Installation and Upgrade Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

BrianInEngland · Aug 28, 2023

zbook said:
An additional use for an in place upgrade repair is to create a new Windows recovery partition.

For example:
a) a missing Windows recovery partition
b) a reagentc /disable that does respond to reagentc /enable

If the repair is successful there may be reduced free space within the primary partition for the new recovery partition.

When I do a repair install, I always delete the Recovery partition and re-size the Windows drive to fill the space. The repair creates a new, up-to-date Recovery partition.

zbook · Aug 28, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
When I do a repair install, I always delete the Recovery partition and re-size the Windows drive to fill the space. The repair creates a new, up-to-date Recovery partition.

If you deleted the recovery partition did you run reagentc /disable or not run the command before the repair?

If you deleted the recovery partition and did not resize the Windows drive did you have unallocated free space on the right side of the new recovery partition?

If you did not delete the recovery partition did you find that there were sometimes additional recovery partitions after the repair?

BrianInEngland · Aug 28, 2023

zbook said:
If you deleted the recovery partition did you run reagentc /disable or not run the command before the repair?

If you deleted the recovery partition and did not resize the Windows drive did you have unallocated free space on the right side of the new recovery partition?

If you did not delete the recovery partition did you find that there were sometimes additional recovery partitions after the repair?

The Recovery partition comes after the Windows partition, I have a D: partition after.

I simply delete the Recovery partition using Diskpart, resize the Windows partition then the repair creates a new one, I don't use any other commands

hdmi · Aug 28, 2023

To re-create a missing Recovery partition or to repair a corrupted Recovery partition, you don't necessarily need to repair install Windows with an in-place upgrade. If you do, you'll have to go through Windows Settings again, as the "you'll lose nothing" part of the description doesn't apply to all of the settings found in there (although it does apply to most of them, still nevertheless...). So, unless you aren't too fussed about losing some of your settings as a result, there exists a better way to fix the Recovery partition:

Cloning System Partition, Recreating EFI and Recovery partitions...

This tutorial attempts to achieve the objectives using built-in tools, without use of 3rd party software. A fresh and clean installation is always the best thing to do, because in addition to a bug-free Windows experience, everything outside the Windows environment like the EFI partition...

www.elevenforum.com

That being said, I find that the Recovery partition is not actually needed, as 1/ the Windows installation media that you can create with the Media Creation Tool or 2/ a USB flash drive on which Ventoy has been installed before you simply copied the Windows installation ISO file directly to this same USB flash drive or 3/ anything that you can use to go in WinPE lets you do the same, plus more. That's just because, when the language selection menu of Windows Setup appears (or when, e.g., the main menu screen of the WinPE-based Rescue Media of Acronis True Image 2021 appears) you can simply press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt so, next, you will be able to use all the features of WinPE anyway in the first place...

zbook · Aug 28, 2023

In a recent thread there were 2 orphaned or non-functioning windows recovery partitions.

reagentc /info displayed disabled.

reagentc /enable did not fix reagentc /disable

Code:

PS 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: ca0ca6ee-3dea-11ee-80f6-b87b0af04bcb
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reagentc /enable
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

PS 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: ca0ca6ee-3dea-11ee-80f6-b87b0af04bcb
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

For an in place upgrade repair I'd looked for references to see whether the method would repair or create a new Windows recovery partition.

If it were to repair would it repair the first (smaller) or second (larger) recovery partition?

If it were to create a new recovery partition what would be the new drive partition layout or architecture?

There were no references found about repair or replace the existing recovery partitions.

Code:

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    930 GB  Healthy    Boot 
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    646 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4                      NTFS   Partition    724 MB  Healthy    Hidden

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    System             100 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Reserved            16 MB   101 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            930 GB   117 MB
  Partition 4    Recovery           646 MB   930 GB
  Partition 5    Recovery           724 MB   930 GB

Some options that I'd considered were:

a) deleting only the first orphaned recovery partition followed by an in place upgrade repair

b) deleting only the second orphaned recovery partition followed by an in place upgrade repair

c) deleting both orphaned recovery partitions followed by an in place upgrade repair

d) deleting both orphaned recovery partitions followed by a command line creation of a recovery partition

e) not deleting any orphaned recovery partitions followed by an in place upgrade repair

A reference commenting on how an in place repair modifies recovery partitions was not found.

Backup plans were considered and option e was chosen.

In the thread the in place upgrade repair did not fix any of the orphaned recovery partitions.

In the thread the in place upgrade repair reduced the free space in the primary partition and created a new recovery partition immediately to the right of the primary partition.

