Windows 10 lacks partitions and WinRe options

Question

I have just installed a fresh windows 10 v1909. Having installed some apps, I activated bitlocker. Bitlocker warned me saying "something" about a recovery partition not existing and how it can be made manually if needed. When I went to disk manager there indeed was no recovery partition and all of my advanced startup options were reduced to boot options. No command prompt, no restore points... How do I remake a recovery partition that windows usually automatically creates and how do I return all of the options to WinRe/Advanced startup? Edit: I would also like to add that the System reserved partition no longer exists and the one from which windows boots is unnamed.

Answer 1

PCs with BIOS motherboards are often configured without a WinRE partition, instead storing WinRE on the Boot or OS partition

WinRE should always be on its own partition, but only Win ≥10 clean installs do so:

• Windows ≥10: \\WinRE_partition\Recovery\WindowsRE
  (Upgrade: C:\Recovery\WindowsRE)
• Windows ≤8.1: C:\Recovery\WindowsRE
  
  

To move WinRE to its own partition: (ReAgentC)

1. Open an Admin Terminal: +R → Open: powershell → Ctrl+Shift + OK
2. Backup current winre.wim:
   1. Verify %WinDir%\System32\Recovery\winre.wim exists:

      ls "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery" | FindStr /I "winre.wim" ; ls "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery" -Hidden | FindStr /I "winre.wim"
      

   2. If it doesn't:

      Xcopy /H "C:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim" "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery"
      

      • BIOS: May store WinRE on Boot partition: Mount Boot at Y: → Update WIM path
        (Once copied over, remove Y: mountpoint: DiskPart → Sel Vol Y → Remove)
        
        
3. Create a 650MB WinRE partition: +R → Open: DiskPart → OK

   ::# WinRE partition should have ~300MB free for future winre.wim size increases
   
   ::# Select OS partition: 
   sel vol c
   
   ::# Shrink partition by 665MB [RAW]:
   shrink desired=665 minimum=650
   
   ::# Create WinRE partition:
   
       ::# BIOS:
       cre par pri size=665 id=27
   
       ::# UEFI:
       cre par pri size=665 id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
       gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
   
   ::# Format partition:
   format fs=ntfs quick label=WinRE
   
   ::# Mount partition:
   assign letter=z
   
   exit
   

   
   
4. Disable WinRE, set custom location of winre.wim, and re-enable WinRE: (ReAgentC)

   # Copy WinRE.wim:
     MkDir "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE" ; Xcopy /H "C:\Recovery\WindowsRE\WinRE.wim" "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE"
   
   # Disable WinRE:
     ReAgentC /Disable
   
   # Set Custom WinRE Path:
     ReAgentC /SetREimage /Path "Z:\Recovery\WindowsRE"
   
   # Enable WinRE:
     ReAgentC /Enable
   
   # Verify:
     ReAgentC /Info
   
   # Remove WinRE mount point:
     DiskPart
       sel vol z
       remove
       exit