly released the ADK 28000 version. Therefore, the software cannot download this PE file from Microsoft's official website. Instead, it downloads the PE for Windows 11 2[5]H2 (i.e., 10.0.26100.1).

If you already possess a ready-made PE file for version 10.1.28000.1, you can copy it to the C:\Boot\winpe_10_64\ directory. Then, you can recreate the bootable media, and it will automatically utilize this file when creating the bootable drive.

So, I did a lot of internet searching which is incredibly aggravating. I found this:

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28000 (Canary Channel)

This confirms that 28000 is not for general use. MS really should put that clearly in its description.

I also discovered that I did not have winre.wim in my C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ directory nor my C:\Recovery\WindowsRE directory

I used this series of steps to find winre.wim and then I just copied it to those two folders. I know that is not the whole solution, but I cannot find coherent instructions how to go any further.



Find the RECOVERY partition on your drive. It will contain a Recovery\WindowsRE folder, inside of which you'll find winre.wim.
You may have to use the attrib command to make the files visible.

Open an administrator command prompt and use diskpart to give the RECOVERY partition a drive letter.

diskpart

list disk

select disk # (probably disk 0)

list partition

select partition # (likely partition 4 - it will show as type Recovery and be around 700mb in size)

assign letter=x (to assign the partition a drive letter)

exit

Next, in Windows Explorer to C:\windows\system32\recovery DELETE or RENAME the file ReAgent.xml

Go back to the elevated command prompt

reagentc /disable (just in case it's enabled with the wrong image, likely not)

reagentc /setreimage /path x:\recovery\windowsre /target C:\windows\system32\recovery

reagentc /enable

diskpart

list disk

select disk # (probably disk 0)

list partition

select partition # (likely partition 4 - it will show as type Recovery and be around 700mb in size)

remove letter=x (to remove the partition a drive letter)

exit

BTW the setreimage command did not seem to work, which is why I just copied the files using file explorer.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Version 13.5 (December 09, 2025)

• Declutter your drives by removing duplicate files from PCs and removable drives, keeping them well organized and ready for new data.
• Experience a refreshed interface with refined icons, clearer visuals, and smoother interaction.
• Enjoy enhanced software stability and faster performance with overall optimizations.

Version History

Click to expand...

Edition Comparison

MiniTool Partition Wizard Downloads

I love this partition manager. I think it's one of the best. But I don't think a duplicate cleaner belongs in a partition manager application. There are plenty of cleaning tools, including free ones that have duplicate cleaners.



On another note... My v13.5 WinPE ISO is quite a bit smaller than the v13.0 one.

Just to wrap up my issue from above in case anyone is interested:

I got very prompt and very helpful answers from MiniTool.
Here is the "condensed" version:

Go to this path (C:\Boot\winpe_10_64\) and delete the file "winre.wim"
After that, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to create the bootable media again to use Windows 11 PE.

If a PE file exists in the C:\Boot\winpe_10_64 directory, MiniTools' boot media generator will directly use that file to create the bootable [usb] drive. If not found [t]here, it will copy files from the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ directory. If still not found, it will download the PE version matching the current system from the official Microsoft website. However, Microsoft has not publicly released the ADK 28000 version. Therefore, the software cannot download this PE file from Microsoft's official website. Instead, it downloads the PE for Windows 11 24H2 (i.e., 10.0.26100.1). If you already possess a ready-made PE file for winre.wim you can copy it to the C:\Boot\winpe_10_64\ directory. Then, you can recreate the bootable media, and it will automatically utilize this file when creating the bootable drive.

Regarding properly assigning the WinRE (winre.wim) location:
Even if winre.wim exists in [some] folder, Windows will not recognize it until you explicitly register the location using the reagentc /setreimage command [and then re-enable the recovery partition].

Steps to properly set the WinRE location:
1. Ensure WinRE is disabled first using command
reagentc /disable

2. Create or verify the folder path:

Recommended standard path is

C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

Ensure winre.wim is inside that folder.

3. Register the WinRE location
reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

(You should see a message: "Directory set successfully")

4. Re-enable WinRE
reagentc /enable

5. Verify
reagentc /info

You should now see something like:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE


[When disabled] WinRE should not be kept in both C:\Windows\System32\Recovery and C:\Recovery\WindowsRE
Only one registered location is required, normally the Recovery partition.
[The C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder is where it resides when disabled.]
[It might also be found in C:\Windows\WinSxS if you have upgraded your OS.]


The “Recovery image location” field in reagentc /info will always appear blank on modern Windows versions.
This field was only used for an old feature (custom recovery images) that Microsoft removed.
So an empty value is normal and does not affect WinRE functionality.

Windows [will] also store a second copy of winre.wim at:

C:\Windows\System32\Recovery
[When it is disabled.]
This is also normal — Windows keeps it as a backup.

The blank “Recovery image location” is normal behavior in newer Windows versions.


To Summarize:
If the OS is setup properly, winre.wim resides in the hidden recover partition.
reagentc /disable moves the winre.wim from the hidden recovery partition to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder.
You can copy it from there to C:\Boot\winpe_10_64\ and then run MiniTools utility to create rescue media and it will use that version of Windows PE.
If your winre.wim is missing and you cannot find it in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery or C:\Recovery\WindowsRE or C:\Windows\WinSxS
you can force the MiniTools utility to download it from MS and rebuild the rescue media.
Afterwards, you should move it into its proper place in the recovery partition by issuing the command
reagentc /disable
copy it into the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder
Set the location it gets moved to when disabled with
reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Windows\System32\Recovery
Re-enable it with the command
reagentc /enable
you can verify the operation with command
reagentc /info

You can verify that it works with command
reagentc /disable
and then it should re-appear in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder.

