Windows 10: Windows Recovery Environment / Use a device shows "strange" entries.

Hi!

Yesterday I restored my HP Omen laptop using the Restore option of Windows Recovery Environment.

Before doing that, I navigated through the menus of WinRE, just because I was curious.

I found that inside the "Use a device" option there were two strange entries: "Manjaro" and "Ubuntu" (you can see what I'm talking about in the pic). These two entries lead nowhere, and when selected a message from UEFI appears, saying "The selected boot device failed. Press <Enter> to continue".

I remember that I installed (and then removed) the two Linux distros at least one year ago. They were installed in a "triple boot setup" alongside Windows 10, that was the main OS on my SSD, while Manjaro and Ubuntu were installed on the internal HDD.

Anyways, yesterday I didn't worry about these two entries because I was going to wipe all my data, but after the restore was complete, they were still there. So I started looking for a way to get rid of those two (harmless) entries.

I formatted both my drives with gparted, restored UEFI to default settings, re-flashed it... but nothing worked. So I tried by low level formatting both my SSD and HDD, but that didn't help either. They are still there. (Every formatting was followed by a fresh Windows installation from scratch).

Where in the world are those entries stored? I don't know what else I could wipe to get rid of them D:

I don't know why SSD is shown in this menu, but HDD isn't. Maybe it's related to the fact that Ubuntu and Manjaro were installed on it and \"took its place\".

submitted by /u/Frank1905R3turn
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:)

 

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

 

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.

 

windows recovery environment

Hi Sreenivas,

Your issue is usually caused by incorrect configuration of the Boot Loader.

As a workaround, follow the steps below:

• First, restart your PC or laptop.
• After restarting you see the Grub menu.
• In the Advanced Options menu you will see an entry Recovery Menu that you need to select.
• Carefully select the grub – Update grub boot loader option.
• It will automatically add an entry for Windows 10 to the boot menu.

If the steps won't resolve the issue, we strongly advised to reach out with Ubuntu support. Otherwise, revert back to single boot system.

Let us know if you need anything else.