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Windows Recovery Environment

In January of 2024, Microsoft released KB5034441 after little to no testing. This update when ran against a default installation of Windows 10 would fail due to a lack of free space in the Windows Recovery Environment partition. This page contains the steps to correct this issue.

Microsoft did offer instructions, however they contain a technical error and are hard to understand. Original instructions: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5028997-instructions-to-manually-resize-your-partition-to-install-the-winre-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf

Manual steps to fix KB5034441 installation failure

WARNING

Proceed with caution, I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur. Please note these instructions only apply to systems with a WinRE partition at the end of the hard disk.

Check disk and recovery environment status

• Check which disk and partition WinRE status is currently installed to, run reagentc /info
• Here, the number after “harddisk” and “partition” is the index of the disk and partition WinRE is on.
• Then disable the WinRE, run reagentc /disable
• Verify it’s disabled, run reagentc /info

Shrink the OS partition and remove the old WinRE partition

• Run diskpart
• Run list disk
• To select the OS disk, run sel disk <OS disk index>. This should be the same disk index as WinRE.
• To check the partition under the OS disk and find the OS partition, run list part
• To select the OS partition, run sel part <OS partition index>
• Run shrink desired=400 minimum=400
• To select the WinRE partition, run sel part <WinRE partition index>
• To delete the WinRE partition, run delete partition override

Create new recovery partition

• 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.
• If your disk is GPT
  • Run create partition primary id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
  • Run format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
  • Run gpt attributes =0x8000000000000001
• If your disk is MBR
  • Run create partition primary
  • Run format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
  • Run set id=27
• Verify the partition layout with list part and list vol

Re-enable WindowsRE

• Exit from diskpart, run exit
• To re-enable WinRE, run reagentc /enable
• To confirm where WinRE is installed, run reagentc /info
• Install KB5034441 from Windows Update.

Recovery partition at the font of the disk?

Read all steps before attempting. In this scenario, you will have to:

• Follow the steps in the guide above until you’re about to shrink the OS partition.
• Change the shrink command step to be shrink desired=950 minimum=950
• Remove the recovery partition at the front of the disk with the commands provided.
• Using Disk Manager, replace the recovery partition’s space with an unformatted RAW volume, don’t assign a letter or format it, in this scenario the disk space is lost.
• Continue from the “Create new recovery partition” step.