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REAGENTC.EXE: The Windows RE image was not found

Anonymous
2024-02-14T20:55:16+00:00

I encountered an issue while installing a routine update and found a probable explanation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5034441-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-january-9-2024-62c04204-aaa5-4fee-a02a-2fdea17075a8

I followed the Instructions to manually resize the partition to install the WinRE update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/kb5028997-instructions-to-manually-resize-your-partition-to-install-the-winre-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf

When I reached to the point where it said "reagentc /enable", I got this error from cmd "REAGENTC.EXE: The Windows RE image was not found."

Any possible fixes?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-02-22T16:33:10+00:00

    I am an IT tech and have the same issue as this user after following the KB and your solution is not relevant and not working. Can we have someone competent on this?

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-14T21:45:46+00:00

    I ran "reagentc /disable" and cmd says that it's already disabled.

    Then, I ran "reagentc /enable" and cmd said "REAGENTC.EXE: The Windows RE image was not found".

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-06-13T21:10:17+00:00

    As many of you here, I got myself in the same situation when running "reagentc /enable" - got message: "REAGENTC.EXE: The Windows RE image was not found." I was able to solve this using this bit of information:

    Turns out when reagentc /disable runs properly, it copies "Winre.wim" file into C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder to be used later when running reagentc /enable. On my "broken" PC it didn't happen for whatever reason. However, I have more than one PC. Thus

    On my other ("working") PC

    • I run reagentc /disable
    • Navigated to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder and found "Winre.wim" there.
    • Copied "Winre.wim" file from C*:\Windows\System32\Recovery* folder to a flash drive.
    • Then run reagentc /enable to set everything back to working order.

    Moved to the "broken" PC

    • Copied "Winre.wim" files from flash drive to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder
    • Removed "ReAgent.xml" files from C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder
    • Then run reagentc /enable
    • Got "REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful." message

    What's important, after that I was able to finish original Windows Update, which started all this.

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-05-01T02:38:03+00:00

    Hi Liam,

    If Winre.wim is missing from C:\Windows\system32\Recovery, a fresh copy can be extracted from the Windows ISO (install.wim) using 7-Zip.

    After placing wInre.wim in the above folder, run:

    • md C:\Recovery\WindowsRE
    • reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Recovery\WindowsRE  /target C:\Windows
    • reagentc /enable
    • reagentc /info

    The above steps move WinRE to the OS partition (assuming Bitlocker is not enabled.)

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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