Do not delete your Windows Recovery Partition without reading this!

Compumind said:

It should go in there?

From what I remember from the post I mentioned above... there are some commands to grab the reagent from somewhere else on C:\ and "put it back where it belongs". But like I said that was a while ago.

Ghot said:

From what I remember from the post I mentioned above... there are some commands to grab the reagent from somewhere else on C:\ and "put it back where it belongs". But like I said that was a while ago.

Well, I tried SFC /scannow and that was useless. I probably have to strip it off of another system.
IMHO, Macrium should include that in their distribution.

Compumind said:

Well, I tried SFC /scannow and that was useless. I probably have to strip it off of another system.
IMHO, Macrium should include that in their distribution.

I just googled...

New Mystery Win10 Folder $WinREAgent – Win10.Guru

What is this $WinREAgent folder I see on C Drive?

Compumind said:

Hmm..

The Win RE should go in there?

I really have no idea. Like I said... I remember a post a while back about getting reagentc back, somehow.
But I wasn't really worried about it.

Maybe I can get it online.
I'll post back.

Solution Created- (Revision 1.0) - by Compumind:

Many users tend to delete their Recovery Partition which contains the Windows RE Environment.

Therefore, the files that are required for Macrium Reflect 8 to function correctly get deleted in the process.
So when you try to create the Bootable Rescue Media, there is no sign of Windows RE - it's poof - gone!

There is now an "easy" way around it, so you can still have the Windows RE Environment on your Boot Drive.
It took me a very long time to figure it all out but when I did the result was well worth the effort.

Here we go:

Be sure to set your File Explorer view to show Hidden Files!

1. Download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to your desktop. - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
2. Next fully format a USB Flash Drive of 8-16 GB in either exFAT or FAT32, no label.
3. Create the Windows 10 Installation Media for use on the USB Flash Drive.
4. Ensure that you are downloading the correct distribution and architecture, for example: Windows 10, x64, English, etc.

5. Upon completion of the USB Drive Media Creation you will receive a message that it is ready. Then click Finish.

6. Open the USB Drive and look for a file folder named Sources.
7. Open the Folder and isolate a file called install.esd and copy it to your Desktop. Eject the USB Drive safely.
8. I had a problem using RAR to open the .esd Archive, so I downloaded 7-Zip and installed it. - 7-Zip

9. Select the install.esd file and right click to bring up the context menu.
10. Click on 7-Zip and slide over to the right where it says Open Archive (the topmost listing only - important.)

11. The Archive Opening will process and you will see seven folders. Each corresponds to a specific version of Windows 10.

12. Number 1 is for Windows 10 Home.
13. Number 4 is for Windows 10 Education.
14. Number 6 is for Windows 10 Professional.

15. Click on the folder number of the Windows 10 version that you have and open it.

16. Inside Folder number X (Where X = 1, 4 or 6) go to: \Windows\System32\Recovery and locate the files named ReAgent.xml and Winre.wim.
17. When you have them selected right-click and copy-paste both to your Desktop.

18. You will copy these files to either C:\Windows\System32\Recovery or C:\Recovery\WindowsRE - this depends on how your entire system is setup. Mark as Read-Only.
19. It is OK to overwrite any files in either of those two directories posted above.

20. Next, open a Elevated Command Prompt (Administrator), type the following: reagentc /enable and confirm success.
21. Next, type the following:reagentc /info - it should respond that Windows RE is Enabled.

22. Close all open windows and reboot your system.

23. Upon login, start Macrium Reflect 8 and go to Create Bootable Rescue Media.
24. The listing for the Windows RE Environment should now be present at the top.
25. Select all your relevant options and click Build.

You're done!

I asked Macrium (Paramount Software) to include Windows RE natively in their next build.

It might have to do with Copyright, or they just decided to "hook off" the existing code.
Little did they realize that people do customize their storage systems to some extent - like me.

Please post back with any questions, ideas, compliments and or complaints that you might have.

Hope this helps.



P.S. Thanks to @Ghot for putting ideas in my head. Much appreciated!

Compumind said:

Solution Created- (Revision 1.0) - by Compumind:

Many users tend to delete their Recovery Partition which contains the Windows RE Environment.

Therefore, the files that are required for Macrium Reflect 8 to function correctly get deleted in the process.
So when you try to create the Bootable Rescue Media, there is no sign of Windows RE - it's poof - gone!

There is now an "easy" way around it, so you can still have the Windows RE Environment on your Boot Drive.
It took me a very long time to figure it all out but when I did the result was well worth the effort.

Here we go:

Be sure to set your File Explorer view to show Hidden Files!

