Windows 10 lacks partitions and WinRe options
I have just installed a fresh windows 10 v1909. Having installed some apps, I activated bitlocker. Bitlocker warned me saying "something" about a recovery partition not existing and how it can be made manually if needed. When I went to disk manager there indeed was no recovery partition and all of my advanced startup options were reduced to boot options. No command prompt, no restore points... How do I remake a recovery partition that windows usually automatically creates and how do I return all of the options to WinRe/Advanced startup? Edit: I would also like to add that the System reserved partition no longer exists and the one from which windows boots is unnamed.
PCs with BIOS motherboards are often configured without a WinRE partition, instead storing WinRE on the Boot or OS partition (WinRE should always be on its own partition).
To move WinRE to its own partition: (ReAgentC
)
- Open an Admin Terminal: WinKey+R > Open:
powershell
> CTRL+SHIFT OK -
Backup current
WinRE.wim
:-
Verify if
C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\WinRE.wim
exists:ls "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery" | FindStr /I "WinRE.wim" ; ls "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery" -Hidden | FindStr /I "WinRE.wim"
-
If it doesn't:
Xcopy /H "C:\Recovery\WindowsRE\WinRE.wim" "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery"
- BIOS: May store WinRE on Boot partition: Mount Boot at
Y:
> Update WIM path
Once copied over, removeY:
mountpoint:DiskPart
>sel vol y
>remove
- BIOS: May store WinRE on Boot partition: Mount Boot at
-
- Create a 650MB WinRE Partition: WinKey+R > Open:
DiskPart
> OKsel vol c
-
shrink desired=665 minimum=650
- WinRE partition must have 320MB free (
WinRE.wim
is ~300MB in size) - If this command fails, you will need to use a 3rd party partition manager to shrink the system partition by 665MB [RAW], as the formatted size should be 650MB.
- WinRE partition must have 320MB free (
- BIOS:
cre par pri size=665 id=27
UEFI:cre par pri size=665 id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
format fs=ntfs quick label=WinRE
assign letter=z
- UEFI only:
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
-
Copy
WinRE.wim
:MkDir "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE" ; Xcopy /H "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\WinRE.wim" "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE"
WinRE.wim
is normally a hidden file; if it returnsFile not found
, remove/H
parameter
- Disable WinRE:
ReAgentC /Disable
- Set Custom WinRE Path:
ReAgentC /SetREimage /Path "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE"
- Enable WinRE:
ReAgentC /Enable
- Verify:
ReAgentC /Info
- Remove WinRE Mountpoint:
DiskPart
>sel vol z
>remove
>exit