At the present time I'm wondering whether this was a unique fix for this computers problems or whether it can be applied to any orphaned recovery partition(s).

If it can be applied to any orphaned recovery partition(s) then the optimal choice was option d.

It's what BrianInEngland had reported in post #141.

BrianInEngland · Aug 28, 2023

zbook said:
In a recent thread there were 2 orphaned or non-functioning windows recovery partitions.

reagentc /info displayed disabled.

reagentc /enable did not fix reagentc /disable

Code:

PS 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: ca0ca6ee-3dea-11ee-80f6-b87b0af04bcb Recovery image location: Recovery image index: 0 Custom image location: Custom image index: 0 REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful. PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reagentc /enable REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful. PS 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: ca0ca6ee-3dea-11ee-80f6-b87b0af04bcb Recovery image location: Recovery image index: 0 Custom image location: Custom image index: 0 REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful. PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

For an in place upgrade repair I'd looked for references to see whether the method would repair or create a new Windows recovery partition.

If it were to repair would it repair the first (smaller) or second (larger) recovery partition?

If it were to create a new recovery partition what would be the new drive partition layout or architecture?

There were no references found about repair or replace the existing recovery partitions.

Code:

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 930 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System Volume 3 NTFS Partition 646 MB Healthy Hidden Volume 4 NTFS Partition 724 MB Healthy Hidden Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 System 100 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 Reserved 16 MB 101 MB Partition 3 Primary 930 GB 117 MB Partition 4 Recovery 646 MB 930 GB Partition 5 Recovery 724 MB 930 GB

Some options that I'd considered were:

a) deleting only the first orphaned recovery partition followed by an in place upgrade repair

b) deleting only the second orphaned recovery partition followed by an in place upgrade repair

c) deleting both orphaned recovery partitions followed by an in place upgrade repair

d) deleting both orphaned recovery partitions followed by a command line creation of a recovery partition

e) not deleting any orphaned recovery partitions followed by an in place upgrade repair

A reference commenting on how an in place repair modifies recovery partitions was not found.

Backup plans were considered and option e was chosen.

In the thread the in place upgrade repair did not fix any of the orphaned recovery partitions.

In the thread the in place upgrade repair reduced the free space in the primary partition and created a new recovery partition immediately to the right of the primary partition.

At the present time I'm wondering whether this was a unique fix for this computers problems or whether it can be applied to any orphaned recovery partition(s).

If it can be applied to any orphaned recovery partition(s) then the optimal choice was option d.

It's what BrianInEngland had reported in post #141.

If you want a completely 'new' recovery partition, then yes deleting any existing ones would be the best option, followed by either the Repair install or by using the commands to create it.

My 'main' drive is shown in the pic. I just delete the Recovery, extend the C: partition into the space, then let Windows Repair do it's thing. This of course gives an up-to-date Recovery image as well, based on the current Windows ISO version.

Strangely my partner's PC has a recovery partition BEFORE the C: drive, as well as one after.

zbook · Aug 28, 2023

During the in place upgrade repair the new recovery partition was smaller in size than one of the orphaned recovery partitions:

(The 702 GB partition was the new recovery partition created by the in place upgrade repair)

Code:

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    929 GB  Healthy    Boot 
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    702 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4                      NTFS   Partition    646 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 5                      NTFS   Partition    724 MB  Healthy    Hidden

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    System             100 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Reserved            16 MB   101 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            929 GB   117 MB
  Partition 4    Recovery           702 MB   929 GB
  Partition 5    Recovery           646 MB   930 GB
  Partition 6    Recovery           724 MB   930 GB

The C: partition before and after:

Code:

Partition 3    Primary            930 GB   117 MB

Code:

Partition 3    Primary            929 GB   117 MB

zbook · Aug 28, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
Strangely my partner's PC has a recovery partition BEFORE the C: drive, as well as one after.

The older Windows versions had had the recovery partition as the first partition.

When Windows was upgraded it created a new recovery partition on the right side of the windows partition.
The prior recovery partition was orphaned.

The new recovery partition was to support automatic failover.

Code:

Recovery tools partition
This partition must be at least 300 MB.

The Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) tools require additional free space:

A minimum of 100 MB is required but 250 MB is recommended, to accommodate future updates, especially with custom partition layouts.



When calculating free space, note:

The recovery image, winre.wim, is typically between 500-700MB, depending on what drivers, languages, and customizations you add.

The file system itself can take up additional space. 
For example, NTFS may reserve 5-15MB or more on a 750MB partition.

