If someone, for whatever reason doesn't have a Recovery Partition, what is the best way to create one? Can you manually create a new partition, then make that a Recovery Partition? If so, then how?
Following the discussion that we had on the Macrium thread about the recovery partition, I did a test namely a backup without the recovery partition, and restoring the system was without any problems which means that on my system at least, it is not required. Is it really worth it to forego this partition? It is under 500 MB therefore it doesn't bring any improvement in terms of speed or space...
The question was not particularly related to me. It was for someone else. So, I cannot answer the question about whether it is MBR or UEFI right now. But I have read many conflicting ways to do it, and most of them don't involve adding it back to the system drive, but rather creating an external drive. There are quite a lot of threads on the Windows 10 Forums, and the answers are very conflicting depending on the thread. Some even say that it cannot be done without reinstalling Windows 10. And what causes the problem when you try and create a WinRE/WinPE boot disk via a third party application such as an imaging or partitioning application, and you get the error that it cannot find boot.wim?
OK, you've extended a challenge. Gloves across the face. Osaban, Having a WinRE.wim is important for making certain USB bootable flash drives.
Hadron, UEFI system The RE partition was deleted in BIU Win10 booted and tried to make a TBWinRE. Failed as couldn't find winre.wim RE partition restored from a backup In Win10 reagentc /disable dir /a C:\Windows\System32\Recovery winre.wim has been moved from the RE partition to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery The RE partition was deleted in BIU reagentc /enable Win10 rebooted and tried to make a TBWinRE. Success In BIU created a 1000 MiB partition in a different area from the previously deleted RE partition The partition was created as 27h Windows RE File System. The Partition GUID Type was made Microsoft Recovery In Win10 reagentc /disable reagentc /enable dir /a C:\Windows\System32\Recovery dir /a C:\Recovery\WindowsRE winre.wim has been moved from the Win10 partition to the new RE partition In BIU, winre.wim seen in the RE partition Win10 booted and tried to make a TBWinRE. Success Doing this in a MBR system would be identical except for "The Partition GUID Type was made Microsoft Recovery".
@Brian K hi, brian. which is better: boot files on separate (system reserved) partition / (single) os partition?
I don't think the BOOTing is the real question... the BOOT files may be in either place and as long as the System is healthy, it BOOTs. The problem occurs when the System NEEDS the Recovery WIM and can't get it because it's on a broken partition (if it's on the OS partition and that partition is broken for access purposes). The RE WIM contains all the System's diagnostic and recovery capability that Windows uses to fix itself... without access to it, those functions are unavailable and moot. When MicroSloth decided to start using separate BOOT partitions from the OS (and eventually a home for the RE function), they figured since it would be a reasonably "inactive" partition (used only as a BOOT path, primarily), the chance of it getting damaged was statistically lowered by a lot... the result, a safer System as far as diagnostic/repair/recovery was concerned.
hmmm. im using an second Physical harddrive for rescue. where an bootable winpe image is located with tools i need. when windows (HDD 0 (c) or the bootrecord or whatever get corrupt or broken, ill just select the winpe HDD (HDD 4 (z) in boot menue and voila, now i can fix whatever needs fixing, or do a rollback or use DISM++, etc etc.. im shure there are better ways for this, but for me, this works.. I did had the recovery before on the same HDD as an diff. partition, but when the MBR or whatever gets borked, i think its safer to use an Phisical different HDD for the Recovery..Just to be on the safe side... *interessting Topic.. Best Regards
imdb, With MBR systems it is a personal preference. I preferred one partition rather than two although in recent times I don't care if there is a System Reserved partition. I wasn't interested in using BitLocker. Now with UEFI systems, we must have the booting files in a separate partition, the FAT32 ESP. We have to get used to doing multi-partition backups/restores.
I don't rely on the RE to fix Windows boot issues. I've never seen it work. In my test computer I've seen something like "Windows is attempting repairs" on many occasions. Windows never boots after seeing this message. Rely on backup images.
Thanks, Brian. You said that doing it in an MBR system would be identical except that "The Partition GUID Type was made Microsoft Recovery". But it is also "The Partition GUID Type was also made Microsoft Recovery" in the UEFI system. Also, please forgive my ignorance, but what is a "27h Windows RE File System"?
Hadron, BIBM doesn't have Partition GUID Types so you can't do this step. In your UEFI system get into BIU. Partition Work, select a partition, Properties. You will see the Partition Type. Click the drop down arrow to see the various Types. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table Types are halfway down this page. In BIU or BIBM, click Settings, put a tick in Full Partition List. Now you can create a 39/27h Windows RE partition.
Imo i preffer more trusted solution and use macrium reflect or other tool to create copy disk or system partiton to external disk which is not conected to pc everyday.. In cause when you hit brutal virus which encrypt or wipe/broke your all data on disk gather snapshot sytem/restore point.
But if your computer doesn't have a recovery partition, a lot of third party applications cannot make bootable media as it cannot find boot.wim.
nonsens i always delete manualy recover partition after install system and never had yet issue during rollback system via paragon backup. Basicaly when you create bootdisk its have own system based on windows or linux depen which os you chose and yet during instalation you can yet add myself hardware drivers in case when comon system boot dont have it and make problem but its yet no happen to me .
Hadron, if the Win10 OS doesn't have winre.wim then you can get one... https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=587
