Can't restore recovery partition

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  1. Posts : 20
    windows 10 64 bit
       #1

    Can't restore recovery partition


    I'm trying to restore recovery partition on my PC to prepare it for Win 11 update. So, I don't have recovery partition and I don't have winre.wim file. I copied winre.wim from another PC and placed it in system32>recovery folder. When I search for it (dir /a /s c:\winre.wim), windows finds it in the location where I copied it:

    Next, I try to set path to it using "reagentc /setreimage /path [path of Winre.wim]", and that apparently works as well:

    But when I check if the path has been established using "reagentc /info" I get empty path:

    Using "reagentc /enable" results in "operation successful". But in reality nothing is successful because WinRE status is still disabled and winre.win location is still empty:

    What is going on here?
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  2. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #2

    Hello,

    You could try doing a repair install of Windows 10 to fix this.

    Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 4,512
    several
       #3

    Did you try creating a recovery partition using diskpart?
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  4. Posts : 8,057
    windows 10
       #4

    Simpler to create a disk image
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 20
    windows 10 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Ok, I guess more background is needed. The reason I need a recovery partition is to that I could convert MBR partitions to GPT. I need this so that I could disable CSM and enable the secure boot option in BIOS, which is required for Win 11. If I do it with MBR partitions, Win 10 won't boot. So, the simplest way would be to use mbr2gpt.exe and convert without the data loss. However, for this I need a recovery partition that was originally installed with Win 10. But in my case it got somehow lost or I deleted it.
    Basically I want to convert Win 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI and partition MBR to GPT without data loss. I should be able to do this using winre.wim file and mbr2gpt.exe (I didn't get to this part). And the problem as outline in my original post is that commands get executed apparently "successfully". But they are not successful. So I'm wondering what I am doing wrong? And if there's another way to do it.
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  6. Posts : 4,512
    several
       #6

    The reason I need a recovery partition is to that I could convert MBR partitions to GPT.
    What made you think you need a recovery partition to convert mbr>gpt ?

    If you want to do it with mbr2gpt you could boot winre.wim from a usb stick. I cant recall if mbr2gpt is in boot.wim but I expect it is. So you could just boot the installation media, open a cmd prompt and do it from there.

    mbr2gpt is quite picky. Among the limitations is that it will only work if there are max 3 primary and 0 extended partitions on the target disk. So you are probably better off without a recovery partition on the mbr disk.
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  7. Posts : 20
    windows 10 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #7

    SIW2 said:
    What made you think you need a recovery partition to convert mbr>gpt ?
    I want to convert windows from Legacy BIOS to UEFI. And I want to avoid any data loss. The only way I know is with mbr2gpt. If I do it as is MBR2GPT yields "cannot find OS partition" error.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 4,512
    several
       #8

    "cannot find OS partition"
    What has that got to do with a recovery partition?

    mbr2gpt is very picky and will often fail for reasons that are not easy to interpret from the error message.

    among the numerous requirements

    • The BCD store on the system partition contains a default OS entry pointing to an OS partition
    • The volume IDs can be retrieved for each volume which has a drive letter assigned
    • All partitions on the disk are of MBR types recognized by Windows or has a mapping specified using the /map command-line option
    It sounds like it is having difficulty with that.

    There are 3rd party tools that can do it.

    I did a walk through with screenshots already using a free 3rd party program called diskgenius to convert mbr > gpt . Cant recall if it is on this forum or on tenfoums.

    EDIT: I have just remembered it is on sevenforums. I am too stupid to understand how to use the advanced search function to find it.

    Fortunately I copied the link or I would never find it. convert to gpt with diskgenius

    Note:

    If you already have a 100mb or larger system partition on your mbr disk, you could change that into an esp partition after converting the disk to gpt. Delete it, rt click the unallocated space and select create esp/msr. The esp should be 100mb minimum, and an msr is not strictly required so you can untick that if you like.Then Save All and yes to format now.

    https://www.diskgenius.com/download.php





    Last edited by SIW2; 19 Jan 2022 at 20:30.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 20
    windows 10 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #9

    SIW2 said:
    What has that got to do with a recovery partition?
    Don't know. But I've read somewhere that the problem can happen either if you have: 1. Dual boot system (I don't); 2. Missing the recovery partition (My system doesn't have it).

    I have found a video on youtube where one guy recreated the error (MBR2GPT: Cannot find OS partition) by deleting the recovery partition. And then he fixed it by fixing the recovery entry (not by recreating the recovery partition. Sorry, my bad).

    Anyhow, I'll try your method and see if I can get PC ready for Win 11.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #10

    What do you get if you run:

    mbr2gpt /validate /allowfullos

    Also, if you posted a screenshot of disk management for us, it would help us to determine what is wrong:
    How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
      My Computer


 

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