Remember to re-enable and verify it afterwards.


Each time the OS updates, the winre.wim in the recovery partition updates.
If you want to download it yourself from MS without MiniTools, you have to make sure you get the Windows ISO that matches the version of your OS and then dig into the ISO and extract it. It is do-able, but it is time consuming and convoluted. I recommend using MiniTools instead.

HTH the next person.

Thanks a lot for this. I'll provide an alternative to a part just in case. My post has little to do with MiniTool Partition Wizard, it's about repairing WinRE if needed.

Steps to properly set the WinRE location:
1. Ensure WinRE is disabled first using command
reagentc /disable

2. Create or verify the folder path:

Recommended standard path is

C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

Ensure winre.wim is inside that folder.

3. Register the WinRE location
reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Windows\System32\Recovery

(You should see a message: "Directory set successfully")

4. Re-enable WinRE
reagentc /enable

5. Verify
reagentc /info

You should now see something like:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE

Click to expand...

I think the quoted works if Windows still recognizes and uses the Recovery partition, but this isn't always so.

I have just now converted my Windows 10 Legacy-MBR to UEFI-GPT. MBR2GPT created the ESP between C: (2nd partition) and the Recovery partition (previous 3rd partition), ignoring converting the MBR System Reserved partition (1st partition), that I had enlarged from 50 to 300 MB using any 3rd party product. Probably this was what caused this error (copied from the MBR2GPT output):

Call WinReReapir to repair WinRE
MBR2GPT: Failed to update Reagent.xml, please try to manually disable and enable WinRE

Click to expand...

The system booted fine but I didn't have WinRE. It was disabled and "reagentc /enable" said it couldn't find the image, so I first recovered WinRE.wim from the ex-Recovery partition, that had lost this characteristic (for the error I suppose), and I researched the reagentc options, as I didn't find anything called "WinReReapir" or "WinReRepair".

(first of all I had created another ESP of 100 MB as 1st partition, bootrec command to it, deleted MBR2GPT's ESP and extended C: to fill the gap, all offline with diskpart except creating the initial 100 MB gap for the new ESP, that was done with a 3rd party tool).

I reconstructed the Recovery partition and gave it letter R: temporarily, after deleting the original one. The new one had different size and offset, but giving it the guid and attributes wasn't enough it seems, as with reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Windows\System32\Recovery before, reagentc /enable deployed WinRe.wim in C:/Recovery/WindowsRE . I tried using the /target R: option of reagentc /setreimage but reagentc said it couldn't find any Windows in the target, or something similar.

This Google IA https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&channel=entpr&q=reate+recovery+partition told me what to do instead. The important difference: I had to copy (back) WinRe.wim to its place in the Recovery partition R:\Recovery\WindowsRE\ and run:

reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE

(step 10 of Google's directions). In informal words, I had to "legalize" WinRe.wim in its location of R: to also "legalize" R: . "Legalizing" it in C: had deployed WinRE in C: instead. Afterwards you better remove the letter R: .

JLArranz,

I ran into nearly the same issue about two months ago.
You can read about it here:

Extra Recovery Partition - Add or Remove ?

Maybe some of what I went through to untangle it would be helpful to you in the future or to help someone else.

Cheers.

The latest version of PW has tiny fonts whose size you can't change. I decided to keep using an earlier version for this reason.

Steve C said:

The latest version of PW has tiny fonts whose size you can't change. I decided to keep using an earlier version for this reason.

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I can't see this problem.

hdmi said:

I can't see this problem.

View attachment 157598

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Thanks for confirming the small fonts!

Steve C said:

Thanks for confirming the small fonts!

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I still have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The font size is exactly the same as before.

Does anyone ever use Disk Benchmark?

I'm using 13.0 because it does what I want. The font is small but it's not entirely illegible.

Scannerman said:

The font is small but it's not entirely illegible.

Click to expand...

It's actually a tiny little bit bigger when compared to older versions:

Any downside to installing 13.5? Did they remove any features, etc.?

gunrunnerjohn said:

Any downside to installing 13.5? Did they remove any features, etc.?

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I've been wondering the same. This is why I've stayed with 13 this long. I certainly don't need the font to get any smaller.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Any downside to installing 13.5? Did they remove any features, etc.?

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I haven't found any problem on any of my computers.
I have it installed on three desktops and one laptop.

No features removed. There is an added feature called Duplicate Cleaner. 13.0 vs 13.5 toolbar comparison. ↓



Regarding the small font issue that Steve C posted about. I haven't noticed it on any of my computers.

Stigg said:

I haven't found any problem on any of my computers.
I have it installed on three desktops and one laptop.

No features removed. There is an added feature called Duplicate Cleaner. 13.0 vs 13.5 toolbar comparison. ↓

View attachment 160810View attachment 160811

Regarding the small font issue that Steve C posted about. I haven't noticed it on any of my computers.

Click to expand...

Looks good. I think I'll leave the 13 on this ole X99 and upgrade to 13.5 on the X299. It should work well with an authentic un-tweaked version of 25H2.

The new lifetime license allows you 5 devices. Alas, I got mine back when it only allowed it for 3 so I have to be very selective about where I install it.