Windows 10: Windows Recovery Environment unable to enable Win10

Hello, I've moved my recovery partition away from C: so I can expend it more.


I have successfully moved my WinRE.wim to the new recovery partition too, so the REAGENTC.exe can actually set the path to the new partition.


But somehow, setting the REAGENTC.exe /enable doesn't have any effect. Below are some status info.


1.




with diskpart and reagentc, here is what happens

vvv THINGS I TRIED vvv


1. I am checking my diskpartition.

- The recovery partition has type recovery and label New Drive. It doesn't have any letter assigned to it


2. Then I check current state of REAGENTC.exe

- It is currently disabled


3. I set the recovery partition\recovery\WindowsRE 700MB to the path of the WinRE.wim.

- It is successful


4. Then I enable the REAGENTC.exe a couple of times, but even after the /enable, they are still disabled.

In fact, when I try /disable, they appear already disabled.\


5. I have rebooted the device just in case...you know, conventional master key to issues.

Still doesn't enable.


I would appreciate any idea how to solve it...I'm quite tired of the problem now.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> diskpart



Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.610



Copyright C Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: MINSOO



DISKPART> select disk 0



Disk 0 is now the selected disk.



DISKPART> list partition



Partition ### Type Size Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1 System 479 MB 64 KB

Partition 2 Reserved 16 MB 480 MB

Partition 3 Primary 99 GB 496 MB

Partition 4 Primary 137 GB 100 GB

Partition 5 Recovery 700 MB 237 GB



DISKPART> list volume



Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info

---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------

Volume 0 C NTFS Partition 99 GB Healthy Boot

Volume 1 D Personal Fi NTFS Partition 137 GB Healthy

Volume 2 TINYCORE64 FAT32 Partition 479 MB Healthy System

Volume 3 NEW VOLUME FAT32 Partition 700 MB Healthy Hidden



DISKPART> exit



Leaving DiskPart...


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: 073301ba-88cf-11eb-b5d4-5076af3d663d

Recovery image location:

Recovery image index: 0

Custom image location:

Custom image index: 0



REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.



PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\globalroot\device\harddisk0\partition5\recovery\WindowsRE /target c:\windows

Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition5\recovery\WindowsRE



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: 073301ba-88cf-11eb-b5d4-5076af3d663d

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: 073301ba-88cf-11eb-b5d4-5076af3d663d

Recovery image location:

Recovery image index: 0

Custom image location:

Custom image index: 0



REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.



PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\globalroot\device\harddisk0\partition5\recovery\WindowsRE /target c:\windows /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: 073301ba-88cf-11eb-b5d4-5076af3d663d

Recovery image location:

Recovery image index: 0

Custom image location:

Custom image index: 0



REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reagentc /disable

REAGENTC.EXE: Windows RE is already disabled.

:)

 

Unable to access Windows Recovery Environment normally

Some entries in the bcd for the recovery environment is either corrupted or missing. To fix the problem, you;d need to rebuild the entries for the recovery environment.
Here's the steps:

1. Turn on folder options to show hidden files/folders. Open admin command then type: reagentc /disable
   - This will move 2 files from the recovery partition reagent.xml and winre.wim to C:\windows\system32\recovery
2. If you have the Windows 10 ISO, double click on it to mount to a virtual cd/dvd else If you have the Windows 10 USB then navigate to Sources folder and look for install.esd or install.wim.
3. Use 7-ZIP to open install.esd or install.wim, select and index. eg. 6 then navigate to Windows\system32\recovery. You'd see 2 files: Winre.wim and reagent.xml.
4. Remove everything from C:\windows\system32\recovery (ie. your current winre.win and reagent.xml)
5. Copy the new winre.wim and reagent.xml from the install.esd/install.wim to C:\windows\system32\Recovery
6. From admin command, type: ReAgentc /enable

Reboot to recovery. This will also fix the problem with shutdown /r /o

 

Unable to enable BitLocker due to mis-configured (?) Windows Recovery Environment

tl;dr: I failed to enable BitLocker on my tablet's system drive for the first time and now I see an error each time I restart Windows or try to enable BitLocker again. Windows claims that this is due to not configured Windows Recovery Environment and I don't know, what to do next.

I have a Windows 10 Pro-based tablet with TPM available and wated to enable BitLocker encryption on drive C: (system drive and the only one in fact, of that matters).

I enabled it for the first time and I went through few steps of its wizard. First, Windows checked, if my hardware allows to use BitLocker. This step passed without problems. Next, I saw a screen in which Windows claimed, that it is moving Windows Recovery Environment to some other (hidden) partition. Reasons for such move remains unknown to me.

In third screen or step I saw I question, where to I want to store encryption key and three options:

• save it to Microsoft account,
  
• store it on USB,
  
• print it.
  

This is a tablet with only microUSB port. I didn't have microUSB-based pendrive or microUSB OTG cable when enabling BitLocker for the first time. And I have my Windows 10 with only single local account. Thus, non of above options was available for me and Next button was disabled.

I've clicked X, seen some error message and shut down my tablet.

When I started it again next day I saw following error during Windows start-up:





Now, I can see it with every Windows 10 restart. This is really weird for me, because -- as I wrote above -- BitLocker configuration was not finished and thus neither BitLocker is enabled nor encryption key is put to TPM.

Each time I try to re-enable BitLocker for C: drive I see following error:





I don't understand, how it is possible that Windows managed to move Windows Recovery Environment from C: drive to a hidden partition, but isn't able to move it back?

Anyway, can anyone shed some light and explain me, what should I do now or how to proceed from this point? How to move back Windows Recovery Environment manually? How to get rid of that startup error message? And the most important -- how to enable BitLocker and encrypt my system drive on my tablet?

 

Missing Recovery Environment

Hi Alan,

Here is a link containing several useful suggestions to help you recover Windows 10. Since the error message that you got tells you to insert your Windows installation or recovery media. We suggest the perform the steps listed under
Use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC or you can also follow the steps under
Use installation media to restore or reset your PC. Please see the link below for more details:

Recovery options in Windows 10.

Regards.