REAGENTC.EXE: Unable to update Boot Configuration Data.

Question

I am unable to enable WindowsRE?

Answer 1

(1) You've got two System partitions each with its own BCD. C partition is doubling as a System partition, & EFI is a System partition...

That is likely what is confusing ReagentC. It needs to find the BCD in order to enable the Recovery partition. We need to tell Windows that EFI is to be used -- not C. Let's try this...

DiskPart<<<Enter DiskPart

List  Vol<<<List the volumes & letters

Select  Vol  7           <<<Select EFI -- I guess it's still Volume 7

Assign  Letter=S     <<<Give it letter S -- unless List Vol shows it's already there

Exit<<<Exit Diskpart

BCDBoot  C:\Windows  /s  S:  /f  UEFI <<< **** Rebuild the BCD in EFI & all other boot files.

A reboot will be necessary to inform the rest of Windows of the change.

(a) I'm unsure that actually tells Windows to use EFI.

(b) I'm unsure whether that will also remove the System attribute from C.

(c) I'm unsure exactly what would remove it.

(d) So, maybe try this before the reboot...

REN C:\EFI EFI_unwanted <<<Rename the folder

..........................................................................

Then -- if it turns out it can't reboot -- you'll have to rename it back in the recovery environment, thus...

(a) At the Choose an Option screen, click "Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt".

(b) Enter the following commands...

DiskPart

List Vol

Exit

The Windows partition may have a different letter here. Use it instead of C in the following command...

REN C:\EFI_unwanted EFI <<<Rename it back

......................................................................

(2) After the reboot (presuming it did)...

Does BCDEdit /Enum {fwbootmgr} now show {bootmgr} on top?

Does BCDEdit /Enum {Bootmgr} name either HarddiskVolume9 or S: as the Device?

If so, try again...

ReagentC /Disable <<<Moves WinRE.wim to staging area

ReagentC /Enable <<<Moves it to the Recovery partition

ReagentC /Info <<<Show whether it is enabled

If it isn't enabled, let's see C:\Windows\Logs\ReAgent\Reagent.log. Just copy/paste the output of those three commands from the bottom of the log.

(3) A volume is a partition that has a file system on it. The Volume numbers enumerated by DiskPart are not the same as the HarddiskVolume numbers enumerated in the BCD. The BCD counts all partitions (with or without a file system) starting from Disk 0. Disk Management won't show them all. DiskPart will show them, this way...

DiskPart <<<Enter DiskPart

List Disk <<<List your 8 disks

Select Disk 0 <<<Focus on Disk 0

List Part <<<List its partitions

Select Disk 1

List Part

=== Continue with Disks 2 through 7 ===

Exit <<<Leave DiskPart

Looking at your prior listings, I now think the 8th partition down will be C. And EFI will be partition 9. Disks 0-5 will have 1 partition each, then Disk 6 shows...

So -- HarddiskVolume8 is the Windows partition. (EFI is HarddiskVolume9). Yep, the BCD that is on C (shown with /Store) shows the letter...

The one that is on EFI (S:) shows...

We want the one on EFI (S:) to be the only one. Windows gets confused when there is more than one System partition.

Answer 2

I think MSInfo32 is inadequate to the task because it counts partitions starting with 0, & it leaves out my MSR (of 16 MB)...

Disk Management also leaves out the MSR (because it has no file system I think), but at least it puts the correct partition number on the Recovery partition. It's Disk 0, Partition 4...

Answer 3

That is pretty much what I was showing. The important thing here, since you count HardDiskVolume based on drive priority and partitions on that drive, you need to know the pecking order, and I think that is what msinfo32 shows you.

If you get the drives in the incorrect order, you will get the wrong partition.

Answer 4

That might be. But I've become suspicious of /SetREImage. I looked at its output in "C:\Windows\Logs\ReAgent\Reagent.log" in another thread & came to think it wasn't actually doing what it was supposed to do. Still, it didn't do anything harmful & is worth trying.

In that thread it ultimately worked to just do a /Disable (moves WinRE.wim to a staging area) followed by a /Enable. The latter checks to see whether the Recovery partition is suitable. If so, WinRE.wim goes there. Otherwise, it ends up back where it came from which looks like the C:\Recovery\WinRE folder in Lumince's case.

Let's see what his log looks like.

Edit: And IIRC, the staging area is C:\Windows\System32\Recovery.

Answer 5

Just so we are on the same page, if you set the re image, it will set the change in the BCD store, although another step is necessary to actually make the change. It does not change the location of the actual Winre.wim, which is placed during the install and is then the only version on the system.

Many commands were suggested in this thread. One was to copy the Winre.wim to the C: partition and then try to use it to set the recovery options.

I wondered, if the original Winre.wim was located correctly and usable, why try to move it, but it was done.

The reagentc /setreimage command is pretty much worthless unless you know the actual location of the Winre.wim file you want to use. And of course you need the partition and directory structure to do that. I believe you will also get a message stating the image is not available if you choose incorrectly.

The install in this thread has several warning flags, one of which is how they can boot as UEFI and secure boot from an NTFS partition. I might even try that tomorrow to see if my system will boot that way.

There may be some things we have not been told.