This partition must use the Type ID: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC.

The recovery tools should be in a separate partition than the Windows partition to support automatic failover and to
support booting partitions encrypted with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption.

We recommend that you place this partition immediately after the Windows partition. 
This allows Windows to modify and recreate the partition later if future updates require a larger recovery image.

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

neofita · Sep 8, 2023

I just tested in a VM
deleting C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\appraiserres.dll doesn't work anymore on unsupported machine
repair install stops saying something failed

Bree · Sep 8, 2023

neofita said:
I just tested in a VM
deleting C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\appraiserres.dll doesn't work anymore on unsupported machine
repair install stops saying something failed

Yes, that changed a while back. Setup now complains if it's missing, or a substitute one. I tried several alternative older appraiserres.dll files, Setup seemed to detect if a 'wrong' .dll was there and failed saying 'something went wrong'. The only reliable way is to create a zero byte 'new text document' and rename it as appraiserres.dll. Then replace the one in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources with this dummy file.

antspants · Sep 8, 2023

Bree said:
Yes, that changed a while back. Setup now complains if it's missing, or a substitute one. I tried several alternative older appraiserres.dll files, Setup seemed to detect if a 'wrong' .dll was there and failed saying 'something went wrong'. The only reliable way is to create a zero byte 'new text document' and rename it as appraiserres.dll. Then replace the one in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources with this dummy file.

That’s a little scary as my system is unsupported, meaning I wonder what the next version will do to hinder the upgrade (or installation)

Bree · Sep 8, 2023

antspants said:
That’s a little scary as my system is unsupported, meaning I wonder what the next version will do to hinder the upgrade (or installation)

Currently I'm running several 'next versions' on my unsupported System Four (see 'Other Info' in my specs) - the Beta, Dev and Canary Insider builds. Dev and Beta get weekly feature updates, Beta just gets CU's now. Replacing appraiserres.dll with a zero byte dummy file is all I need to do to bypass the system checks during the Dev or Canary upgrades.

antspants · Sep 8, 2023

Bree said:
Currently I'm running several 'next versions' on my unsupported System Four (see 'Other Info' in my specs) - the Beta, Dev and Canary Insider builds. Dev and Beta get weekly feature updates, Beta just gets CU's now. Replacing appraiserres.dll with a zero byte dummy file is all I need to do to bypass the system checks during the Dev or Canary upgrades.

OK thanks Bree. Is this also relevant for a fresh install do you know, would rufus accommodate this? I edited the iso with that dummy file regardless, for the current public version due to earlier threads I had read pre-rufus.

Bree · Sep 8, 2023

antspants said:
OK thanks Bree. Is this also relevant for a fresh install do you know, would rufus accommodate this? I edited the iso with that dummy file regardless, for the current public version due to earlier threads I had read pre-rufus.

I'm not sure what changes Rufus makes, I've not used it myself. An in-place repair install using a usb made by Rufus may well not need any workarounds. For a clean install on an unsupported device I boot to a command prompt from an unmodified install usb, apply the known registry changes (originally published by Microsoft) then start Setup.exe from the command prompt.

antspants · Sep 8, 2023

Bree said:
I'm not sure what changes Rufus makes, I've not used it myself. An in-place repair install using a usb made by Rufus may well not need any workarounds. For a clean install on an unsupported device I boot to a command prompt from an unmodified install usb, apply the known registry changes (originally published by Microsoft) then start Setup.exe from the command prompt.

OK thanks, @Bree

neofita · Sep 9, 2023

Bree said:
Yes, that changed a while back. Setup now complains if it's missing, or a substitute one. I tried several alternative older appraiserres.dll files, Setup seemed to detect if a 'wrong' .dll was there and failed saying 'something went wrong'. The only reliable way is to create a zero byte 'new text document' and rename it as appraiserres.dll. Then replace the one in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources with this dummy file.

that worked fine, even with an official outdated ISO

elbmek · Sep 29, 2023

Yet again Brink, you rescue us from despair. This will be invalualbe if and when the times comes. Thank you also for the context change.

Brink · Sep 29, 2023

elbmek said:
Yet again Brink, you rescue us from despair. This will be invalualbe if and when the times comes. Thank you also for the context change.

retexan599 · Nov 10, 2023

Trying to do a repair install. Using this thread's tutorial. When I get to this step:

Clicking the Download button takes me to another page with this:

However when clicking on that Download Now button, nothing happens, no download, no error, nothing. In fact, none of the download button options on that page do anything. Started over a couple of times, but still nothing. Suggestions?