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Using a brand new Surface Pro (first generation) out of the box, installed current updates, then 8.1, and any further recommended updates after 8.1 was installed.

I've installed a two other things that don't seem connected to the issue: the Cisco Anywhere VPN client and Visual Studio 2013.

I'd like to enable Bitlocker, but during the verification step, the following error is displayed, with no options to continue:

This PC deosn't support entering a BitLocker recovery password during startup. Ask your administrator to configure Windows Recovery Environment so that you can use BitLocker.

The "administrator" in this case is me, and I don't:

  1. ... understand why this has happened
  2. ... know how to fix the issue, as if it's really necessary to make this change, what would I do?

3 Answers 3

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This worked well with Windows 10, with a couple of tweaks, swapping steps 5 & 6. You must use the FORMAT command before exiting DISKPART. Also, if like me you have upgraded from 8.1 to Enterprise, to Windows 10 you might have multiple recovery partitions. You can use reagent /info beforehand to check which partition is currently being used. The reagent /enable process failed when I tried to change to an older recovery volume.

  1. Start CMD as Administrator, enter DISKPART
  2. Enter LIST VOLUME
  3. Then select the recovery volume with SELECT VOLUME x where x is the corresponding number of the volume
  4. Enter ASSIGN LETTER=Q (to assign the letter Q:/ to the recovery partition)
  5. Enter FORMAT fs=ntfs label="Recovery" quick override where label="Recovery" is optional and works with any other name as well
  6. Enter EXIT to leave diskpart
  7. Run Robocopy.exe C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE\ /copyall /dcopy:t
  8. Run reagentc /setreimage /path Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE
  9. Run reagentc /enable
  10. Run reagentc /info to check whether the setup worked, "WinRe-Status" should be enabled now
  11. Use DISKPART to remove the drive letter previously assigned to the recovery partition. To do that repeat steps 1. to 3. and then enter REMOVE LETTER=Q
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  • This didn't work either for me in a recent need. I instead just "reset" the PC which apparently can reset the recovery environment as BitLocker started to work again. Feb 21, 2016 at 21:00
  • I had similar symptoms with Windows 10 with a Surface Pro 3, and this answer worked for me with one additional step, done before Step 1 above: I had to edit C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\Reagent.xml to set ImageLocation path="" and WinREStaged state=0, as described here: support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2952359 Apparently that configuration in the xml file works better for UEFI computers like mine.
    – Arin
    Apr 11, 2016 at 15:12
3

As already stated the Windows 8.1 upgrade wipes out the WinRE environment from the recovery partition. If you look in Disk Manager the partition is now empty when under Windows 8 there was content.

You can also confirm this by running

reagentc /info

This is fixed by by copying the winre.wim file from the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder which recreates the WinRE area in the recovery partition. Here are the steps to accomplish this:

  1. In DISKPART assign a drive letter to the recovery partition (I used Q:)
  2. Run Robocopy.exe C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE\ Winre.wim /copyall /dcopy:t
  3. Run reagentc /setreimage /path Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE
  4. Run reagentc /enable
  5. Use DISKPART to remove the drive letter previously assigned to the recovery partition.

Confirm it works with:

reagentc /info
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  • I haven't had a chance to try this on my Surface -- I'll check it out. It sounds promising. Nov 21, 2013 at 19:50
  • Sorry, it didn't work for my Surface. There was an error in the enable step about the file system being the wrong format (even though I verified it was NTFS). I ended up building a recovery disk/stick, and reinstalling from scratch. Nov 28, 2013 at 12:06
1

As already stated the Windows 8.1 upgrade wipes out the WinRE environment from the recovery partition. If you look in Disk Manager the partition is now empty when under Windows 8 there was content.

You can also confirm this by running

reagentc /info

This is fixed by by copying the winre.wim file from the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder which recreates the WinRE area in the recovery partition. Here are the steps to accomplish this:

  1. In DISKPART assign a drive letter to the recovery partition (I used Q:)
  2. Run Robocopy.exe C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim /copyall /dcopy:t
  3. Run reagentc /setreimage /path Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE
  4. Run reagentc /enable
  5. Use DISKPART to remove the drive letter previously assigned to the recovery partition.

Confirm it works with:

reagentc /info

There needs to be an extra step for this method to work. After you assign the drive letter but before exiting diskpart, run:

format fs=ntfs quick override

This reformats the partition and the override allows the partition to be formatted. I had run into this same issue while deploying Windows 8.1 to Surface Pro 3 tablets. The Pro 2s that we have all worked fine but there was something funny with the new 3s.

1
  • This no longer works. Winre.wim is not located in the ISO or in Windows 8.1
    – user416438
    Feb 6, 2015 at 22:11

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