WinRE.wim not found

[PM1962]

Hello.

Today the Windows Update KB5034441 (for Windows 10 / 64 bits) failed with error 0x80070643. Looking for solution, I've found that the issue is already reported, and comes from the WinRE partition that is too small (this update seems to target this partition). Some post about the issue says it's necessary to free some space from the main partition and recreate the WinRE partition. I've followed a MS article that explains how to shrink the main partition, delete the WinRE partition and create a new one with more space. What the article doesn't explain is that the new partition is empty 😞

Now Windows Update fails because of the inconsistent partition.

I've looked for solutions to restore the WinRE partition content, but this needs the winre.wim file that should be located in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery. But On my HP Envy the file is missing. I've tried to search the full drive for another location, but nothing.

I don't think I've done anything that may have deleted this file. How can I get the original file from the HP's Windows distribution (to be sure to have the right version for my computer) ?

I had created a recovery USB drive long time ago, but the file is not on it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I got the same failure on a Dell Optiplex 7020 MT Desktop PC, which is years older than your notebook.

The failure kept jamming my Windows update, so I ran the Hide Windows Update Utility to hide the update to prevent it from installing.

It's more important to me to have Windows update running normally than to try and figure out how to get one update to install.

I read the purpose of the update and since I don't have Bitlocker enabled on any of my PC's I decided it was not important to me.

KB5034441: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 9, 202...

You can't bypass something that isn't enabled in the first place.

If you want to do the same thing, I have zipped up and attached the Microsoft Hide Windows update utility below.

Unzip and run the utility.

It will find the pending KB5034441 update.

Check the box to hide the update.

The utility will run again and report the problem is 'Fixed.'

Restart the PC, run Windows update again and the failure will be cleared.

As far as getting the original WinRE partition back, see if running the system restore utility to an earlier date will fix that problem.

[PM1962]

Hello Paul.

Thanks for your tool. I'll try it to hide the update. For now the update error seems not to be a problem for installing other updates, and the error message doesn't bother me so much.

The most important for me is to restore the recovery partition ASAP.

Thanks again.

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

My Windows update kept indicating 'we have run into a problem...blah, blah, blah' and it would not clear.

I use that utility when I get fed up with trying to get failed updates to install.

It doesn't happen too often fortunately.

[PM1962]

Hello again !

Well, I think I've finally repaired my recovery partition, downloading a MS Windows 10 iso, and extracting the needed winre.wim file to make my reagent back. I'm not sure this partition is exactly what was created during the HP installation, but at least it makes the Windows Update KB installing without error : I've added 256 MB to the partition and it seems to be enough for the KB. So no more need today to hide buggy updates 😉 !

Do you think this "raw" Windows image may be "working" to repair or reset the PC ? I've also my recovery USB drive that I've created with the origin image, that is probably a better backup solution...

Thanks for your help.

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Glad you were able to fix the problem.

Yes, you can use the W10 ISO file and use the free Rufus utility to transfer the ISO file to a USB flash drive so that it is bootable to clean install W10.

I have used the Microsoft media creation tool to reinstall W10 many times in the past and do the same thing with the media creation tool for W11.

[PM1962]

My last recovery USB drive has been produced by my installed Windows, so perhaps it comes with drivers (HP, NVidia, Intel, and son on) that match my machine, and it's a more suitable solution to restart it if needed. In the past I had also used tools to build USB bootable OS for Ubuntu for example.

What I really don't understand is why MS produces updates that target a very special partition, as the recovery partion is, to install, with the probability to fail because of it's limited size. For what I've seen yesterday, I'm not the only one to get this failing update for the same reason, and I hope people can get a better solution than resizing the recovery partition.

Do you know if MS has removed/replaced failing updates in the past ?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I think that Microsoft may reissue an update if they are made aware of widespread issues with it.

That was a specific update and if I had really cared about what it did, I would have taken the steps to try and fix it like you did.

I was surprised that the update was not available on the Microsoft Update Catalog website, like most of them are.

On a cumulative update that occasionally fails, if I can't get it to install from the Microsoft Update Catalog, I use that tool to hide the update and when the next month's cumulative update comes out, that usually works, and it would also have included the previous files in the update that failed to work.

[ManilaByNight]

Hi Paul,

Problem with the newer ISO version is that it no longer appears to contain the winre file in .wim format but in .esd format which is a problem? How to solve this situation?

note: I found the solution to this at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023992/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-m...

However, it is still called install.wim

Would it be fine and work if to rename install.wim to winre.wim?

[PM1962]

Hello.

I've retrieved the winre.wim out of the the install.esd in the iso (Windows.iso\sources\install.esd\2\Windows\System32\Recovery\Winre.wim).
After extracting it to it's expected location (C:\windows\system32\Recovery), and duplicating it in the recovery partition, the reagentc has been able to reactivate the recovery partition.

T:\Recovery\WindowsRE

10/01/2024 13:57 <DIR> .
10/01/2024 13:57 <DIR> ..
07/12/2019 10:08 3 170 304 boot.sdi
10/01/2024 13:57 1 141 ReAgent.xml
04/12/2023 03:37 480 386 004 Winre.wim

After that, I had a very strange behavior of Windows Update. After rebooting, WU seemed to accept to install the KB5034441 in my increased recovery partition : then it appeared in the WU history as installed, but some hours after, I've tried to execute WU again, and the same KB has been found again, and has been failing with the same error code. I don't understand why this replayed update, and why it failed since the partition seems large enough for the previous installation. And more weird, running WU again, the same KB has been running again, but with no error, and it appears again as successful in WU history... I'd not bet it's not going to be triggered again : I just hope that MS provide a more stable update next month.

I hope it can help you.

What's is still ambiguous for me, is the possible differences between the MS Windows RE image and the original HP that was installed on my PC. For now my PC works, and in case of a future critical situation I think I could use either the original USB drive I've created some years ago, or another boot device with a raw Windows.iso.

Some idea about that ?