KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update

Applies To
Windows 10 Windows 10, version 1607, all editions Windows Server 2016, all editions Win 10 Ent LTSC 2019 Win 10 IoT Ent LTSC 2019 Windows 10 IoT Core LTSC Windows Server 2019 Windows 10 Enterprise and Education, version 21H2 Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, version 21H2 Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-Session, version 21H2 Windows 10, version 22H2, all editions Windows 11 version 21H2, all editions Windows 11 version 22H2, all editions Windows 11 version 23H2, all editions

Summary

Microsoft has changed how it updates PCs that run the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). WinRE will be updated using the monthly cumulative update. This change only applies to PCs that get updates from Windows Update (WU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). This change starts on June 27, 2023, for the Windows 11, version 22H2 cumulative update.

Some PCs might not have a recovery partition that is large enough to complete this update. Because of this, the update for WinRE might fail. If you see a system event with an ID of 4502 triggered in C:\Windows\System32\winevt\logs\system.evtx, it is likely an error due to insufficient space on the recovery partition that contains the WinRE. The details of this system event should show, "Windows Recovery Environment servicing failed." with an ErrorPhase of 2. If that is the case, please follow the steps below to manually resize your recovery partition. This requires your device to have the recovery partition after the OS partition. Use the steps below to verify this.

Manually resize your partition by 250 MB

  1. Open a Command Prompt window (cmd) as admin.

  2. To check the WinRE status, run reagentc /info. If the WinRE is installed, there should be a “Windows RE location” with a path to the WinRE directory. An example is, “Windows RE location: [file://%3f/GLOBALROOT/device/harddisk0/partition4/Recovery/WindowsRE]\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE.” Here, the number after “harddisk” and “partition” is the index of the disk and partition WinRE is on.

  3. To disable the WinRE, run reagentc /disable

  4. Shrink the OS partition and prepare the disk for a new recovery partition.

    1. To shrink the OS, run diskpart
    2. Run list disk
    3. To select the OS disk, run sel disk<OS disk index>  This should be the same disk index as WinRE.
    4. To check the partition under the OS disk and find the OS partition, run list part
    5. To select the OS partition, run sel part<OS partition index>
    6. Run shrink desired=250 minimum=250
    7. To select the WinRE partition, run sel part<WinRE partition index>
    8. To delete the WinRE partition, run delete partition override

  5. Create a new recovery partition.

    1. First, check if the disk partition style is a GUID Partition Table (GPT) or a Master Boot Record (MBR).  To do that, run list disk. Check if there is an asterisk character (*) in the “Gpt” column.  If there is an asterisk character (*), then the drive is GPT. Otherwise, the drive is MBR.

      1. If your disk is GPT, run create partition primary id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac followed by the command gpt attributes =0x8000000000000001
      2. If your disk is MBR, run create partition primary id=27

    2. To format the partition, run format quick fs=ntfs label=”Windows RE tools”

    3. If your disk is MBR, run set id=27

  6. To confirm that the WinRE partition is created, run list vol

  7. To exit from diskpart, run exit

  8. To re-enable WinRE, run reagentc /enable

  9. To confirm where WinRE is installed, run reagentc /info

Note If creation failed or you do not want to extend the WinRE partition, run reagentc /enable to re-enable WinRE.