How To Expand the WinRE Partition Size in Windows 11

How to Manually Increase Your Windows 11 Recovery Partition Size (Without Losing Your Mind)

So, here’s where I got stuck: I needed to resize that tiny recovery partition to fit the large updates coming with Windows 11. If your recovery environment is getting cramped — and it probably is — you might be tempted to jump straight into third-party tools. But I found that with some careful prep and patience, it’s actually possible to do it manually. That said, this isn’t for the faint of heart; messing with partitions can turn into a disaster if you’re not careful. So backup everything first, always. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

Check if Windows Recovery Environment (Win RE) Is Installed

This step is super important — if Win RE is running, it could interfere with partition resizing. To check, open Command Prompt as admin (Start Menu > type cmd > right-click and choose “Run as administrator”), then type:

reagentc /info

This command shows whether Win RE is enabled, disabled, or marked for removal. If it’s still enabled, you gotta turn it off before resizing:

reagentc /disable

Sometimes, Win RE is a separate partition listed in Disk Management, but it’s more reliable to check via reagentc. If you’re unsure, open Diskpart to see the partition layout:

Using Diskpart to Double-Check Partitions

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0  
list partition

Look for the partition labeled “Recovery” or with a size around 300MB to a few GB. Usually, your main OS partition will be pretty large (100-200GB), so it’s easy to spot. Be careful here—mistakenly selecting the wrong disk or partition can cause real problems. Make note of the partition number, because that’s what we’ll target next.

Shrink Your Main OS Partition to Free Up Space

This step is what took me forever. Windows doesn’t let you resize your partitions from the GUI easily, especially shrinking system partitions. So, open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and start Diskpart:

diskpart

Once in, list your disks:

list disk

Pick the right one (usually Disk 0) then do:

select disk 0  
list partition

You should see your OS partition — probably called “Primary” or similar. Select it:

select partition #

Next, shrink it. How much? Well, depends—if your system is pretty full, you might only squeeze out 20-30GB. For example:

shrink desired=30000

This command requests Windows to free up about 30GB (30,000 MB). It won’t always work perfectly, especially if there’s data fragmentation or other constraints. Sometimes, you need to do a defrag first or shrink in smaller chunks. Expect it to take a few minutes. When finished, you’ll see unallocated space that’s ready to be turned into a recovery partition.

Create a New Recovery Partition

Now, with some unallocated space, you can create a fresh partition. First, check if your disk is GPT or MBR, because that affects what you can do next:

list disk

If there’s a star (*) under the GPT column, you’re on GPT. If not, you might need to convert the disk — but that’s another story. Assuming GPT, create the partition:

create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=R

This partitions, formats, and assigns a letter so Windows can recognize it. Keep in mind, if your setup is UEFI, your system might expect the recovery partition to be in a specific spot or labeled in a particular way. That’s where things get tricky.

Set Up and Enable the Recovery Environment

Now, you need to make this partition into a recovery source. If you have a recovery image handy, you can point Windows to it:

reagentc /setreimage /path X:\RecoveryImage

Replace X:\RecoveryImage with the actual location. If you don’t have one, creating a recovery image is a separate process, but you can also just enable the recovery environment on that new partition:

reagentc /enable

You can verify everything is set up correctly with:

reagentc /info

It should state that the recovery environment is enabled and pointing to your new partition. If it doesn’t, you might need to troubleshoot the path or the image itself. Sometimes, Windows just refuses to recognize a custom recovery partition without some extra fiddling.

Important Caveats & Final Tips

Heads up: messing with partitions is always a bit risky. You could lose the recovery environment, or worse, corrupt your Windows installation if you do something wrong. I recommend creating a Windows Recovery Drive or having a Windows installation USB handy just in case. And always backup your essential data before diving into this stuff.

Some additional notes based on my experience:

If you see grayed-out options in Diskpart or Disk Management, make sure your disk isn’t set to read-only or protected. Also, check if your OEM has locked down certain features — some manufacturers lock down their systems tight, especially on laptops.
For older ASUS or Dell machines, the recovery partition might be buried deep in Advanced BIOS settings or hidden behind vendor-specific tools. And some OEMs disable certain features in Windows by default, which can make this more complicated.
Updating your BIOS/UEFI firmware might help if options are missing — keep that in mind.
If resizing doesn’t work in Windows, third-party tools like MiniTool Partition Wizard or EaseUS Partition Master can sometimes do the trick, but that’s outside my scope here.

Wrap-up & What to Double-Check

In the end, it’s about patience, backups, and a little bit of luck. Make sure to verify your recovery environment is functioning correctly after all is said and done. Run reagentc /info again and check that your recovery image location is correct.

Hope this helps — it took way too long for me to figure out, so if this saves someone a few nights of frustration, mission accomplished. Good luck, and don’t forget to back everything up first!