Windows 10 Update Recovery Image

Solution

Windows 10 uses a recovery image for resetting the PC in the event the OS can not be booted. The reset is activated by booting with Windows installation media (USB) key and selecting Repair my computer. To reset the PC the recovery environment needs to access a recovery image which may be stored on a hidden partition. To create the hidden partition and update the recovery image.

1. Create a simple partition (~1GB), label it Recovery and format as NTFS but do not mount it to a drive letter or folder.

1.1 If no unallocated space is available, the last partition on the disk may be shrunk.
if windows refuses to shrink the disk, turn off system restore, pagefile and hibernation files to remove the last unmovable file location.

2. The Volume identifier of the new partition can be found using the command

mountvol

\\?\Volume{3cda1e52-0000-0000-0000-d0630c000000}\

3. After identifying the volume id, the Recovery partition can be accessed using the following command to start explorer

start [volume-id]

start \\?\Volume{3cda1e52-0000-0000-0000-d0630c000000}\

4. Create a folder on the hidden partition called RecoveryImage

5. Locate the Windows installation media and copy the file

/sources/install.wim to recoveryPartition\RecoveryImage\install.wim

to the RecoveryImage folder on the recovery partition

6. Register the recovery image in the recovery environment

reagentc /setosimage /path "location\RecoveryImageFolder" /index 1