1. Download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to your desktop. - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
2. Next fully format a USB Flash Drive of 8-16 GB in either exFAT or FAT32, no label.
3. Create the Windows 10 Installation Media for use on the USB Flash Drive.
4. Ensure that you are downloading the correct distribution and architecture, for example: Windows 10, x64, English, etc.

5. Upon completion of the USB Drive Media Creation you will receive a message that it is ready. Then click Finish.

6. Open the USB Drive and look for a file folder named Sources.
7. Open the Folder and isolate a file called install.esd and copy it to your Desktop. Eject the USB Drive safely.
8. I had a problem using RAR to open the .esd Archive, so I downloaded 7-Zip and installed it. - 7-Zip

9. Select the install.esd file and right click to bring up the context menu.
10. Click on 7-Zip and slide over to the right where it says Open Archive (the topmost listing only - important.)

11. The Archive Opening will process and you will see seven folders. Each corresponds to a specific version of Windows 10.

12. Number 1 is for Windows 10 Home.
13. Number 4 is for Windows 10 Education.
14. Number 6 is for Windows 10 Professional.

15. Click on the folder number of the Windows 10 version that you have and open it.

16. Inside Folder number X (Where X = 1, 4 or 6) go to: \Windows\System32\Recovery and locate the files named ReAgent.xml and Winre.wim.
17. When you have them selected right-click and copy-paste both to your Desktop.

18. You will copy these files to either C:\Windows\System32\Recovery or C:\Recovery\WindowsRE - this depends on how your entire system is setup.
19. It is OK to overwrite any files in either of those two directories posted above.

20. Next, open a Elevated Command Prompt (Administrator), type the following: reagentc /enable and confirm success.
21. Next, type the following:reagentc /info - it should respond that Windows RE is Enabled.

22. Close all open windows and reboot your system.

23. Upon login, start Macrium Reflect 8 and go to Create Bootable Rescue Media.
24. The listing for the Windows RE Environment should now be present at the top.
25. Select all your relevant options and click Build.

You're done!

I asked Macrium (Paramount Software) to include Windows RE natively in their next build.

It might have to do with Copyright, or they just decided to "hook off" the existing code.
Little did they realize that people do customize their storage systems to some extent - like me.

Please post back with any questions, ideas, compliments and or complaints that you might have.

Hope this helps!

Brian

P.S. Thanks to @Ghot for putting ideas in my head. Much appreciated!

I do not think it would be easy for Reflect to include winre.wim as it is version specific.

I just do a repair upgrade if the winre partition is missing to create a new one, then Reflect builds the winre.wim.

If winre partition is available but not active, I use minitool partition wizard, and give it a temporary drive letter, then you can renable it with reagentc reenable command (cannot remember exact syntax but something like reagentc R: /reenable where R was temporary drive letter, which you remove after winre is reenabled ).

@cereberus -

Yes, but a repair install modifies the filesystem to an extent, this approach doesn't.
Just two files.

cereberus said:

I do not think it would be easy for Reflect to include winre.wim as it is version specific.

I just do a repair upgrade if the winre partition is missing to create a new one, then Reflect builds the winre.wim.

If winre partition is available but not active, I use minitool partition wizard, and give it a temporary drive letter, then you can renable it with reagentc reenable command (cannot remember exact syntax but something like reagentc R: /reenable where R was temporary drive letter, which you remove after winre is reenabled ).

Compumind said:

@cereberus -

Yes, but a repair install modifies the filesystem to an extent, this approach doesn't.
Just two files.

I'm not positive, but I think Macrium will NOW give you the option to choose either Windows PE or WinRE.
You will have to check that ofc.
It may be that you only get one chance to choose... and that would be on install.
I'm pretty sure that sometime, either on free v7 or paid v8, I had the choice... I think.



@Compumind

Your tutorial there, sounds a lot like what I remembered from before. Excellent job.

Ghot said:

I seem to remember a post by either @NavyLCDR or @Try3, about a way to do that.. but it was a while ago.

Ghot said:

… I remember a post a while back about getting reagentc back ...

This is my entire knowledge of reagentc

- The built-in Help file shown in the response to reagentc /?
- The built-in Help file shown in the response to reagentc -Boottore /?
- A shortcut with the Target field ReAgentc.exe /boottore boots to the WRE
Extraneous Partitions [ReagentC info - dalchina] - TenForums
reagentc example [NavyLCdr] - TenForums
Reset Recovery Image - TenForumsTutorials
Show Location of Recovery Image used to Reset Windows 10 - TenForumsTutorials


Best of luck,
Denis