WinRe lost, then found. Where is my Recovery Petition?

allmainiac · 3 Weeks Ago

Windows 10 Ver 10.0.19045 Build 19045

My old C: SSD was running out of space and I wanted to convert my system to UEFI. Both the the original disk and the replacement disk were configured MBR. So I copied my old drive onto my new drive using Minitools. I then used MBR2GPT to change the partition configuration, Unfortunately this required me to shrink the new C: and move the Recovery Partition. When mbr2gpt successfully converted the new disk to gpt, it attempted to enable WinRe, that failed and I was unable to enable it manually. So I shutdown the computer, unplugged the old system drive and rebooted in UEFI mode. My new drive was now labeled C:, but the Recovery Partition was not labeled "Healthy Recovery Partition". So I again attempted to enable WinRE, which again failed. So I shutdown my computer, plugged in the old drive and when I rebooted the old drive was now labeled I: and the original Healthy Recovery Partition was still labeled as such. So I attempted to enable WinRe and it succeeded. The computer is booted in UEFI mode and the boot is identified in the new C: drive. So where is the WinRe is enabled? Can I can it on my C: if it isn't there now?

SIW2 · 3 Weeks Ago

reagentc -info

will tell you

allmainiac · 3 Weeks Ago

Thanks, so that returns:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk3\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 88f27368-f44b-11ee-9322-2cf05d0931cd
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

Which means that the OS is now using the unlabeled 556 mb partition on disk 3 (my new system drive) as the Recovery Partition? So I could format Disk 2 and that wouldn't be a problem?

DISKPART> select disk 3

Disk 3 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 578 GB 350 GB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 928 GB
Partition 3 Recovery 556 MB 930 GB

DISKPART> select disk 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 232 GB 31 KB
Partition 2 Recovery 531 MB 232 GB

spunk · 3 Weeks Ago

I would Shut down the computer and unplug Disk 2 and start the computer with it unplugged and see if it still boots. If so, shut down plug it back in and you can run the Clean Command in Diskpart. to wipe the drive. Then create a partition(s) here or in Disk Management.

Using Minitool, you can move all of the Unallocated Space partitions together, and either create a new partition or Extend one of the other partitions into the Unallocated Space.
Be sure to create an Image of the drive first before attempting.

SIW2 · 3 Weeks Ago

Looks like disk2 is mbr and disk 3 is gpt

if you want the boot device
reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control /v FirmwareBootDevice

spunk · 3 Weeks Ago

After running the Clean Command in Diskpart on Disk 2, you then can type Convert GPT
How to Convert MBR to GPT via CMD Prompt Windows 11/10/8/7?
Before creating new partition(s), In Diskpart, Disk Management, or Minitool

Pentagon · 3 Weeks Ago

The partition structure on disk 3 is chaotic and the best way is to
1. run a backup of C-Partition
2. run a clean installation
3. recover the backup from step 1 to your new (C:) from step 2
4. copy your files from (I:) to disk 3
5. run diskpart (sel disk 2|clean|convert gpt|create partition primary)